04-13-2012, 12:00 AM
Nagual LoneWolf wrote:Nice statement of intent Gonzo but it has nothing to do with posts from Per Syd or me and it would be a surprize to me based on your past posts over the years that you believe anything you wrote except for the wine for dinner. Therefore your content of your posts appears somewhat misguided old friend. It common knowledge you have distain for nagual beliefs and in particular: sorcery.I believe it has to do with what you and persyd appear to be engaged in, from this standpoint: you are in the process of creating a Nagual Party, unless I misunderstand, and if, as I suspect, most of the teachings supranormal activites are cons, then ... one theory I've encountered concerning the Nagual Party is that it is a metaphor, that all the various "members" and their abilities are to be found within the individual, and that leads again to the goal of achieving the totality of oneself.
Disdain?...I have a great affection for the teachings of don Juan. I just think there is more than one way to understand them. In this regard, I find a similarity to some styles of Zen instruction, which basically is full of tricks and mind games. It's not that don Juan and others were con men, rather imo they were clever teachers. When you have at basis a quite simple goal to propose, what better way to present it and to grab attention than to surround it with mystical powers and potentialities? The one difference between don Juan's style and the Zen style is that Zen at least is honest in stating that extraordinary abilities are a trap. However, dJ DID allude to that when he mentioned the four enemies of a warrior, one of those being "power".
Of interest, if one scans the complete works of Castaneda for the word "trick", the number of hits rather boggles the mind. Isn't that some sort of a hint?
In a way, I believe getting caught up in the "magic" is essentially a distraction. It's far more interesting to have lucid dreams than to engage in painful recapitulation. It's far more interesting to engage in psychic phenomena than to deal with isolating the source of reflexive behavior.
Disdain?...I have a great affection for the teachings of don Juan. I just think there is more than one way to understand them. In this regard, I find a similarity to some styles of Zen instruction, which basically is full of tricks and mind games. It's not that don Juan and others were con men, rather imo they were clever teachers. When you have at basis a quite simple goal to propose, what better way to present it and to grab attention than to surround it with mystical powers and potentialities? The one difference between don Juan's style and the Zen style is that Zen at least is honest in stating that extraordinary abilities are a trap. However, dJ DID allude to that when he mentioned the four enemies of a warrior, one of those being "power".
Of interest, if one scans the complete works of Castaneda for the word "trick", the number of hits rather boggles the mind. Isn't that some sort of a hint?
In a way, I believe getting caught up in the "magic" is essentially a distraction. It's far more interesting to have lucid dreams than to engage in painful recapitulation. It's far more interesting to engage in psychic phenomena than to deal with isolating the source of reflexive behavior.