03-08-2010, 12:00 AM
Quotes from the Art of Dreaming:
During one of our conversations, don Juan stated that in order to appreciate the position of dreamers and dreaming, one has to understand the struggle of modern-day sorcerers to steer sorcery away from concreteness toward the abstract.
"What do you call concreteness, don Juan?" I asked.
"The practical part of sorcery," he said. "The obsessive fixation of the mind on practices and techniques, and the unwarranted influence over people. All of these were in the realm of the sorcerers of the past."
"And what do you call the abstract?"
"The search for freedom; freedom to perceive, without obsessions, all that's humanly possible. I say that present-day sorcerers seek the abstract because they seek freedom. They have no interest in concrete gains. There are no social functions for them as there were for the sorcerers of the past. So you'll never catch them being the official seers, or the sorcerers in residence."
"Do you mean, don Juan, that the past has no value to modern-day sorcerers?"
"It certainly has value. It's the taste of that past which we don't like. I personally detest the darkness and morbidity of the mind. I like the immensity of thought. However, regardless of my likes and dislikes, I have to give due credit to the sorcerers of antiquity, for they were the first to find out and do everything we know and do today.
Don Juan explained that sorcerers of antiquity's most important attainment was to perceive the energetic essence of things. This insight was of such importance that it was turned into the basic premise of sorcery. Nowadays, after lifelong discipline and training, sorcerers do acquire the capacity to perceive the essence of things; a capacity they call seeing.
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Upon awakening I gave don Juan, at his request, a complete description of what I had seen and done. He warned me that it was not possible to rely on my rationality to understand my experience, not because my rationality was in any way impaired, but because what had taken place was a phenomenon outside the parameters of reason.
I, naturally, argued that nothing can be outside the limits of reason. Things can be obscure, but sooner or later reason always finds a way to shed light on anything. And I really believed this.
Don Juan, with extreme patience, pointed out that reason is only a by-product of the habitual position of the assemblage point. Therefore, knowing what is going on, being of sound mind, having our feet on the ground- sources of great pride to us and assumed to be a natural consequence of our worth- are merely the result of the fixation of the assemblage point on its habitual place. The more rigid and stationary it is, the greater our confidence in ourselves; the greater our feeling of knowing the world; of being able to predict. He added that what dreaming does is give us the fluidity to enter into other worlds by destroying our sense of knowing this world. He called dreaming a journey of unthinkable dimensions; a journey that, after making us perceive everything we can humanly perceive, makes the assemblage point jump outside the human domain and perceive the inconceivable.
"We are back again," he went on, "harping on the most important topic of the sorcerers' world; the position of the assemblage point. The old sorcerers' curse, as well as mankind's thorn in the side."
"Why do you say that, don Juan?"
"Because both the old sorcerers fell prey and mankind in general falls prey to the position of the assemblage point: the old sorcerers because, although they knew all about the assemblage point, they fell for its facility to be manipulated; mankind in general, because by not knowing that the assemblage point exists, we are obliged to take the by-product of its habitual position as something final and indisputable.
"You must avoid falling into those traps," he continued. "It'd be really disgusting if you sided with mankind as if you didn't know about the existence of the assemblage point. But it'd be even more insidious if you sided with the old sorcerers and cynically manipulate the assemblage point for gain."
Comment:
As any sound reader (rolling eyes) of the Art of Dreaming could appreciate, seers of the old were radically different both in means and purposes to the modern seers.
Addicted to ritualistic practices, the seers of the old days developed a super cohesive second attention that they put into use to satisfy the basic desires of any given humanoid being:
Domination over environment and others (Money, Riches, Social Power) , Attention (Popularity) and Sensual Gratification (Sex, Enjoyment and Thrilling Experiences).
Modern seers, starting with Sebastian and influenced by the remnant Sorcerer of the Old Xoxonapo, toke a different direction.
Knowing that the conduct of the sorcerers of the old lead inevitably to their downfall, they decided to try something different. Instead of exploiting the profound states of awareness for material advantages, they used that subtle cohesion to understand and get rid of their follies and obsessions. The idea was, in short, to make the state they denominated "total freedom" something solid and permanent.
The result of this arrangement, from Sebastian to Castaneda, was reaching the third attention and the burning with the fire from within by the Nagual Don Juan Matus and some of his cohorts.
That was, for that lineage, the pinnacle of their efforts. The line of Castaneda died with him, as Don Juan predicted shortly after meeting Carlos.
How is the Spirit's Line of Nagual Seership going to continue? "Post-modern seers" are now more eclectic and flexible in approach.
With the advent and popularization of Zen and other spiritual paths, naguals have further tools to take their awareness farther than any mexican nagual before.
Who will transverse that road? That is to be seen.
As a wise nagual would say: Quality of Intent is everything. In the end, sooner or later, one gets what one wants.
And nothing more.
During one of our conversations, don Juan stated that in order to appreciate the position of dreamers and dreaming, one has to understand the struggle of modern-day sorcerers to steer sorcery away from concreteness toward the abstract.
"What do you call concreteness, don Juan?" I asked.
"The practical part of sorcery," he said. "The obsessive fixation of the mind on practices and techniques, and the unwarranted influence over people. All of these were in the realm of the sorcerers of the past."
"And what do you call the abstract?"
"The search for freedom; freedom to perceive, without obsessions, all that's humanly possible. I say that present-day sorcerers seek the abstract because they seek freedom. They have no interest in concrete gains. There are no social functions for them as there were for the sorcerers of the past. So you'll never catch them being the official seers, or the sorcerers in residence."
"Do you mean, don Juan, that the past has no value to modern-day sorcerers?"
"It certainly has value. It's the taste of that past which we don't like. I personally detest the darkness and morbidity of the mind. I like the immensity of thought. However, regardless of my likes and dislikes, I have to give due credit to the sorcerers of antiquity, for they were the first to find out and do everything we know and do today.
Don Juan explained that sorcerers of antiquity's most important attainment was to perceive the energetic essence of things. This insight was of such importance that it was turned into the basic premise of sorcery. Nowadays, after lifelong discipline and training, sorcerers do acquire the capacity to perceive the essence of things; a capacity they call seeing.
-----------------------------------------------
Upon awakening I gave don Juan, at his request, a complete description of what I had seen and done. He warned me that it was not possible to rely on my rationality to understand my experience, not because my rationality was in any way impaired, but because what had taken place was a phenomenon outside the parameters of reason.
I, naturally, argued that nothing can be outside the limits of reason. Things can be obscure, but sooner or later reason always finds a way to shed light on anything. And I really believed this.
Don Juan, with extreme patience, pointed out that reason is only a by-product of the habitual position of the assemblage point. Therefore, knowing what is going on, being of sound mind, having our feet on the ground- sources of great pride to us and assumed to be a natural consequence of our worth- are merely the result of the fixation of the assemblage point on its habitual place. The more rigid and stationary it is, the greater our confidence in ourselves; the greater our feeling of knowing the world; of being able to predict. He added that what dreaming does is give us the fluidity to enter into other worlds by destroying our sense of knowing this world. He called dreaming a journey of unthinkable dimensions; a journey that, after making us perceive everything we can humanly perceive, makes the assemblage point jump outside the human domain and perceive the inconceivable.
"We are back again," he went on, "harping on the most important topic of the sorcerers' world; the position of the assemblage point. The old sorcerers' curse, as well as mankind's thorn in the side."
"Why do you say that, don Juan?"
"Because both the old sorcerers fell prey and mankind in general falls prey to the position of the assemblage point: the old sorcerers because, although they knew all about the assemblage point, they fell for its facility to be manipulated; mankind in general, because by not knowing that the assemblage point exists, we are obliged to take the by-product of its habitual position as something final and indisputable.
"You must avoid falling into those traps," he continued. "It'd be really disgusting if you sided with mankind as if you didn't know about the existence of the assemblage point. But it'd be even more insidious if you sided with the old sorcerers and cynically manipulate the assemblage point for gain."
Comment:
As any sound reader (rolling eyes) of the Art of Dreaming could appreciate, seers of the old were radically different both in means and purposes to the modern seers.
Addicted to ritualistic practices, the seers of the old days developed a super cohesive second attention that they put into use to satisfy the basic desires of any given humanoid being:
Domination over environment and others (Money, Riches, Social Power) , Attention (Popularity) and Sensual Gratification (Sex, Enjoyment and Thrilling Experiences).
Modern seers, starting with Sebastian and influenced by the remnant Sorcerer of the Old Xoxonapo, toke a different direction.
Knowing that the conduct of the sorcerers of the old lead inevitably to their downfall, they decided to try something different. Instead of exploiting the profound states of awareness for material advantages, they used that subtle cohesion to understand and get rid of their follies and obsessions. The idea was, in short, to make the state they denominated "total freedom" something solid and permanent.
The result of this arrangement, from Sebastian to Castaneda, was reaching the third attention and the burning with the fire from within by the Nagual Don Juan Matus and some of his cohorts.
That was, for that lineage, the pinnacle of their efforts. The line of Castaneda died with him, as Don Juan predicted shortly after meeting Carlos.
How is the Spirit's Line of Nagual Seership going to continue? "Post-modern seers" are now more eclectic and flexible in approach.
With the advent and popularization of Zen and other spiritual paths, naguals have further tools to take their awareness farther than any mexican nagual before.
Who will transverse that road? That is to be seen.
As a wise nagual would say: Quality of Intent is everything. In the end, sooner or later, one gets what one wants.
And nothing more.