Jason Cain's Blog

When one looks deeply into what is often called the emptiness of infinity, one may indeed encounter nothing—no form, no object, no identity. There is silence, absence, and a vast stillness in which the familiar sense of self dissolves. This encounter is not imaginary, nor is it trivial. It is one of the most significant discoveries available to contemplative inquiry.

Yet what is often overlooked is that emptiness itself can still function as a reflection of self, rather than a complete transcendence of self-reference.

The self appears empty because the self is an illusion. To discover this through deep meditation is a genuine realization. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj articulated this insight with striking clarity in his declaration, “I Am That.” In that realization, the personal identity collapses, and what remains is impersonal awareness—silent, expansive, and ungraspable.

The crucial question, however, is not whether emptiness is real, but what remains witnessing that emptiness.

Two Interpretations of Emptiness

Across contemplative traditions—Advaita Vedānta, Buddhism, and other non-dual systems—there is broad agreement that when identification with thought and narrative ceases, what remains is often described as emptiness, silence, or non-duality. This convergence is significant. But a closer examination suggests that emptiness may function in two fundamentally different ways, depending on how it is understood and what follows from it.

Emptiness as Realization

(Non-dual insight)

In classical Advaita terms, emptiness corresponds to the recognition that the personal self (ahaṅkāra) is not ultimately real. The apparent subject–object divide collapses, and awareness is experienced as unbounded, impersonal, and self-luminous. Phenomena are seen as transient appearances, and the sense of doership falls away.

From this perspective:

Identity is recognized as conceptual rather than ontological.

Suffering diminishes as attachment dissolves.

Experience becomes less reactive, more equanimous.

Reality is apprehended as a seamless whole.

This insight is psychologically transformative. It resolves many existential anxieties by revealing the constructed nature of selfhood and the impermanence of all forms. Within Advaita, this realization is often taken as final: liberation is achieved through recognition alone.

The Structural Limit of Emptiness

However, from a different analytical standpoint, this realization may represent a clearing of content rather than a reconfiguration of awareness itself. The mind becomes silent, identity is negated, but awareness remains reflexively positioned within the same perceptual framework that generated the insight.

In other words:

The self is negated, but the structure of observation remains intact.

Awareness recognizes emptiness, but does not relocate beyond the conditions that made recognition possible.

Emptiness is experienced from within the human perceptual apparatus.

From this angle, emptiness is a necessary threshold but not necessarily an ontological exit. Awareness is no longer entangled in identity, yet it remains dependent on the biological and perceptual structure through which the realization occurs.

Emptiness as Structural Closure

When emptiness is treated as an absolute endpoint rather than a transitional condition, it can function as a form of closure. The conclusion that “there is nothing further” or “nothing more to be done” may feel experientially complete within the contemplative state, but it also forecloses further inquiry into what happens to awareness beyond the conditions of that state.

This interpretation tends toward:

Finality rather than exploration.

Ontological negation rather than transformation.

Acceptance of dissolution rather than investigation of continuity.

From a skeptical standpoint, this is not a failure of insight but a limitation of scope. The realization accurately describes the emptiness of the self—but remains silent on the fate of awareness once the conditions supporting that realization cease.

The subtle danger here is that emptiness, when absolutized, becomes the last refuge of self-reference. The mirror has not been shattered; it has only been cleared. One may still be the self observing the absence of the self. This is an extraordinary achievement—far beyond ordinary identification—but it is not yet freedom from the closed loop of self-observation.

The Toltec Reframing

Toltec philosophy does not dispute the insight of emptiness. Instead, it reframes it as an intermediate condition rather than a final truth. Silence, non-identification, and the dissolution of self are understood as prerequisites, not conclusions.

The critical distinction lies here:

Emptiness reveals that the self is illusory.

But awareness, once freed from identity, still faces the question of its continuity.

Where Advaita resolves the problem through recognition, Toltec philosophy extends the inquiry into mechanics:

What sustains awareness?
What happens when the biological structure collapses?
Can awareness operate independently of the perceptual system that produced emptiness?

From this perspective, emptiness is not freedom itself but the clearing that makes further movement possible. It is not the end of illusion; it is often the last illusion the self is capable of sustaining.

A Neutral Reframing

The disagreement, then, is not about whether emptiness is real—it is—but about whether emptiness exhausts the possibilities of awareness. One view concludes the inquiry at recognition; the other treats recognition as the beginning of a different line of investigation.

Both positions may be internally coherent. The difference lies in what question one considers final.

Emptiness may be the end of self—but whether it is the end of awareness remains an open question.

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you! ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

If you would like to understand consciousness at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer Book 1-4: A Study of Toltec Shamanism, is a Bridge between Worlds of Power Sorcery, Yoga, Zen & Philosophy, click the above button for details.

When one looks deeply into what is often called the emptiness of infinity, one may indeed encounter nothing—no form, no object, no identity. There is silence, absence, and a vast stillness in which the familiar sense of self dissolves. This encounter is not imaginary, nor is it trivial. It is one of the most significant discoveries available to contemplative inquiry.

Yet what is often overlooked is that emptiness itself can still function as a reflection of self, rather than a complete transcendence of self-reference.

The self appears empty because the self is an illusion. To discover this through deep meditation is a genuine realization. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj articulated this insight with striking clarity in his declaration, “I Am That.” In that realization, the personal identity collapses, and what remains is impersonal awareness—silent, expansive, and ungraspable.

The crucial question, however, is not whether emptiness is real, but what remains witnessing that emptiness.

Two Interpretations of Emptiness

Across contemplative traditions—Advaita Vedānta, Buddhism, and other non-dual systems—there is broad agreement that when identification with thought and narrative ceases, what remains is often described as emptiness, silence, or non-duality. This convergence is significant. But a closer examination suggests that emptiness may function in two fundamentally different ways, depending on how it is understood and what follows from it.

Emptiness as Realization

(Non-dual insight)

In classical Advaita terms, emptiness corresponds to the recognition that the personal self (ahaṅkāra) is not ultimately real. The apparent subject–object divide collapses, and awareness is experienced as unbounded, impersonal, and self-luminous. Phenomena are seen as transient appearances, and the sense of doership falls away.

From this perspective:

Identity is recognized as conceptual rather than ontological.

Suffering diminishes as attachment dissolves.

Experience becomes less reactive, more equanimous.

Reality is apprehended as a seamless whole.

This insight is psychologically transformative. It resolves many existential anxieties by revealing the constructed nature of selfhood and the impermanence of all forms. Within Advaita, this realization is often taken as final: liberation is achieved through recognition alone.

The Structural Limit of Emptiness

However, from a different analytical standpoint, this realization may represent a clearing of content rather than a reconfiguration of awareness itself. The mind becomes silent, identity is negated, but awareness remains reflexively positioned within the same perceptual framework that generated the insight.

In other words:

The self is negated, but the structure of observation remains intact.

Awareness recognizes emptiness, but does not relocate beyond the conditions that made recognition possible.

Emptiness is experienced from within the human perceptual apparatus.

From this angle, emptiness is a necessary threshold but not necessarily an ontological exit. Awareness is no longer entangled in identity, yet it remains dependent on the biological and perceptual structure through which the realization occurs.

Emptiness as Structural Closure

When emptiness is treated as an absolute endpoint rather than a transitional condition, it can function as a form of closure. The conclusion that “there is nothing further” or “nothing more to be done” may feel experientially complete within the contemplative state, but it also forecloses further inquiry into what happens to awareness beyond the conditions of that state.

This interpretation tends toward:

Finality rather than exploration.

Ontological negation rather than transformation.

Acceptance of dissolution rather than investigation of continuity.

From a skeptical standpoint, this is not a failure of insight but a limitation of scope. The realization accurately describes the emptiness of the self—but remains silent on the fate of awareness once the conditions supporting that realization cease.

The subtle danger here is that emptiness, when absolutized, becomes the last refuge of self-reference. The mirror has not been shattered; it has only been cleared. One may still be the self observing the absence of the self. This is an extraordinary achievement—far beyond ordinary identification—but it is not yet freedom from the closed loop of self-observation.

The Toltec Reframing

Toltec philosophy does not dispute the insight of emptiness. Instead, it reframes it as an intermediate condition rather than a final truth. Silence, non-identification, and the dissolution of self are understood as prerequisites, not conclusions.

The critical distinction lies here:

Emptiness reveals that the self is illusory.

But awareness, once freed from identity, still faces the question of its continuity.

Where Advaita resolves the problem through recognition, Toltec philosophy extends the inquiry into mechanics:

What sustains awareness?
What happens when the biological structure collapses?
Can awareness operate independently of the perceptual system that produced emptiness?

From this perspective, emptiness is not freedom itself but the clearing that makes further movement possible. It is not the end of illusion; it is often the last illusion the self is capable of sustaining.

A Neutral Reframing

The disagreement, then, is not about whether emptiness is real—it is—but about whether emptiness exhausts the possibilities of awareness. One view concludes the inquiry at recognition; the other treats recognition as the beginning of a different line of investigation.

Both positions may be internally coherent. The difference lies in what question one considers final.

Emptiness may be the end of self—but whether it is the end of awareness remains an open question.

Feel free to drop your comment in the comment section and I will try to answer them, I would really appreciate it if you share your thoughts, and thank you for visiting the Ancient Wisdom Modern Mind blog.

I’m Jason your host signing off. Take care.

If you would like to understand consciousness at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer Book 1-4: A Study of Toltec Shamanism, is a Bridge between Worlds of Power Sorcery, Yoga, Zen & Philosophy, click the above button for details.

▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

Related posts:

I Am That: The Nihilistic ideas of Sri Nisargadatta | Signs of an Enlightened Person: Enlightenment Through Meditation | Increasing Awareness: Overlooked Reason the Hermit becomes Enlightened | The Enlightenment Trap: The Hidden Trap this State Presents |

References

// S O U R C E: 

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you! ▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

If you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: A Study of Toltec Shamanism, Castaneda's Sorcery, Yoga & Zen Philosophy, click the above button for details.

"for a warrior there is no end to the mystery of being, whether being means being a pebble, or an ant, or oneself. That is a warrior's humbleness. One is equal to everything.”

In The Art of Dreaming, Carlos Castaneda takes the reader into the very heart of sorcery, challenging both imagination and reason, shaking the very foundations of our belief in what is "natural" and "logical."

Carlos shares a landscape full of terrors and mysterious forces, as sharply etched as a flash of lightning on the deserts and mountains where don Juan takes him to pursue the sorcerer's knowledge-- the knowledge that it is the Eagle that gives us, at our births, a spark of awareness, that it expects to reclaim at the end of our lives and which the sorcerer, through his discipline, fights to retain. Castaneda describes how don Juan and his party, left this world--"the warriors of don Juan's party had caught me for an eternal instant, before they vanished into the total light, before the Eagle let them go through"--and how he, himself, upon witnessing such a sight, jumped into the abyss.

Hello, and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind Blog, and before you read The Six Explanatory Propositions, which were included in the Spanish language version of the Eagle's Gift by Carlos Castaneda but were never published in the English versions of the book. I would like to take a moment to remind you to subscribe to this blog. So go ahead and click on the subscribe button.

Six Explanatory Propositions are:What we perceive as the world are the Eagle's emanations. Attention is what makes us perceive the Eagle's emanations as the action of skimming. The skimming’s are made sense of by the first ring of power. Intent is the force that moves the first ring of power.The first ring of power can be stopped by a functional blocking of the capability of building skimming’s. The second attention.

Carlos begins,

In spite of the amazing maneuvers, that don Juan did with my awareness, along the years I stubbornly insisted in trying to intellectually evaluate what he did. Although I have written at length about these maneuvers, it has always been from a strictly experiential point of view and, besides, from a strictly rational perspective. Immersed as I was in my own rationality, I couldn't recognize the goals of the teachings of Don Juan. To understand the stretch of these goals with a certain degree of precision, it was necessary that I lost my human form and arrived to the totality of myself.

The teachings of Don Juan were meant to guide me through the second stage of a warrior's development: the verification and unrestricted acceptance that within us lies another type of awareness. This stage was divided into two categories. The first one, for which Don Juan required Don Genaro's help, dealt with two activities. It consisted of showing me certain procedures, actions and methods that were designed to exercise my awareness. The second one had to do with the six explanatory propositions.

Due to the difficulties, that I had in adapting my rationality in order to accept the plausibility of what he was teaching me, Don Juan presented these explanatory propositions in terms of my scholastic records.

The first thing he did, as an introduction, was to create a division in myself by means of a specific blow on the right shoulder blade, a blow which made me enter an unusual state of awareness, which I couldn't recall once I was back to normality.

Until the moment in which Don Juan made me enter a state of heightened awareness, I had an undeniable sense of continuity, which I thought of as a product of my vital experience. The idea that I had about myself was that of being a full entity that could explain everything it had done. Besides, I was convinced that the dwelling of all my awareness, if there was such, was in my head. However, Don Juan showed me with his blow that it exists a center in the spinal cord, at the height of the shoulder blades that is obviously a center of enhanced awareness.

When I questioned Don Juan about the nature of this blow, he explained that the nagual is a director, a guide who bears the responsibility of opening the way, and that he must be impeccable to impregnate his warriors with a sense of confidence and clarity. Only under these conditions is a nagual in the possibility of giving this blow on the back to force a displacement of awareness, because the power of the nagual is what allows the transition. If the nagual is not an impeccable practitioner, the displacement doesn't occur, as when I tried, unsuccessfully, to put the other apprentices in a state of heightened awareness hitting them on the back before we ventured into the bridge.

I asked Don Juan what this displacement of awareness implied. He said that the nagual has to strike on a precise spot, which varies from person to person but which is always located in the general area of the shoulder blades. A nagual has to see to specify the spot, which is located in the periphery of one's luminosity and not on the physical body itself; once the nagual identifies it, he pushes it in, more that striking it, and thus creates a concavity, a depression in the luminous shield. The state of heightened awareness resulting from this blow lasts as much as this depression lasts. Some luminous shields go back to their original forms by themselves, some have to be struck in another point to be restored, and some others never go back to their oval shapes.

Don Juan said that seers see awareness as a peculiar glow. Everyday awareness is a glow on the right side, which extends from the physical body's exterior to the periphery of our luminosity. Heightened awareness is a more intense shine associated with great speed and concentration, a dazzling brightness which saturates the periphery of the left side.

Don Juan said that seers explain what happens with the blow of the nagual as a temporal dislodging of a center located in the luminous cocoon of the body. The Eagle's emanations are in reality evaluated and selected in that center. The blow alters their normal behavior.

Through their observations, seers have reached the conclusion that warriors must be put in that state of disorientation. The change in the way awareness works under these conditions makes this state an ideal territory to elucidate the commands of the Eagle: it allows warriors to function as if they were in everyday awareness, with the difference that they can concentrate in everything they do with unprecedented clarity and strength.

Don Juan said that my situation was analogous to the one he had experienced. His benefactor created a deep division in himself, making him move once and once again from the awareness of the right side to the awareness of the left side. The clarity and freedom of his left side awareness were in direct opposition to the rationalizations and endless defenses of his right side. He told me that all warriors are cast into the depths of the same situation that polarity molds, and that the nagual creates and reinforces the division to be able to lead his apprentices to the conviction that there is an awareness in human beings yet unexplored.

1) What we perceive as the world are the Eagle's emanations.

Don Juan explained to me that the world we perceive does not have a transcendental existence. Since we are familiarized with it we believe that what we perceive is a world of objects which exist such as we perceive them, when in reality there is not a world of objects, but, rather, a universe of Eagle's emanations.

These emanations represent the only immutable reality. It is a reality that encompasses all that is, perceivable and unperceivable, knowable and unknowable.

Seers who see the Eagle's emanations call them commands because of their urging force. All living creatures are urged to use the emanations, and they use them without getting to know what they are. Ordinary men interpret them as reality. And seers who see the emanations interpret them as the rule.

In spite that seers see the emanations, they don't have a way of knowing what it is they are seeing. Instead of entangling themselves with useless conjectures, seers occupy themselves in the functional speculation of how the Eagle's commands can be interpreted. Don Juan sustained that to intuit a reality which transcends the world we perceive stays at the level of conjecture; it is not enough for a warrior to conjecture that the Eagle's commands are instantly perceived by all creatures that live on Earth, and that none of them perceives them in the same way. Warriors must try to behold the flow of emanations and "see" the way in which man and other living beings use it to build their perceptual world.

When I proposed to use the word "description" instead of Eagle’s emanations, Don Juan said that he was not making a metaphor. He said that the word "description" connotes a human agreement, and that what we perceive stems from a command in which human agreements do not count.

2) Attention is what makes us perceive the Eagle's emanations as the action of skimming.

Don Juan used to say that perception is a physical faculty that living creatures groom; the final result of this grooming is known, among seers, as "attention". Don Juan described attention as the action of hooking and channeling perception. He said that this action is our most singular feat, which covers all the spectrum of human alternatives and possibilities. Don Juan established a precise distinction between alternatives and possibilities. Human alternatives are those that we are enabled to choose as persons who function within the social environment. Our landscape of this dominion is quite limited. Human possibilities are those that we are capable of achieving as luminous beings.

Don Juan revealed to me a classificatory scheme of three types of attention, emphasizing that calling them "types" was erroneous. In fact, they are three levels of knowledge: first, second and third attention; each one of them an independent dominion, complete in itself.

For a warrior that is in the initial stages of his learning, the first attention is the most important of the three. Don Juan said that his explanatory propositions were attempts to bring into first frame the way in which the first attention works, which is something that passes completely unnoticed by us. He considered that is was imperative for warriors to understand the nature of the first attention if they were going to venture into the other two.

He explained to me that the first attention has been taught how to move instantly through a whole spectrum of the Eagle's emanations, without emphasizing at all that fact, in order to reach "perceptual units" which all of us have learned that are perceivable. Seers call this feat "skimming", because it implies the capability of suppressing those emanations which are superfluous and selecting which of them must be emphasized.

Don Juan explained this process taking as an example the mountain that we were seeing at that moment. He stressed that my first attention, at the moment of seeing the mountain, had skimmed an infinite number of emanations to obtain a miracle of perception; a skimming that all human beings know because each one of them has attained it by himself.

Seers contend that everything the first attention suppresses to obtain a skimming, cannot be recovered anymore by the first attention under any condition. Once we learn to perceive in terms of skimming’s, our senses stop registering the superfluous emanations. To elucidate this point he gave me the example of the skimming: "human body". He said that our first attention is totally unconscious of the emanations that compose the external luminous shield of the physical body. Our oval cocoon is not subjected to perception; those emanations have been rejected which would make it perceivable in benefit of those which allow the first attention to perceive the physical body such as we know it.

Therefore, the perceptual goal that children must achieve as they grow up consists in learning to isolate the appropriate emanations to be able to channel their chaotic perception and transform it into the first attention; in doing so, they learn how to build skimming’s. All grown up human beings who surround children teach them how to skim. Sooner or later, children learn to control their first attention in order to perceive skimming’s in terms which are alike to those of their teachers.

Don Juan never ceased to be amazed at the capability of human beings to bring order into the chaos of perception. He contended that all of us, by his/her own merits, is a magisterial magician and that our magic consists in rendering reality to the skimming that our first attention has learned how to build. The fact that we perceive in terms of skimming is the Eagle's command, but to perceive the commands as objects is our power, our magical gift. Our fallacy, on the other hand, is that we always end up being one-sided when forgetting that skimming’s are only real in terms that we perceive them as real, due to the power that we have to do it. Don Juan called this an error in judgment, which destroys the richness of our mysterious origins.

3) The skimming’s are made sense of by the first ring of power .

Don Juan used to say that the first ring of power is the force that stems from the Eagle's emanations to affect exclusively our first attention. He explained that it has been represented as a "ring " because of its dynamism, of its uninterrupted movement. It has been called ring "of power" due to, first, its compulsive character, and, second, because of its unique ability to stop its works, to change them or reverse their direction.

The compulsive character is better shown in the fact that it doesn't only urge the first attention to build and perpetuate skimming’s, but it also demands a consensus from all the participants. Each one of us is demanded a complete agreement upon the faithful reproduction of skimming’s, since conformity to the first ring of power must be total.

It is precisely this conformity which gives us the certainty that skimming’s are objects which exist as such, independent from our perception. Besides, the compulsiveness of the first ring of power does not cease after the initial agreement, but it demands that we continuously renovate the agreement. Our whole life we must operate as if, for example, each one of our skimming’s was perceptually the first one for each human being, in spite of languages and cultures. Don Juan granted that even if all this is too serious to be taken jokingly, the urging character of the first ring of power is so intense that forces us to believe that if the "mountain" could have an awareness of its own, it would consider itself as the skimming that we have learned how to build.

The most valuable feature that the first ring of power bears to a warrior is the singular capability of interrupting its flux of energy, or to totally suspend it. Don Juan said that this is a latent capability which exists within us all as a backup unit. In our narrow world of skimming’s, there is no need to use it. Since we are so efficiently buttressed and shielded by the net of the first attention, we do not realize, not even vaguely, that we have hidden resources. However, if another alternative to follow would present itself to us, such as is the warrior's option to use the second attention, the latent capability of the first ring of power could start to function and could be used with spectacular results.

Don Juan underlined that the biggest feat of sorcerers is the process of activating this latent capability; he called it blocking the intent of the first ring of power. He explained to me that the Eagle's emanations, which have already been isolated by the first attention in order to build the everyday world, exert an unbending pressure upon the first attention. For this pressure to stop its activity, the intent must be displaced. Seers call this an obstruction or an interruption of the first ring of power.

4) Intent is the force that moves the first ring of power.

Don Juan explained to me that intent doesn't refer to have an intention, or to want one thing or the other, but rather has to do with an imponderable force that makes us behave in ways which could be described as intentions, wishing, volition, etc. Don Juan didn't bring it forth as a condition of being, stemming from oneself, such as is a habit produced by socialization, or a biological reaction, but rather brought it forth as a private, intimate force that we possess and use individually as a key that makes the first ring of power move in acceptable ways. Intent is what directs our first attention in order for it to focus on the Eagle's emanations within a certain frame. And intent is also what commands the first ring of power to obstruct or interrupt its flux of energy.

Don Juan suggested me to conceive intent as an invisible force which exists in the universe, without receiving itself, but still affecting everything: force that creates and sustains skimming’s.

He asserted that skimming’s must be incessantly recreated to be imbued with continuity. In order to recreate them each time with the freshness that they need to build a living world, we must intend them each time we build them. For instance, we must intend the "mountain" along with all its complexities for the skimming to be fully materialized. Don Juan said that, for a spectator, who behaves exclusively based upon the first attention without the intervention of intent, the "mountain" would appear as an entirely different skimming. It could appear as the skimming "geometric form" or "amorphous spot of color". For the skimming mountain to be completed, the spectator must intend it, whether it is unconsciously through the urging force of the first ring of power, or premeditatedly, through the warrior's training.

Don Juan pointed to me the three ways in which intent comes to us. The most predominating one is known by seers as "the intent of the first ring of power". This is a blind intent which comes to us by chance. It is as if we were in its way, or as if intent was in ours. Inevitably we find ourselves trapped in its net without having the least control of what is happening to us.

The second way is when intent comes to us by its own. This requires a considerable amount of purpose, a sense of determination on our part. Only in our capability as warriors we can put ourselves voluntarily in the way of intent; we summon it, so to speak. Don Juan explained to me that his insistence in being an impeccable warrior was nothing more than an effort to let intent know that he is putting himself in its way.

Don Juan used to say that warriors call this phenomenon "power”. Thus when they speak of having personal power, they are referring to the intent that comes to them voluntarily. The outcome, he used to say to me, can be described as the facility to find new solutions, or the facility to affect people or events. It is as if other possibilities, previously unknown by the warrior, suddenly become apparent. In this way, an impeccable warrior never plans anything ahead, but his actions are so decisive that it seems as if the warrior had calculated beforehand each facet of his activity.

The third way in which we find intent is the most rare and complex of the three; it occurs when intent allows us to harmonize with it. Don Juan described this state as the real moment of power: the culmination of a lifetime effort in search of impeccability. Only supreme warriors obtain it, and as long as they are in such state, intent lets itself be handled by them at will. It is as if intent had fused in those warriors, and in doing so it transforms them into a pure force, without preconceptions. Seers call this state the "intent of the second ring of power", or "will".

5) The first ring of power can be stopped by a functional blocking of the capability of building skimming’s.

Don Juan used to say that the function of the not-doings is to create an obstruction in the usual focus of out first attention. The not-doings are, in this sense, maneuvers destined to prepare the first attention for the functional blocking of the first ring of power, or, in other words, for the interruption of intent.

Don Juan explained to me that this functional blocking, which is the only method to systematically use the latent capability of the first ring of power, represents a temporal interruption that the benefactor creates in the disciple's capability for building skimming’s. It is a premeditated and powerful artificial intrusion into the first attention, in order to push it beyond the appearances which the known skimming’s present to us; this intrusion is accomplished by interrupting the intent of the first ring of power.

Don Juan used to say that in order to achieve this interruption, the benefactor treats intent as what it really is, a flux, a current of energy that can eventually be stopped or reoriented. An interruption of this nature, however, implies a commotion of such magnitude that can force the first ring of power to stop fully; a situation which is impossible to conceive under our normal life conditions. It is unthinkable to us that we can un-walk the steps we took when we consolidated our perception, but it is feasible that under the impact of this interruption we could place ourselves in a perceptual position very similar to the one of our beginnings, when the Eagle's commands were emanations which we still had not imbued with significance.

Don Juan used to say that any procedure the benefactor could use to create this interruption must be intimately linked with his personal power. Therefore, a benefactor doesn't use any process to handle intent, but rather moves it and makes it available to the apprentice trough his personal power.

In my case, Don Juan achieved the functional blocking of the first ring of power through a complex process, which combined three methods: the ingestion of hallucinogenic plants, manipulation of the body and maneuvering with intent itself.

In the beginning Don Juan relied strongly upon the ingestion of hallucinogenic plants, apparently due to the persistence of my rational side. The effect was tremendous, and yet retarded the sought for interruption. The fact that the plants were hallucinogenic offered my reason the perfect justification to congregate all of its available resources to continue exerting control. I was convinced that I could logically explain anything that I was experiencing, along with the inconceivable feats that Don Juan and Don Genaro used to do to create the interruptions, as perceptual distortions caused by the ingestion of hallucinogenic plants.

Don Juan used to say that the most remarkable effect of hallucinogenic plants was something that every time I ingested them I interpreted as the peculiar feeling that everything around me oozed a surprising richness. There were colors, forms, details that I had never beheld before. Don Juan used this increment in my ability to perceive, and, through a series of commands and comments used to force me to enter a state of nervous restlessness. Afterwards he manipulated my body and made me shift from one side of awareness to the other, until I had created phantasmagorical visions or absolutely real scenes with tridimensional creatures that could not possibly exist in this world.

Don Juan explained to me that once the direct relation between intent and the skimming’s we are constructing is broken, it cannot ever be repaired. From that moment on we acquire the ability to catch a current of what he described as "phantom intent", or the intent of the skimming’s which are not present at the moment or place of the interruption, this is to say, an intent put at our disposal through some aspect of memory.

Don Juan asserted that with the interruption of the intent of the first ring of power we become receptive and moldable; a nagual can then introduce the intent of the second ring of power. Don Juan was convinced that children of a certain age find themselves in a similar situation of receptivity; being deprived of intent, they are ready to be imprinted with any intent which is available to the teachers who surround them.

After my period of continuos ingestion of hallucinogenic plants, Don Juan totally discontinued its use. However, he obtained new and more dramatic interruptions in myself manipulating my body and making me shift states of awareness, combining all this with maneuvers with intent itself. Through a combination of mesmerizing instructions and adequate comments, Don Juan created a current of “phantom intent" and I was lead to experience common skimming’s as something unimaginable. He conceptualized all this as "glancing into the immensity of the Eagle".

Don Juan masterfully lead me through countless interruptions of intent until he was convinced, as a seer, that my body showed the effects of the functional blocking of the first ring of power. He said that he could see a unusual activity around the area of the shoulder blades. He described it as a little hole that had formed exactly as if the luminosity was a muscular layer contracted by a nerve.

To me, the effect of the functional blocking of the first ring of power was that it managed to erase the certainty which I had all my life that what my senses reported was "real". Quietly I entered a state of inner silence. Don Juan used to say that what gives warriors that extreme uncertainty that his benefactor had experienced at the end of his life, that resignation to failure that he himself was living, is the fact that one glance into the immensity of the Eagle leaves one without hope. Hope is the result of our familiarity with skimming’s and the idea that we control them. In such moments only the warrior's life can help us to persevere in our efforts to discover that which the Eagle has concealed from us, but without hope that we can get to understand what we discover.

6) The second attention.

Don Juan explained to me that the examination of the second attention must begin with the realization that the force of the first ring of power, which boxes us in, is a physical, concrete edge. Seers have described it as a wall of fog, a barrier that can be systematically brought to our awareness by means of the blocking of the first ring of power; and then can be perforated by means of the warrior's training.

After perforating this wall of fog, one enters a broad intermediate state. The task of the warriors then consists in going through it until they reach the next divisory line, which must be perforated in order to enter what it is properly the other self or the second attention.

Don Juan used to say that the two divisory lines are perfectly recognizable. When warriors perforate the wall of fog they feel that their bodies are squeezed, or they feel an intense shaking in the cavity of their bodies, generally to the right of the stomach or through the middle part, from right to left. When warriors perforate the second line, they feel an acute crack on the upper part of the body, something like the sound of a dry bough that is broken in two.

The two lines that box in both attentions, and individually seal them, are known to seers as the parallel lines. These seal both attentions by means of the fact that they extend into infinity, without ever allowing the crossing unless they are perforated.

Between both lines there exists an area of specific awareness that seers call limbo, or the world between the parallel lines. It is a real space between two huge orders of the Eagle's emanations; emanations which are within the human possibilities of awareness. One is the level which creates the self of everyday life, and the other is the level which creates the other self. Since the limbo is a transitional zone, there both fields of emanations extend one upon the other. The fraction of the level which is known to us, that extends into that area, hooks a portion of the first ring of power; and the capability of the first ring of power to build skimming’s makes us perceive a series of skimming’s in the limbo which are almost as those of everyday life, except that they appear grotesque, uncanny and contorted. In this manner the limbo has specific features that do not change arbitrarily each time that one goes into it. There exist in it physical features which resemble the skimming’s of everyday life.

Don Juan sustained that the feeling of heaviness experienced in the limbo is due to the growing burden that has been placed on the first attention. In the area located right behind the wall of fog, we can still behave as we do normally; it is as if we were in a grotesque but recognizable world. As we penetrate further into it, beyond the wall of fog, it becomes progressively difficult to recognize the features or to behave in terms of the known self.

He explained to me that it was possible to make that instead of the wall of fog anything else appeared, but that seers have opted for accentuating that which consumes less energy: to visualize the wall of fog does not demand any effort.

What exists beyond the second divisory line is known by seers as the second attention, or the other self, or the parallel world; and the action of going through both edges is known as "crossing the parallel lines".

Don Juan thought that I could assimilate this concept more firmly if he described each dominion of awareness as a specific perceptual predisposition. He told me that in the territory of everyday awareness we are inescapably entangled into the specific perceptual predisposition of the first attention.

From the moment in which the first ring of power begins to build skimming’s, the way of building them becomes our normal perceptual predisposition. Breaking the unifying force of the first attention implies to break the first divisory line. The normal perceptual predisposition passes then into the intermediate area which is between the parallel lines. One keeps building almost normal skimming’s for some time. But as one approaches what seers call the second divisory line, the perceptual predisposition of the first attention begins to recede, it loses strength. Don Juan used to say that this transition is marked by a sudden incapability of remembering or understanding what one is doing.

When one gets closer to the second divisory line, the second attention begins to act on the warriors who undertake the voyage. If they are inexperienced, their awareness is emptied, it goes blank. Don Juan held that this occurs because they are approaching a spectrum of the Eagle's emanations which has not yet a systematized perceptual predisposition. My experiences with la Gorda and the nagual woman beyond the wall of fog were an example of this incapability. I traveled as far as the other self, but I couldn't account on what we had done for the simple reason that my second attention was still unformulated and it did not give me the opportunity of formulating all I had perceived.

Don Juan explained to me that one begins to activate the second ring of power by forcing the second attention to wake from its slumber. The functional blocking of the first ring of power achieves this. Then, the task of the teacher consists in recreating the condition which started the first ring of power, the condition of being saturated with intent. The first ring of power is put in motion by the force of the intent given by those who teach how to skim. As my teacher he was giving me, then, a new intent which would create a new perceptual environment.

Don Juan said that it takes a lifetime of unceasing discipline, which seers call unbending intent, to prepare the second ring of power to be able to build skimming’s which belong to another level of the Eagle's emanations. To dominate the perceptual predisposition of the parallel self is a feat of peerless value which few warriors achieve. Silvio Manuel was one of those few.

Don Juan warned me that one must not attempt to deliberately dominate it. If this happens, it must be through a natural process which unfolds itself without much effort from our part. He explained to me that the reason for this indifference lies on the practical consideration that when it is dominated it simply becomes very difficult to break, since the goal that warriors actively pursuit is to break both perceptual predispositions to enter the final freedom of the third attention.

And if you want to delve deeper into the works of Carlos Castaneda. Then I also have a number of podcasts and blogs on my web site that explore this and similar ideas, simply follow the Link in the description.

All right. So this podcast was The Six Explanatory Propositions, which were included in the Spanish language version of the Eagle's Gift by Carlos Castaneda, but were never published in the English versions of the book and I hope that this reading supports your in your understanding of Toltec sorcery practices, and if you have any questions.

 

Feel free to drop your comment in the comment section and I will try to answer them, I would really appreciate it if you share your thoughts, and thank you for listening to the Ancient Wisdom Modern Mind podcast.

I’m Jason your host signing off. Take care.

And if you want to delve deeper into the books of Carlos Castaneda then I also have a number of podcasts in the play list SORCERY & Castaneda that delves into this area, simply follow the Link in the description.

I’m Jason your host signing off. Take care.

And if you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: A Study of Toltec Shamanism, Castaneda's Sorcery, Yoga & Zen Philosophy, follow the link for details.

▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

References

// S O U R C E: Extract is from The Eagle’s Gift by Carlos Castaneda Spanish versions of the book

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you!

TO PERCEIVE OTHER REALMS WE NEED TO HAVE SUFFICIENT ENERGY

In The Art of Dreaming, Carlos after six years of study and meditation, presents a book which takes the reader on a journey of the soul via the teachings of the great sorcerer, Don Juan. Like layers of an onion, the author reveals that there are worlds existing within our own that can be visited through dreams.

Dreaming instruction is divided into two parts. One is about dreaming procedures that fix the dreaming attention and the other about the purely abstract explanations of these procedures. This is an interplay between enticing one's intellectual curiosity with the abstract principles of dreaming and guiding one to seek an outlet in its practices.

See also the podcast Abstract Principles of Dreaming: Part two and you will find a link in the description.

In this podcast I have compiled some of the relevant sections from The Art of Dreaming that relate to building a cohesive understanding of the dreaming process, thus enabling the listener to assemble a more organized understanding of the subject.

Hello and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and before I read these extracts from that relate to finding a dreaming topic, I would like to take a moment to remind you to subscribe to this channel, so go ahead and click on the subscribe button.

In this podcast I have compiled short relevant sections from Tales of Power and Journey to Ixtlan that relate to Selecting a Topic for Dreaming

Extract is from.First Extract is from Part 1, Tales of Power: Witness to Acts of PowerChapter 1. An Appointment With Knowledge.

“don Juan’, “And now, suppose you tell me about your dreaming.”

His sudden shift caught me unprepared. He repeated his request. There was a great deal to say about it. “Dreaming” entailed cultivating a peculiar control over one’s dreams to the extent that the experiences undergone in them and those lived in one’s waking hours acquired the same pragmatic valence. The sorcerers’ allegation was that under the impact of dreaming the ordinary criteria to differentiate a dream from reality became inoperative.

Don Juan’s praxis of dreaming was an exercise that consisted of finding one’s hands in a dream. In other words, one had to deliberately dream that one was looking for and could find one’s hands in a dream by simply dreaming that one lifted one’s hands to the level of the eyes.

After years of unsuccessful attempts I had finally accomplished the task. Looking at it in retrospect, it had become evident to me that I had succeeded only after I had gained a degree of control over the world of my everyday life.

Don Juan wanted to know the salient points. I began telling him that the difficulty of setting up the command to look at my hands seemed to be, quite often, insurmountable. He had warned me that the early stage of the preparatory facet, which he called “setting up dreaming,” consisted of a deadly game that one’s mind played with itself, and that some part of myself was going to do everything it could to prevent the fulfillment of my task. That could include, don Juan had said, plunging me into a loss of meaning, melancholy, or even a suicidal depression. I did not go that far, however. My experience was rather on the light, comical side; nonetheless, the result was equally frustrating. Every time I was about to look at my hands in a dream something extraordinary would happen; I would begin to fly, or my dream would turn into a nightmare, or it would simply become a very pleasant experience of bodily excitation; everything in the dream would extend far beyond the “normal” in matters of vividness and, therefore, be terribly absorbing. My original intention of observing my hands was always forgotten in light of the new situation.

One night, quite unexpectedly, I found my hands in my dreams. I dreamt that I was walking on an unknown street in a foreign city and suddenly I lifted up my hands and placed them in front of my face. It was as if something within myself had given up and had permitted me to watch the backs of my hands.

Don Juan’s instructions had been that as soon as the sight of my hands would begin to dissolve or change into something else, I had to shift my view from my hands to any other element in the surroundings of my dream. In that particular dream I shifted my view to a building at the end of the street. When the sight of the building began to dissipate I focused my attention on the other elements of the surroundings in my dream. The end result was an incredibly clear composite picture of a deserted street in some unknown foreign city.

Don Juan made me continue with my account of other experiences in dreaming. We talked for a long time.

At the end of my report he stood up and went to the bushes. I also stood up. I was nervous. It was an unwarranted sensation since there was nothing precipitating fear or concern. Don Juan returned shortly. He noticed my agitation.

“Calm down,” he said, holding my arm gently.

He made me sit down and put my notebook on my lap. He coaxed me to write. His argument was that I should not disturb the power place with unnecessary feelings of fear or hesitation.

“Why do I get so nervous?” I asked.

“It’s natural,” he said. “Something in you is threatened by your activities in dreaming. As long as you did not think about those activities, you were all right. But now that you have revealed your actions you’re about to faint.”

 “Each warrior has his own way of dreaming. Each way is different. The only thing which we all have in common is that we play tricks in order to force ourselves to abandon the quest. The counter-measure is to persist in spite of all the barriers and disappointments.”

He asked me then if I was capable of selecting topics for dreaming. I said that I did not have the faintest idea of how to do that.

“The sorcerers’ explanation of how to select a topic for dreaming” he said, “is that a warrior chooses the topic by deliberately holding an image in his mind while he shuts off his internal dialogue. In other words, if he is capable of not talking to himself for a moment and then holds the image or the thought of what he wants in dreaming, even if only for an instant, then the desired topic will come to him. I’m sure you’ve done that, although you were not aware of it.”

Second Extract is from Part 1, Journey to Ixtlan: Stopping the World,

Chapter 12. A Battle of Power.

In Journey to Ixtlan , Carlos Castaneda introduces readers to this new approach for the first time, and explores as he comes to experience it himself, his own final voyage into the teachings of don Juan, sharing with us what it is like to truly “stop the world” and perceive reality on his terms.

After a moment’s pause he casually asked, “How is your dreaming?”

I explained to him how difficult it had become for me to give myself the command to look at my hands. At first it had been relatively easy, perhaps because of the newness of the concept. I had had no trouble at all in reminding myself that I had to look at my hands. But the excitation had worn off and some nights I could not do it at all.

“You must wear a headband to sleep,” he said. “Getting a headband is a tricky maneuver. I cannot give you one, because you yourself have to make it from scratch. But you cannot make one until you have had a vision of it in dreaming. See what I mean? The headband has to be made according to the specific vision. And it must have a strip across it that fits tightly on top of the head. Or it may very well be like a tight cap. Dreaming is easier when one wears a power object on top of the head. You could wear your hat or put on a cowl, like a friar, and go to sleep, but those items would only cause intense dreams, not dreaming.”

He was silent for a moment and then proceeded to tell me in a fast barrage of words that the vision of the headband did not have to occur only in dreaming but could happen in states of wakefulness and as a result of any far-fetched and totally unrelated event, such as watching the flight of birds, the movement of water, the clouds, and so on.

“A hunter of power watches everything,” he went on. “And everything tells him some secret.”

“But how can one be sure that things are telling secrets?” I asked.

I thought he may have had a specific formula that allowed him to make “correct” interpretations.

“The only way to be sure is by following all the instructions I have been giving you, starting from the first day you came to see me,” he said. “In order to have power one must live with power.”

All right. So this podcast was about the Selecting a Topic for Dreaming, and I hope that this reading from Tales of Power and Journey to Ixtlan supports you in your dreaming practice, and if you have any questions.

Feel free to drop your comments in the comment section and I will try to answer them, I would really appreciate it if you share your thoughts, and thank you for listening to the Ancient Wisdom Modern Mind podcast.

And if you want to delve deeper into the books of Carlos Castaneda then I also have a number of podcasts in the play list SORCERY & Castaneda that delves into this area, simply follow the Link in the description.

I’m Jason your host signing off. Take care.

▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

If you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, click the above button for details.

And if you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, follow the link for details.

▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

Related posts

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you! ▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

If you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, click the above button for details.

THE ART OF DREAMING, A WITNESS TO ACTS OF POWER

Don Juan stated that sorcerers of ancient times developed a set of practices designed to recondition our energetic capabilities to perceive. They called this set of practices the art of dreaming. And that although Dreaming seems to be a sensation or a process in our bodies, it was actually an awareness in our minds. The awareness of sorcerers grows when they do dreaming and this boosts the sorcerers Personal Power.

Dreaming is primary concerned is with the displacement of the Assemblage Point and through the discipline of Dreaming it is possible to cultivate and perform, in the course of sleep and ordinary dreams, a systematic displacement of the assemblage point. They called this control of the Assemblage Point shifts during sleep "control dreaming" or "the art of handling the dreaming body". Every time this control of your dream is exercised, one’s Personal Power is fortified. Personal Power in turn makes the Assemblage Point shift into new dreaming positions which are more and more suitable for fostering sobriety. In other words, dreams by themselves become more and more manageable.

Hello and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and before I read these extracts from that relate to finding a dreaming topic, I would like to take a moment to remind you to subscribe to this channel, so go ahead and click on the subscribe button.

In this podcast I have compiled short relevant sections from Tales of Power and Journey to Ixtlan that relate to Selecting a Topic for Dreaming

Extract is from.First Extract is from Part 1, Tales of Power: Witness to Acts of PowerChapter 1. An Appointment With Knowledge.

“don Juan’, “And now, suppose you tell me about your dreaming.”

His sudden shift caught me unprepared. He repeated his request. There was a great deal to say about it. “Dreaming” entailed cultivating a peculiar control over one’s dreams to the extent that the experiences undergone in them and those lived in one’s waking hours acquired the same pragmatic valence. The sorcerers’ allegation was that under the impact of dreaming the ordinary criteria to differentiate a dream from reality became inoperative.

Don Juan’s praxis of dreaming was an exercise that consisted of finding one’s hands in a dream. In other words, one had to deliberately dream that one was looking for and could find one’s hands in a dream by simply dreaming that one lifted one’s hands to the level of the eyes.

After years of unsuccessful attempts I had finally accomplished the task. Looking at it in retrospect, it had become evident to me that I had succeeded only after I had gained a degree of control over the world of my everyday life.

Don Juan wanted to know the salient points. I began telling him that the difficulty of setting up the command to look at my hands seemed to be, quite often, insurmountable. He had warned me that the early stage of the preparatory facet, which he called “setting up dreaming,” consisted of a deadly game that one’s mind played with itself, and that some part of myself was going to do everything it could to prevent the fulfillment of my task. That could include, don Juan had said, plunging me into a loss of meaning, melancholy, or even a suicidal depression. I did not go that far, however. My experience was rather on the light, comical side; nonetheless, the result was equally frustrating. Every time I was about to look at my hands in a dream something extraordinary would happen; I would begin to fly, or my dream would turn into a nightmare, or it would simply become a very pleasant experience of bodily excitation; everything in the dream would extend far beyond the “normal” in matters of vividness and, therefore, be terribly absorbing. My original intention of observing my hands was always forgotten in light of the new situation.

One night, quite unexpectedly, I found my hands in my dreams. I dreamt that I was walking on an unknown street in a foreign city and suddenly I lifted up my hands and placed them in front of my face. It was as if something within myself had given up and had permitted me to watch the backs of my hands.

Don Juan’s instructions had been that as soon as the sight of my hands would begin to dissolve or change into something else, I had to shift my view from my hands to any other element in the surroundings of my dream. In that particular dream I shifted my view to a building at the end of the street. When the sight of the building began to dissipate I focused my attention on the other elements of the surroundings in my dream. The end result was an incredibly clear composite picture of a deserted street in some unknown foreign city.

Don Juan made me continue with my account of other experiences in dreaming. We talked for a long time.

At the end of my report he stood up and went to the bushes. I also stood up. I was nervous. It was an unwarranted sensation since there was nothing precipitating fear or concern. Don Juan returned shortly. He noticed my agitation.

“Calm down,” he said, holding my arm gently.

He made me sit down and put my notebook on my lap. He coaxed me to write. His argument was that I should not disturb the power place with unnecessary feelings of fear or hesitation.

“Why do I get so nervous?” I asked.

“It’s natural,” he said. “Something in you is threatened by your activities in dreaming. As long as you did not think about those activities, you were all right. But now that you have revealed your actions you’re about to faint.”

 “Each warrior has his own way of dreaming. Each way is different. The only thing which we all have in common is that we play tricks in order to force ourselves to abandon the quest. The counter-measure is to persist in spite of all the barriers and disappointments.”

He asked me then if I was capable of selecting topics for dreaming. I said that I did not have the faintest idea of how to do that.

“The sorcerers’ explanation of how to select a topic for dreaming” he said, “is that a warrior chooses the topic by deliberately holding an image in his mind while he shuts off his internal dialogue. In other words, if he is capable of not talking to himself for a moment and then holds the image or the thought of what he wants in dreaming, even if only for an instant, then the desired topic will come to him. I’m sure you’ve done that, although you were not aware of it.”

Second Extract is from Part 1, Journey to Ixtlan: Stopping the World,

Chapter 12. A Battle of Power.

In Journey to Ixtlan , Carlos Castaneda introduces readers to this new approach for the first time, and explores as he comes to experience it himself, his own final voyage into the teachings of don Juan, sharing with us what it is like to truly “stop the world” and perceive reality on his terms.

After a moment’s pause he casually asked, “How is your dreaming?”

I explained to him how difficult it had become for me to give myself the command to look at my hands. At first it had been relatively easy, perhaps because of the newness of the concept. I had had no trouble at all in reminding myself that I had to look at my hands. But the excitation had worn off and some nights I could not do it at all.

“You must wear a headband to sleep,” he said. “Getting a headband is a tricky maneuver. I cannot give you one, because you yourself have to make it from scratch. But you cannot make one until you have had a vision of it in dreaming. See what I mean? The headband has to be made according to the specific vision. And it must have a strip across it that fits tightly on top of the head. Or it may very well be like a tight cap. Dreaming is easier when one wears a power object on top of the head. You could wear your hat or put on a cowl, like a friar, and go to sleep, but those items would only cause intense dreams, not dreaming.”

He was silent for a moment and then proceeded to tell me in a fast barrage of words that the vision of the headband did not have to occur only in dreaming but could happen in states of wakefulness and as a result of any far-fetched and totally unrelated event, such as watching the flight of birds, the movement of water, the clouds, and so on.

“A hunter of power watches everything,” he went on. “And everything tells him some secret.”

“But how can one be sure that things are telling secrets?” I asked.

I thought he may have had a specific formula that allowed him to make “correct” interpretations.

“The only way to be sure is by following all the instructions I have been giving you, starting from the first day you came to see me,” he said. “In order to have power one must live with power.”

All right. So this podcast was about the Selecting a Topic for Dreaming, and I hope that this reading from Tales of Power and Journey to Ixtlan supports you in your dreaming practice, and if you have any questions.

Feel free to drop your comments in the comment section and I will try to answer them, I would really appreciate it if you share your thoughts, and thank you for listening to the Ancient Wisdom Modern Mind podcast.

And if you want to delve deeper into the books of Carlos Castaneda then I also have a number of podcasts in the play list SORCERY & Castaneda that delves into this area, simply follow the Link in the description.

I’m Jason your host signing off. Take care.

And if you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, follow the link for details.

▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

Related posts

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you! ▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

If you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, click the above button for details.

OPENING THE CRACK AND STEPPING INTO ANOTHER WORLD | CARLOS CASTANEDA

I dreamed I had something in my eye, when I looked there was a white lizard in the corner of my eye. I then tried to pull it out but instead its tail came off and it went further into the eye.

When I pulled the skin underneath to try and get to it and I saw something black, I could feel it pulling down and I was gagging in the dream.

When I got it out, it was about 3 inches long and was black and slimy and looked like a slug. I put it down, when I looked again it had gone so I was panicking about finding it and also still trying to get the lizard out of my eye. It was an awful dream and I woke up with fright but could not get the images out of my head because I had seen my reality.

Hello and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and before I read this extract from The Second Ring of Power by Carlos Castaneda, I would like to take a moment to remind you to subscribe to this channel, so go ahead and click on the subscribe button.

In this podcast I have compiled the relevant sections from The Second Ring of Power that relates to what La Gorda called the Dreaming Eye, and how this eye relates to Dreaming and losing the Human Form.

 Extract is from.

Part 1: A Witness to Acts of Power.

Chapter 3. La Gorda.

“The Nagual told me that a warrior without form begins to see an eye. I saw an eye in front of me every time I closed my eyes. It got so bad that I couldn’t rest anymore; the eye followed me wherever I went. I nearly went mad. Finally, I suppose, I became used to it. Now I don’t even notice it because it has become part of me.

“The formless warrior uses that eye to start dreaming. If you don’t have a form, you don’t have to go to sleep to do dreaming. The eye in front of you pulls you every time you want to go.”

“Where exactly is that eye, Gorda?”

She closed her eyes and moved her hand from side to side, right in front of her eyes, covering the span of her face.

“Sometimes the eye is very small and other times it is enormous,” she went on. “When it’s small your dreaming is precise. If it’s big your dreaming is like flying over the mountains and not really seeing much. I haven’t done enough dreaming yet, but the Nagual told me that that eye is my trump card. One day when I become truly formless I won’t see the eye anymore; the eye will become just like me, nothing, and yet it’ll be there like the allies. The Nagual said that everything has to be sifted through our human form. When we have no form, then nothing has form and yet everything is present. I couldn’t understand what he meant by that, but now I see that he was absolutely right. The allies are only a presence and so will be the eye. But at this time that eye is everything to me. In fact, in having that eye I should need nothing else in order to call up my dreaming, even when I’m awake. I haven’t been able to do that yet. Perhaps I’m like you, a bit stubborn and lazy.”

“How did you do the flying you showed me tonight?”

“The Nagual taught me how to use my body to make lights, because we are light anyway, so I make sparks and lights and they in turn lure the lines of the world. Once I see one, it’s easy to hook myself to it.”

“How do you hook yourself?”

“I grab it.”

She made a gesture with her hands. She clawed them and then placed them together joined at the wrists, forming a sort of bowl, with the clawed fingers upright.

“You have to grab the line like a jaguar,” she went on, “and never separate the wrists. If you do, you’ll fall down and break your neck.”

She paused and that forced me to look at her, waiting for more of her revelations.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” she asked.

Without giving me time to answer, she squatted and began again to produce her display of sparks. I was calm and collected and could place my undivided attention on her actions. When she snapped her fingers open, every fiber of her muscles seemed to tense at once. That tension seemed to be focused on the very tips of her fingers and was projected out like rays of light. The moisture in her fingertips was actually a vehicle to carry some sort of energy emanating from her body.

“How did you do that, Gorda?” I asked, truly marveling at her.

“I really don’t know,” she said. “I simply do it. I’ve done it lots and lots of times and yet I don’t know how I do it. When I grab one of those rays I feel that I’m being pulled by something. I really don’t do anything else except let the lines I’ve grabbed pull me. When I want to get back through, I feel that the line doesn’t want to let me free and I get frantic. The Nagual said that that was my worst feature. I get so frightened that one of these days I’m going to injure my body. But I figure that one of these days I’ll be even more formless and then I won’t get frightened, so as long as I hold on until that day. I’m all right.”

“Tell me then, Gorda, how do you let the lines pull you?”

“We’re back again in the same spot. I don’t know. The Nagual warned me about you. You want to know things that cannot be known.”

I struggled to make clear to her that what I was after were the procedures. I had really given up looking for an explanation from all of them because their explanations explained nothing to me. To describe to me the steps that were followed was something altogether different.

“How did you learn to let your body hold onto the lines of the world?” I asked.

“I learned that in dreaming,” she said, “but I really don’t know how. Everything for a woman warrior starts in dreaming. The Nagual told me, just as he told you, first to look for my hands in my dreams. I couldn’t find them at all. In my dreams I had no hands. I tried and tried for years to find them. Every night I used to give myself the command to find my hands but it was to no avail.

I never found anything in my dreams. The Nagual was merciless with me. He said that I had to find them or perish. So I lied to him that I had found my hands in my dreams. The Nagual didn’t say a word but Genaro threw his hat on the floor and danced on it. He patted my head and said that I was really a great warrior. The more he praised me the worse I felt. I was about to tell the Nagual the truth when crazy Genaro aimed his behind at me and let out the loudest and longest fart I had ever heard. He actually pushed me backward with it. It was like a hot, foul wind, disgusting and smelly, just like me. The Nagual was choking with laughter.

“I ran to the house and hid there. I was very fat then. I used to eat a great deal and I had a lot of gas. So I decided not to eat for a while. Lidia and Josefina helped me. I didn’t eat anything for twenty-three days, and then one night I found my hands in my dreams. They were old and ugly and green, but they were mine. So that was the beginning. The rest was easy.”

“And what was the rest, Gorda?”

“The next thing the Nagual wanted me to do was to try to find houses or buildings in my dreams and look at them, trying not to dissolve the images. He said that the art of the dreamer is to hold the image of his dream. Because that’s what we do anyway during all our lives.”

“What did he mean by that?”

“Our art as ordinary people is that we know how to hold the image of what we are looking at.

The Nagual said that we do that but we don’t know how. We just do it; that is, our bodies do it. In dreaming we have to do the same thing, except that in dreaming we have to learn how to do it. We have to struggle not to look but merely to glance and yet hold the image.

“The Nagual told me to find in my dreams a brace for my belly button. It took a long time because I didn’t understand what he meant. He said that in dreaming we pay attention with the belly button; therefore it has to be protected. We need a little warmth or a feeling that something is pressing the belly button in order to hold the images in our dreams.

“I found a pebble in my dreams that fit my belly button, and the Nagual made me look for it day after day in water holes and canyons, until I found it. I made a belt for it and I still wear it day and night. Wearing it made it easier for me to hold images in my dreams.

“Then the Nagual gave me the task of going to specific places in my dreaming. I was doing really well with my task but at that time I lost my form and I began to see the eye in front of me.

The Nagual said that the eye had changed everything, and he gave me orders to begin using the eye to pull myself away. He said that I didn’t have time to get to my double in dreaming, but that the eye was even better. I felt cheated. Now I don’t care. I’ve used that eye the best way I could. I let it pull me in my dreaming. I close my eyes and fall asleep like nothing, even in the daytime or anywhere. The eye pulls me and I enter into another world. Most of the time I just wander around in it. The Nagual told me and the little sisters that during our menstrual periods dreaming becomes power. I get a little crazy for one thing. I become more daring. And like the Nagual showed us, a crack opens in front of us during those days. You’re not a woman so it can’t make any sense to you, but two days before her period a woman can open that crack and step through it into another world.”

With her left hand she followed the contour of an invisible line that seemed to run vertically in front of her at arm’s length.

“During that time a woman, if she wants to, can let go of the images of the world,” la Gorda went on. “That’s the crack between the worlds, and as the Nagual said, it is right in front of all of us women.

“The reason the Nagual believes women are better sorcerers than men is because they always have the crack in front of them, while a man has to make it.

“Well, it was during my periods that I learned in dreaming to fly with the lines of the world. I learned to make sparks with my body to entice the lines and then I learned to grab them. And that’s all I have learned in dreaming so far.”

Commentary

The idea of finding your hand or la Gorda’s task of finding houses or buildings is a Not-Doing to distract the ego self from its endless chatter, and is really a form of Mantra used to distract the internal dialog of the ego self. Don Juan’s idea of examining ones elements within the dream is a subterfuge with the intent of developing awareness of falling asleep.

And once you become aware of falling asleep you will have crossed the second gate of dreaming. So whether you want to call it an Affirmation, a Mantra or your Dreaming Intent, this idea is fundamentally a Not-Doing designed to saturate the First Attention with your Intent.

And while we are on the subject of building our dreaming intent I would like to make a distinction between Intent and the idea of manifesting your reality or desires, as this new age idea is no better than wishing, and wishing is not Intent. As an example of this manifesting mentality which also includes ideas such as positive thinking, and the doctrine of divine love, these ideas imply that we can intend or manifest our personal desires by focusing our thoughts upon a desired outcome.

This idea is based on the “Law of Attraction” which claims that “Positive Thinking”, or even directing requests to "The Universe" will manifest your reality or desire, but this is not what is meant by Intent, or Mantra. Although Affirmations could in some cases be branded with the same brush.

Another important mistake that most people make is in the assumption that Dreaming was about dreams. Dreaming is a Not-Doing exercise designed to split the consciousness" or "create a double consciousness ", so don’t get hung up on the meaning of dreams as they only relate to self’s personal reality within the first Attention

As for la Gorda’s Dreaming Eye, I personally think this is an embellishment by Carlos, and in my own experience there is no Dreaming Eye as such, but more what I would call a spot or blotch in the center of your vision similar to the visual effect that still exists after doing too much sun gazing, but more subtle and it is possible that one me not even become aware of this spot, although I will say that eye is definitively a more exciting description.

I also don’t think that seeing this spot is directly related to losing the human form and either Carlos or la Gorda, or maybe both are incline to exaggerations to bolster their own egos, yet in saying this there is little doubt that the spot or eye if you want to call it that, is related to the Second Attention and is a sign that the barrier between the First and Second Attentions is weakening.

The sorcerer through dreaming slowly dissolves the barrier between the First and Second Attentions, so that awareness achieves a fluidity of movement between the First and Second Attentions, and awareness is thus freed from the dualistic dictums of the ego self in much the same way a kōan can free the mind of the novice monk. With this understanding we can also see that the label dreaming is deceptive and should not be taken literally or confused with lucid dreaming. Of course it is also little understood that the practice of dreaming is also a steady dissolving of the ego self, and this is because the sorcerer through dreaming will eventually become one awareness. They become the Nagual, Atman or Higher Self, and the ego self which is rooted in the self-importance of the First Attention fades into obscurity, which finally climaxes with what Carlos called the journey into the abyss.

And if you want delve deeper into the books of Carlos Castaneda then I also have a number of podcasts in the play list SORCERY & CASTANEDA that delves into this area, simply follow the Link in the description.

All right. So this podcast was about Gorda’s Dreaming Eye, and I hope that this reading from The Second Ring of Power supports you in your dreaming practice, and if you have any questions.

Feel free to drop your comment in the comment section and I will try to answer them, I would really appreciate it if you share your thoughts, and thank you for listening to the Ancient Wisdom Modern Mind podcast.

I’m Jason your host signing off. Take care.

And if you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, follow the link for details.

▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

Related posts

References

 // IMAGE S O U R C E: ???????????????

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you! ▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

If you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, click the above button for details.

I AM A SORCERER WITHOUT SOLACE, HAVEN, FEAR AND LOVE. ALL OF THEM ARE MOODS | CARLOS CASTANEDA

I am a Sorcerer. There. I’ve said it. A full-time, genuine Sorcerer. And the question I am asked more than any other… is Sorcery real?

Absolutely! Well, Sorcery is real, but it’s not necessarily always what you assume is Sorcery.

Long ago – long before doctors, and lawyers, and therapists – the world was full of people – as it is today. These people still felt wronged and wanted justice. And other times they would get their hearts broken. They would feel lonely, or inadequate, or lost, or unable to cope – just as people do today.

But back in those days, these people would visit someone like me. A Sorcerer. Someone who would give them a potion, or cast a spell, or lift a curse – someone who could put the world to rights again.

Of course most humans have matured beyond the idea that potions or spells will solve the problems of the world or fix a broken heart, and this is where the real part comes in.

Today instead of potions we have ideas such as Simulation Theory and the Law of Attraction, and if we all agree in the reality of these ideas do they become real or simply a modern fiction and feel good ideas created by black magicians.

 

Hello and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind blog and before you read this extract from Tales of Power by Carlos Castaneda, I would like to take a moment to remind you to subscribe to this blog, so go ahead and click on the subscribe at button top right of the page.

In this blog article I have compiled the relevant sections from Tales of Power by Carlos Castaneda that relate to what Don Juan called Black Magicians, which is a metaphor for the cultural and social trap society imposes on us, and how the concept of impeccability can free us from the cultural trap that social imposes, and thus enabling the reader to assemble a more integrated understanding of the subject.

 Extract is from.Part 1: A Witness to Acts of Power. Chapter 1. An Appointment With Knowledge.

 

“You like the humbleness of a beggar,” he said softly. “You bow your head to reason.”

“I always think that I’m being tricked,” I said. “That’s the crux of my problem.”

“You’re right. You are being tricked,” he retorted with a disarming smile. “That cannot be your problem. The real crux of the matter is that you feel that I am deliberately lying to you, am I correct?”

“Yes. There is something in myself that doesn’t let me believe that what’s taking place is real.”

“You’re right again. Nothing of what is taking place is real.”

“What do you mean by that, Don Juan?”

“Things are real only after one has learned to agree on their realness. What took place this evening, for instance, cannot possibly be real to you, because no one could agree with you about it.”

“Do you mean that you didn’t see what happened?”

“Of course I did. But I don’t count. I am the one who’s lying to you, remember?”

Don Juan laughed until he coughed and choked. His laughter was friendly even though he was making fun of me.

“Don’t pay too much attention to all my gibberish,” he said reassuringly. “I’m just trying to relax you and I know that you feel at home only when you’re muddled up.”

His expression was deliberately comical and we both laughed. I told him that what he had just said made me feel more afraid than ever.

“You’re afraid of me?” he asked.

“Not of you, but of what you represent.”

“I represent the warrior’s freedom. Are you afraid of that?”

“No. But I’m afraid of the awesomeness of your knowledge. There is no solace for me, no haven to go to.”

“You’re again confusing issues. Solace, haven, fear, all of them are moods that you have learned without ever questioning their value. As one can see, the black magicians have already engaged all your allegiance.”

“Who are the black magicians, Don Juan?”

“Our fellow men are the black magicians. And since you are with them, you too are a black magician. Think for a moment. Can you deviate from the path that they’ve lined up for you? No. Your thoughts and your actions are fixed forever in their terms. That is slavery. I, on the other hand, brought you freedom. Freedom is expensive, but the price is not impossible. So, fear your captors, your masters. Don’t waste your time and your power fearing me.”

 

Commentary

To me the concept of impeccability frees us from the slavery of the black magicians, impeccability detaches self from self’s human agreement. One could say that to act impeccably, is essentially the act of detaching from your own point of view, a complete and impartial devotion to an awareness that questions all of societies social agreements.

To act impeccably is to understand that your view of who you are is only a personal subjective agreement created by society and your own internal feedback, and so your own understanding of who you are is not real, but is the result of a subjective agreement between you and societies black magicians.

Of course it takes time to conquer the idiocy of who we think we are, and in becoming an impeccable warrior we find the power and vigor to break free from our slavery.

The Nagual is impeccable because there is no agreement to bind it. With the displacement of a human agreement, perceptions are clearer and less binding. Freed from the chains of humanity one becomes a cosmic wind of intent.

And if you want to delve deeper into the idea of our social enslavement then I have a post that talks about The Human Agreement and the social trap of self. Plus podcasts and blogs that cover the works of Carlos Castaneda and understanding the mind which explores this and similar ideas, simply follow the Links.

All right. So this blog article was all about the social trap our fellow man imposes on us, and I hope that this short reading from the Tales of Power by Carlos Castaneda supports you in your journey, and I know that some of you will have some questions.

So feel free to drop your comment in the comment section and I will try to answer them, and don’t feel shy to share your thoughts in the comments as I would really appreciate it, and thank you for listening to the Ancient Wisdom Modern Mind podcast.

I’m Jason, Take care.

And if you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, follow the link for details.

Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman

Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer” Related posts

References

 // IMAGE S O U R C E: ???????????????

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you! ▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”

If you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, click the above button for details.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR DREAMS BY BECOME AWARE THAT ONE IS FALLING ASLEEP | DON JUAN MATUS

Dreaming is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from becoming overwhelmed. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Dreaming creates Real freedom.

Most of the time when we’re dreaming, we’re not aware of it and just take what’s before us in the dream as real. But the Not-doing of dreaming is when you are aware that you’re dreaming and can take steps to control the dream.

Hello and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and before I read this extract from The Eagle’s Gift by Carlos Castaneda, but first I would like to take a moment to remind you to subscribe to this channel, so go ahead and click on the subscribe button.

In this BIog I have compiled the relevant sections from The Eagle’s Gift that relate to Don Juan’s explanation of how the dreaming body becomes a perfect replica of the dreamer’s physical body. Plus I explore the parallels between Dreaming and Zen, and it is my hope that this will enabling you the listener to assemble a more integrated understanding of dreaming.

Extracts are from. The Eagle’s Gift.

Part 1: The Other Self.

Chapter 1. The Fixation of The Second Attention.

Part 2: The Art of Dreaming.

Chapter 7. Dreaming Together.

“It is easy for me to understand why the Nagual Juan Matus didn’t want us to have possessions,” Nestor said after I had finished talking. “We are all dreamers. He didn’t want us to focus our dreaming body on the weak face of the second attention.”

“I didn’t understand his maneuvers at the time. I resented the fact that he made me get rid of everything I had. I thought he was being unfair. My belief was that he was trying to keep Pablito and Benigno from envying me, because they had nothing themselves. I was well-off in comparison. At the time, I had no idea that he was protecting my dreaming body.”

Don Juan had described dreaming to me in various ways. The most obscure of them all now appears to me as being the one that defines it best. He said that dreaming is intrinsically the not-doing of sleep. And as such, dreaming affords practitioners the use of that portion of their lives spent in slumber. It is as if the dreamers no longer sleep. Yet no illness results from it. The dreamers do not lack sleep, but the effect of dreaming seems to be an increase of waking time, owing to the use of an alleged extra body, the dreaming body.

Don Juan had explained to me that the dreaming body is sometimes called the “double” or the “other,” because it is a perfect replica of the dreamer’s body. It is inherently the energy of a luminous being, a whitish, phantomlike emanation, which is projected by the fixation of the second attention into a three-dimensional image of the body. Don Juan explained that the dreaming body is not a ghost, but as real as anything we deal with in the world. He said that the second attention is unavoidably drawn to focus on our total being as a field of energy, and transforms that energy into anything suitable. The easiest thing is of course the image of the physical body, with-which we are already thoroughly familiar from our daily lives and the use of our first attention. What channels the energy of our total being to produce anything that might be within the boundaries of possibility is known as will. Don Juan could not say what those boundaries were, except that at the level of luminous beings the range is so broad that it is futile to try to establish limits – thus, the energy of a luminous being can be transformed through will into anything.

“The Nagual said that the dreaming body gets involved and attaches itself to anything,” Benigno said. “It doesn’t have sense. He told me that men become more easily attached to things

The little sisters agreed in unison with a movement of their heads. La Gorda looked at me and smiled.

“The Nagual told me that you’re the king of possessiveness,” she said to me. “Genaro said that you even say goodbye to your turds before you flush them down.”

The little sisters rolled down on their sides laughing. The Genaros made obvious efforts to contain themselves. Nestor, who was sitting by my side, patted my knee.

The Nagual and Genaro used to tell great stories about you,” he said. “They entertained us for years with tales about a weird guy they knew. We know now that it was you.”

I felt a wave of embarrassment. It was as if Don Juan and don Genaro had betrayed me, laughing at me in front of the apprentices. Self-pity took over. I began to complain. I said out loud that they had been predisposed to be against me, to think that I was a fool.

“That’s not true,” Benigno said. “We are delighted that you are with us.”

Chapter 7. Dreaming Together.

One night we sat down and, as casually as we could, we began to discuss what we knew about dreaming. It quickly became obvious that there were some core topics which don Juan had given special emphasis.

First was the act itself. It seemed to begin as a unique state of awareness arrived at by focusing the residue of consciousness, which one still has when asleep, on the elements, or the features, of one's dreams.

The residue of consciousness, which don Juan called the second attention, was brought into action, or was harnessed, through exercises of not-doing. We thought that the essential aid to dreaming was a state of mental quietness, which don Juan had called "stopping the internal dialogue," or the "not doing of talking to oneself." To teach me how to master it, he used to make me walk for miles with my eyes held fixed and out of focus at a level just above the horizon so as to emphasize the peripheral view. His method was effective on two counts. It allowed me to stop my internal dialogue after years of trying, and it trained my attention. By forcing me to concentrate on the peripheral view, don Juan reinforced my capacity to concentrate for long periods of time on one single activity.

Later on, when I had succeeded in controlling my attention and could work for hours at a chore without distraction - a thing I had never before been able to do - he told me that the best way to enter into dreaming was to concentrate on the area just at the tip of the sternum, at the top of the belly. He said that the attention needed for dreaming stems from that area. The energy needed in order to move and to seek in dreaming stems from the area an inch or two below the belly button. He called that energy the will, or the power to select, to assemble.

"A woman's dreaming has to come from her womb because that's her center," la Gorda said. "In order for me to start dreaming or to stop it all I have to do is place my attention on my womb. I've learned to feel the inside of it. I see a reddish glow for an instant and then I'm off."

"How long does it take you to get to see that reddish glow?" I asked.

"A few seconds. The moment my attention is on my womb I'm already into dreaming" she continued. "I never toil, not ever. Women are like that. The most difficult part for a woman is to learn how to begin; it took me a couple of years to stop my internal dialogue by concentrating my attention on my womb. Perhaps that's why a woman always needs someone else to prod her.

"The Nagual Juan Matus used to put cold, wet river pebbles on my belly to get me to feel that area. Or he would place a weight on it; I had a chunk of lead that he got for me. He would make me close my eyes and focus my attention on the spot where the weight was. I used to fall asleep every time. But that didn't bother him. It doesn't really matter what one does as long as the attention is on the womb. Finally I learned to concentrate on that spot without anything being placed on it. I went into dreaming one day all by myself. I was feeling my belly, at the spot where the Nagual had placed the weight so many times, when all of a sudden I fell asleep as usual, except that something pulled me right into my womb. I saw the reddish glow and I then had a most beautiful dream.

You were learning to get to your dreaming body when you dreamed that you got out of your body," she continued. "But, the way I see it, the Nagual did not give you any specific task, so you went any old way you could. I, on the other hand, was given the task of using my dreaming body. The little sisters had the same task. In my case, I once had a dream where I flew like a kite. I told the Nagual about it because I had liked the feeling of gliding. He took it very seriously and turned it into a task. He said that as soon as one learns to do dreaming, any dream that one can remember is no longer a dream, it's dreaming.

Commentary

Dreaming Awareness is the awakening or steady transfer of awareness to the Energy Body with the goal of awakening the sleeping Nagual, or you could equally say that dreaming is where one becomes aware when in the awake state that you were aware within the dream state and also the bringing of the Energy Body awareness into the First Attention awareness.

Don Juan’s approach is very different from the yogi’s approach of single minded meditation and breath work, and seems to be unique to Castaneda’s sorcery. But in saying this, it may surprise you to find that there are parallels between Don Juan’s Dreaming and Zen’s use of the kōan.

And if you don’t know what a kōan is, a kōan refers to a question or succinct paradoxical statement posed to a novice monk to help them seek the truth, and which they contemplate during meditation, this then helps them unravel greater truths about reality and the nature of the ego-self, and you could even equate this to Don Juan giving Carlos the task of finding his hand in his dreams, a simple subterfuge that creates a paradoxically similar problem as trying to solve a kōan.

Because just as finding the hand was never the true goal of practicing Dreaming, solving the kōan was never the reason a novice was given a kōan. The kōan was only the distraction.

What Carlos initially failed to understand about Dreaming is that finding the hand is not the true goal, and it was only later in The Art of Dreaming did Don Juan say to Carlos that finding the hand was not the end goal.

To quote The Art of Dreaming Page 27. “To ask a dreamer to find a determined item (e.g. finding the hand) in his dreams is a subterfuge.” he said. “The real issue is to become aware that one is falling asleep.

So it would be more precise to see Dreaming as a Not-Doing designed to awaken an awareness of the Energy Body.

But the parallels between Zen and don Juan’s Dreaming, don’t end with the kōan, as Don Juan’s also emphasized that la Gorda should focus on the womb and this is also Zen’s focus and the idea of the Hara, which connects with both dreaming and Personal Power.

Then we have the example where Don Juan had la Gorda walking for miles with her eyes held fixed and out of focus at a level just above the horizon so as to emphasize the peripheral view. This is also the method used in Zen Walking Meditation, called Kinhin.

We should also remember that Dreaming is not about having a dream or even lucid dreaming. Remember what Don Juan told la Gorda. (In chapter 7 Dreaming Together) , that as soon as one learns to do dreaming, any dream that one can remember is no longer a dream, it's Dreaming. But the point to remember is that Don Juan used the words “that as soon as one learns to do Dreaming” and this is an important point. Especially if we also remember what Dreaming really is, and that is that we have only reached the Second Attention when we can remember falling asleep.

And this is why Dreaming is the Not-Doing of dreams, one takes the ordinary state of sleep and turns sleepings intent towards the Second Attention. Just as Zazen takes ordinary consciousness and turns its intent away from the First Attention. We are in effect filling awareness with the Second Attention via the dream state.

And if you want to delve deeper into the works of Carlos Castaneda or Zen Meditation techniques then I also have a number of podcasts and blogs on my web site that explore this and similar ideas, simply follow the Link in the description.

All right. So this podcast was about the Not-doing of Dreaming, and its parallels with Zen, and I hope that this reading from “The Eagle’s Gift” supports you in your Dreaming practice, and if you have any questions.

Feel free to drop your comment in the comment section and I will try to answer them, I would really appreciate it if you share your thoughts, and thank you for listening to the Ancient Wisdom Modern Mind podcast.

I’m Jason your host signing off. Take care.

If you would like to understand sorcery at a deep level then I have also created a complementary guide Autobiography of a Sorcerer: The Way of the Superiorman, follow the link for details.

▶️ PODCAST ▶️ BUY THE BOOK “Autobiography of a Sorcerer”  Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

Related posts References

 // S O U R C E: The Eagle’s Gift by Carlos Castaneda

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you! ▶️ PODCAST ▶️ The Complete Zen Meditation Collection | Meditaion Album

If you would like to learn about Zen mediation then I have also created the Zazen Compilation ALBUM (The Complete Zen Collection to understanding Zen, Zazen and Kinhin, including guided meditations), click the above button.

Our minds are in a permanent state of action, always racing around erratically, constantly begging you to stimulate it, to think something, to do something, despite all our attempts to truly center ourselves, to meditate and to be content with zero activity.

But consider for a moment. When you're truly engrossed in something, when your truly involved deeply in the worlds doings, can you grasp the nature of self by looking at a world of doings? By jumping from one doing to the next doing?

The reason we are currently unable to realize peace and contentment is because such inter peace can only be realized through not-doing. In other words, you can't know this inner peace through struggle, or by meddling with whatever is happening right now because you yourself are a part of this momentum.

Hello and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and today I would like to talk about the not-doing of Zazen.

And before we start I would like to take a moment to remind you to subscribe to this channel, so go ahead and click on the subscribe button.

Zazen is a very simple yet precise method of meditation where the correct breathing and posture are a fundamental part of the Zazen practice, and while the mind may wander off into thoughts of the past and speculations concerning the future, the body is always right here, right now.

Consider the following scenario: You agree to the challenge of locking yourself in a room for a week. You can't go out since you don't have access to the internet or any other means of connection with the rest of the world. It's only you, all alone.

There is no television, smartphone, or other forms of entertainment. You only have your own company and enough food to last the week. So, how do you think you would fare in such a situation? I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that most individuals will quickly start to dread such a situation. Some people may become completely despondent. Others overcome by emotions of loneliness, anxiety, or boredom, and while some may find ways to occupy themselves, even these brief distractions will inevitably end, forcing you to at last face the gloomy emptiness of self.

When you're finally faced with this unavoidable silence, there won't be much to divert your attention away from yourself. There's no getting away from whatever mental baggage the self is carrying. And perhaps for the first time in your life, you will uncover one of humanity's greatest psychological flaws that is shockingly rarely discussed or even acknowledged.

And what we discover in these empty moments is that our minds are in a permanent state of action, always racing like a monkey on steroids, constantly begging you to stimulate it, to think something, to do something, despite all our attempts to truly center yourselves, to be content in the silence of not-doing.

Under normal conditions, we have a proclivity to place blame on others for our misery. However, in our seclusion, it becomes clear that the problem is founded in ourselves. All of the anxiety in our life stems from us. But why this imbalance, this psychological discomfort. Why is this restlessness even present when we are deprived of all our toys?

The cause of our psychological distress, according to Buddha, is our ignorance of our true nature. And we will continue to cause suffering in our own lives and in the lives of others, unless we comprehend who we truly are.

This ignorance is developed and maintained in our daily lives through persistent self-avoidance, this constant running away from ourselves. Consider that for a moment. We feel compelled to replace any emptiness or gap in our life with something, whether it's a new TV show, a new automobile, a smartphone, a new book, or a new activity. A new business, a pet, or even a new partner are all possibilities. But why the haste? Why can't we all simply be happy?

If you look closely, most of us live our lives as a perpetual escape from ourselves. So, why the avoidance? What are we hiding from? Could it be that the very thing we are longing for, is exactly what we're avoiding?

 “When confusion ceases, clarity arises. When clarity arises, wisdom appears. When wisdom appears, reality displays itself,” This Zen saying says it all.

Once upon a time, a man saw a monk sitting quietly under a tree. Curious as to what this old monk was doing, he asked him, “Hey, old man. I’ve been watching you for hours. Please tell me. What is it that you’re doing sitting so calmly and motionlessly?”

"Nothing," the monk said, gently smiling. "I was just sitting." Zen Buddhists call this profound practice Shikantaza or Zazen, which involves simply sitting and doing nothing. And Zazen is at the core of Buddha's teachings, and although it originated in China just eight centuries ago, it could be considered the noblest way of practicing the Buddha’s teachings.

After seeing the nature of reality and being enlightened, Buddha passed on his knowledge through what are called the Four Noble Truths about life.

So, let's have a look at these noble truths.

The first noble truth was that all life is suffering. The second was that suffering has a cause which is desire. The third noble truth was suffering can end when desires end. The fourth was that the solution to ending suffering was to attain enlightenment.

While this may appear to some like a road map to enlightenment, Buddha's teachings are riddled with contradictions and twists. Let's use the second noble truth as an example. That is, there is a reason for your pain.

The Buddha taught that desire is the root of all suffering. But allow me to assist you in seeing the conundrum at hand. If desire is the source of your sorrow, you could assume, "Oh, then I'll just quit seeking and my misery will end."

But, as it turns out, the desire to quit desiring is also a desire. So, yes, you're suffering, and yes, life is a misery, just as Buddha predicted. But you cannot end suffering by simply saying I will end it now. And equally you cannot achieve liberation from suffering by attempting to replace it with something else.

As a result, we find ourselves in a trap or cycle. And if we just let go and say, "OK." What's the point if I can't do anything about it? Then there isn't much to Buddha's teachings. And I may as well continue living my life in the same manner as before."

But we all know that sitting in front of the TV and watching that blue screen flicker will not make us happy. Clearly, something other than this must be done. But, as already stated, there is nothing we can do to help us break free from this suffering. So, what are your options?

So in the second noble truth. Buddha presents us with the conundrum that even the desire to end suffering crates suffering, and it's worth nothing that Buddha believed there was nothing that could be done to end suffering. So instead the Buddha presented the solution in the fourth noble truth, where he offers the path to enlightenment as a way to break this cycle.

Then he goes on and on about morality, mindfulness, concentration, and other such topics. The thing is, that after achieving enlightenment, Buddha discovered that the truth he was seeking was never really hidden. It was always present, always in the background.

But trying to find something that is always present, on the other hand, is like looking for your glasses when you already have them on. You’re never going to find them anywhere else.

However, because people couldn’t understand that the simplicity of what they were looking for was always ever present, Buddha taught the path of the Four Noble Truths. However there is a reason that this path is called the "pathless path": because this path is nothing more than an illusion.

"All right," Buddha answered if people cannot see that they were already wearing the spectacles they were so eagerly looking for. Then it’s best to let people Go and find them with all their might. They’ll give up the hunt one day after tiring of their suffering, only to discover the spectacles were on their face all the time".

It’s the same as following a Guru in an attempt discover yourself, then failing miserably. What have you gained? Only a better understanding of someone else’s doings.

So you see, in order to somehow attain this liberation from all our suffering, nothing really needs to be done and yet something needs to be done.

In the words of Zen master Dōgen, “Although the truth is abundantly inherent in each person, it is not manifested without practice.” This paradoxical nature of self then is directly expressed in Zazen, which is clearly a doing, but equally a practice of doing nothing at all.

This is why Zazen is also known as just sitting, doing nothing. But is the practice of true reality. For master Dōgen, all of enlightenment is fully expressed in this dynamic practice of Zazen. Zazen is founded on the idea that whatever truth we seek via meditation is already there in this Nowness. Nothing is hidden or concealed.

The reason we are currently unable to realize this truth right now, this because it can only be realized through non-seeking. In other words, you can't know this truth through struggle, or by meddling with whatever is happening right now because you yourself are a part of this motion, this force.

Consider for a moment. When you're a part of reality as it is happening now, how can you grasp this reality only by looking in the mirror of self?

If such an insight is to be achieved, the entire spectrum of what is engaged in must be rejected, because whatever is genuine is clearly comprises both by the self and its mirror gazing, its beliefs and its culture. So, in Zazen, you simply allow reality to flow without forming any conclusions, without dawning boundaries between internal and external, self and other.

In Zazen whatever emotion, thought or sound wants to come, we let it come. Whatever emotion, thought or sound wants to stay, we let it stay and whatever emotion, thought or sound wants to leave, we let it leave.

When we cease looking into the mirror and instead allow reality to express itself in its unhandled and untouched state. Whatever is true about us and about life is gradually revealed via this complete non-interference, eventually curing us of all our illusions.

In the words of Zen Master Taisen Deshimaru, “Leave the water to sit quietly and soon the dirt will sink down”.

Having talked about the philosophy behind the practice of Zazen, now let’s see how to practice Zazen.

Instructions For Practicing Zazen

Zazen is a very simple yet precise method of seated meditation in which the correct breathing and posture are a fundamental part of the Zazen practice, and while the mind may wander off into thoughts of the past and speculations about the future, the body is always right here, right now. As a result, Zazen begins with the body in an upright and alert position.

In Zazen you’re not trying to cause the body any pain, so if your posture is uncomfortable even at the beginning of the practice, it will become much more painful over time, causing you to stop the practice. The important thing is to have a posture that involves a straight spine that is comfortable at the same time since you will be sitting motionlessly and for a long periods.

The first step is to take a seat and adjust your posture. This is undoubtedly the most underappreciated component of the practice that should not be missed. Traditionally, only the full or half lotus positions have been used. However, you can also practice Zazen in the traditional kneeling posture, "Seiza" or if you lack flexibility, you can practice Zazen in a chair with a wedge or cushion to create an incline, or by placing a wedge behind the lower back to help retain the natural curve of the spine.

The duration is the second step. Every day, practice for at least 10 to 15 minutes. The most crucial factor is consistency. With experience, you can extend the duration of the session.

The third step is to practice. When teaching Zazen, Zen monks usually go on and on about postures and the proper type of cushion, and when they get to the part where they're meant to talk about the practice, they just say, "Just sit, That's is all."

The thing is that Zazen is not really about anything. You're not attempting to accomplish anything, such as focus on an object, be attentive, being mindful or even becoming enlightened.

You're not attempting to alter the current situation in any way. You're not attempting to alleviate sadness or promote peace. Zazen is a subtle action that involves allowing everything to be entirely at rest, exactly as it is.

So, once you’re seated in the proper position, don't try to do anything. Just take a break from doing, from trying to achieve something or get somewhere when you enter Zazen.

Naturally, thoughts will arise. Emotions are bound to surface. Everything, however, is welcome in this space. Any sentiments or thoughts, good or negative, pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable, are allowed.

Whatever thoughts that emerge are fine. We are allowing the mind to express itself completely without any hesitation or hindrance. If you don't like some feeling or thought that has appeared, that is also totally acceptable. In fact, at any point when you feel that you're unable to let go of an emotion, the feeling should be given total space to exist without interference.

Know that you yourself are a part of reality. So your own entanglement of thoughts and feelings is allowed to be just as it is. When the need to do anything, to change anything is completely dropped and absolutely everything from the subtlest to the grossest is given complete space to be exactly as it is, our true nature gradually reveals itself. In this way, without having to move a hair, the truth emerges from the observation of not-doing.

By doing we form options, but these options are only our self-refection, since we only see our doings and seeing is believing, right!

All right. So this is how you practice Zazen. Now there are some important things about this practice that you need to understand. The first is that Zazen is one of the most advanced forms of meditation. If done correctly, it leads directly to enlightenment. So if you are just looking to reduce stress or to focus better, this is not the way to go. You will be better off practicing a concentration or a guide imagery meditation, which I have talked about in other podcasts.

Zazen, as it is meant to be understood, is not about self-improvement. Self-improvement implies that there’s something wrong with you right now, which you want to change or overcome.

In Zazen, everything is accepted as it is. Everything is perfect. Zazen is not really about going anywhere. It is a dynamic process of being present in the moment. As a result, Zazen cannot be practiced for any reason or expectation. Any such anticipation will merely get in the way of practicing correctly.

The second point I want to make is that Zazen isn't always rainbows and sunshine. It will not always feel wonderful to sit in Zazen. Most of us have been running away from ourselves for far too long to realize who we are or who we will become.

When you sit in Zazen the mind will try to distract you, and you will be tempted to interrupt your meditation for any number of reasons, rationales, likes or dislikes. But don't get drawn in and allow these distractions, feelings, thoughts or even physical distractions to pull you into their reality.

Zazen is a truth unveiling itself. Let these truths come to the surface and dissolve naturally. This is just you letting go of all the superficiality that you’ve been carrying around for years.

The third thing I want to mention is that you will not likely get it right in the first few sittings. But keep on practicing every day. By being consistent in your practice you will create change and within a few months or so, you will understand how insanely powerful and simple the act of just sitting really is.

And if you want a more detailed lesson on HOW TO DO ZARZENN MEDITATION POSTURE AND BREATHING then I also have a fully detailed audio, simply follow the Links in the description.

All right. So this podcast was all about Zazen and its principles. So I hope that I have hit the mark in explaining to you what Zazen really is and how it works and I know that some of you will have some questions.

So feel free to drop your comment in the comment section and I will try to answer them, and don’t feel shy to share your thoughts in the comments as I would really appreciate it, and thank you for listening to the Ancient Wisdom Modern Mind podcast.

I’m Jason your host signing off. Take care.

Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

If you would like to learn about Zen mediation then I have also created the Zazen Compilation ALBUM (The Complete Zen Collection to understanding Zen, Zazen and Kinhin, including guided meditations), follow the link.

▶️ PODCAST ▶️ The Complete Zen Meditation Collection | Meditaion Album Related posts

Zen Walking Meditation (Kinhin) | Zazen Instructions and Etiquette | How to Practice Mindfulness Every Day | What Is the Sound of One Hand Clapping: Zen Koan | Zazen Guided Meditation (20-Minute Meditation) | 10-Minute Guided Meditation for Focus & Relaxation | How To Do Zazen Meditation: Posture and Breathing | What is Zen Meditation: Story of The Samurai and The Tea Master | What is the Hara: How Does Hara Connects to Other Spiritual Ideas | Zazen & Kinhin Guided Meditation Compilation (40-Minute Meditation) | How To Do Mindfulness Meditation: Different Approaches | How To Practice Mindfulness Every Day | My Thoughts Are Not My Own, By Intellect Alone I Fail

References

 // IMAGE S O U R C E: Illustration by Jason Chatfield, April 1, 2020

Subscribe

to receive news and updates.

First Name Last Name Email Address Sign Up Thank you! ▶️ PODCAST Version

What exactly is enlightenment? What is the point of spiritual enlightenment?

Hello, Jason Cain here and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind blog and today I would like to share my view on spiritual enlightenment and the truth about enlightenment and gurus claiming enlightenment .

Buddhist monks, Hindu yogis, modern spiritual teachers, all use the term spiritual enlightenment – but are they speaking about the same thing?

In this article I will explore what spiritual enlightenment is, both the traditional definition as well as from a modern perspective.

There is a lot of confusion about what is enlightenment, and equally there are also a lot of fake gurus claiming Enlightenment. My purpose here is to eliminate some misconceptions, and to discuss how we might know and enlightened being if we meet one or at least how to weed out a few of the fakes.

Original Definitions

The traditional concept of enlightenment comes from the spiritual traditions of India – notably the various schools of Yoga, Vedanta and Buddhism – and denotes the highest state of spiritual attainment. The end of the path.

But the term "Enlightenment," actually came from the intellectual movement which began in England in the seventeenth century, this movement represented an "illumined" intellectual skepticism to traditional beliefs and dogmas, in contrast to the supposed dark and superstitious beliefs of the Middle Ages.

The term later became associated with various schools of Indian philosophy, Yoga and Buddhism, and is now a general term for spiritual illumination or divine knowledge in all the religious and spiritual traditions.

Some of the terms used for spiritual enlightenment, given by different schools of thought, are:

Buddhism — Nirvana, Liberation, Awakening, Cessation, Realization of the Atman identity.

Yoga — Liberation (moksha, mukti), Realization of the true self (Atman), Release, Aloneness (kaivalya), Union (yoga), Perfection (poorna).

Vedanta — Self-realization, Self-knowledge, Jnana (meaning knowledge of divine reality).

All these traditions have several points of disagreement when it comes to defining the “metaphysical nature” of enlightenment. However, at their root they all seem to agree on at least three points:

Every occurrence of enlightenment has come after the mind has been stilled.

It involves transcending the ego/mind.

It is permanent (cannot be lost once attained).

As you can see, the expectations are high.

There are also similarities between this concept and what is called the Holy Spirit or the experience of “Unification or Sanctification” in Christian Mysticism, and “union with God” in Sufism, but exploring those is beyond the scope of this article.

Modern Conceptions

No one knows how many enlightened beings live around us, and becoming enlightened doesn’t make you stand out, it doesn’t make us radiate, it doesn’t give us a golden color. But it does change your perception of reality.

Nowadays there are many people who judge themselves to be enlightened, and for 99% of those enlightened gurus, one of the following will be true:

They believe themselves to be more advanced on the path than they actually are.

They confuse the traditional definition “full enlightenment”, with emotional or intellectual realizations.

They consider the traditional definition of enlightenment to be mythical, exaggerated, or impossible. Unable to fathom even how to reach it, they redefine liberation according to their level of experience.

Their a fake guru, who uses enlightenment as their meal ticket to wealth and fame.

There will always be people in one or more of the first three (3) categories since the ego is a master of deceit and there are many milestones on the way, before deep and permanent transformation happens, and as we grow and experience small awakenings, self-delusion also simply starts to drop away.

These milestones or “awakening” – are emotional realization and the ego/mind will have many of these awakenings before final enlightenment/liberation.

The real problem is people in category “d”. These fakes willingly distort the essential meaning of enlightenment. Perhaps they have confused certain genuine awakenings along the way with full liberation, and have judged themselves to be enlightened.

But in order to “make this self-styled enlightenment work” for themselves, they need to redefine enlightenment in terms of their own personal story, so that it matches their level. And then they can either say that “enlightenment is a step in the journey or they redefine enlightenment.

Gradual or Sudden Enlightenment

Many of the traditions mentioned above agree that enlightenment is already here and now, and that it is our true nature – or the true nature of reality (note these words “THE TRUE NATURE OF REALITY” because I will come back to this very important phrase). It is not that we have to achieve enlightenment or become enlightened, but rather we need to remove the obstacles to its expression.

So it was not so much that the ego/mind becomes enlightened, but that we become aware of THE TRUE NATURE OF REALITY, by dissolving the ego/mind reality.

And this is where we often miss the one simple gaping hole in the fake guru story. One of the first things the fake guru will do is to establish their credentials by telling you about how they became enlightened and how this experience felt. The corner stone of their story is rooted in an emotional explanation of enlightenment, but what we over look is that enlightenment is about changing our awareness of a pre-existing reality and not about how the human ego/mind felt or feels.

We often get carried away by a charismatic personality that can spin a good story and this hooks our emotional human ego/mind into acceptance and we overlook the most obvious flaw in the gurus story, and this is the idea that “THE TRUE NATURE OF REALITY” is outside of human reality, and thus outside the emotional supplication of how one feels.

The fact is that no enlightened being can tell you about when they became enlightened, and this is because their enlightenment was a gradual process that grows unnoticed, and when the being is finally realized then all experience from this point is within a state of enlightenment or from the Atman’s/spirits prospective.

For example can you tell me when you first realized you were a human? No, you only know that you are human and you can calculate this realization as being maybe your birth or maybe your earliest childhood memory.

This is the same situation with the enlightened, one day you simply realize that you are no longer human, and this word human is very important. Because the first true enlightenment is a deep soul awakening or you could even say, an an alien awareness stirs and peering into a human world, and smiles silently.

The ego is dead, you are no longer bound by your humanity. You are reborn, but since your birth was also a death or a slow transition from a limiting awareness into a new alien awareness you cannot really say when did I die? You simply or you suddenly realize you are awakened.

Since the human is dead, an enlightened being cannot tell you stories of how their life was full of sadness or suffering before their enlightenment, they can only remember the bliss of transition, a bliss that would have grown slowly after decades of effort, decades of detachment, disintegration, and transcendence.

The fake guru will tell you stories of their depression or unhappiness that transformed into enlightenment, this is the classic salesman pitch where you are walked from their past suffering or your suffering, and which only they can guide you towards freedom from this misery. The salesman takes you from the island of their pain and on a journey away from this pain which is also your pain, and towards the wonderful secret island of enlightenment which will free you from your own personal pain.

The promise is enlightenment without effort, without transformation. Can you imagine if say heaven was filled with all the people you now known, would it still be heaven or would it simply be a new human home.

Enlightenment is a Direction, Not a Goal

If enlightenment really is not for everyone, is it only for monks? I would argued that a monk has less chance of achieving enlightenment because religion stunts their growth, and ask yourself how many enlightened monks are their? If being a monk was the key to enlightenment then most monks would become enlightened. But this is not the case and in fact the opposite is the case, most religions are formed around an enlightened individual.

However, whether you’re a monk or a layperson enlightenment is extremely rare.

When this truth becomes clear about how elusive and rare full enlightenment is, many people feel discouraged, frustrated, or demotivated. The amount of effort involved is so great, and the time requirements are so considerable, that many conclude that “enlightenment is not for them; since they could never practice like past enlightened masters”.

All of these issues come up when we think of enlightenment as an inflexible goal, but these problems can also disappear the moment we make a small adjustment in our mindset.

What is this adjustment? To look at enlightenment as a direction, rather than an end goal.

A goal is not always meant to be reached. It often serves simply as something to aim at.– Bruce Lee.

This attitude also avoids the following problems: (a) feeling that you are not good enough, or worthy; (b) feeling frustrated with the slowness of your progress or the size of the road ahead; (c) wanting to give up; (d) watering down the original concept of enlightenment.

Once you regard enlightenment as a direction, your journey is much gentler, and much less attached to the ideal. You are able to better enjoy the journey itself, without anxiety, and grow towards liberation in a more organic way. It also becomes less likely that your spiritual search will negatively interfere with other aspects of your life or that you will fall victim to the fake guru.

Putting Things in Perspective

In many religious traditions, spiritual teachings are quite rigid and lock the ego/mind into an idealistic path, you could even call this an algorithmic loop that has a sequence of instructions that are continually repeated until a certain condition is reached. But since enlightenment is so rare and elevated, this idealistic loop also becomes a hindrance.

There are likely a thousand significant milestones that can be experienced before full enlightenment, and many of these are life-changing. Acknowledging these “mini-emotional and intellectual realizations” can help keep the seeker motivated and on track, but by locking yourself into an idealistic belief, worshiping a guru or following any single religion, you are also locking out any possible random developments, and have effectively blocked your own evolution.

The wild yogis, ascetics and past masters that we may compare ourselves to were free from idealistic and religious constraints. But are they a random evolutionary development, or does enlightenment need to be free from a restricted reality so that we can finally see “THE TRUE NATURE OF REALITY”. Many of us are encumbered by our own ideals and beliefs, we are serious amateurs, but very few of us are willing to practice like those masters.

And while very few people are ready to put in the effort and sacrifice to become enlightened, most people can benefit from putting in some effort and arriving at a point of mental freedom. For the great majority of seekers, going from emotional turmoil to a more blissful, more focused, and more meaningful life is reward enough.

Hope this shines a light on the whole enlightenment story, and I encourage you to explore and lean about yourself and to continue meditating, and if you have the time then let me know in the comments about your understanding of enlightenment.

Letter of Support

Hello my friends, the patronage of regular followers is greatly appreciated and is the true spirit of mutual self-love… So, if you find any value or joy in the content, please consider becoming a Supporting Patron by downloading Podcasts for a small supporter’s remuneration or by purchasing Meditation audios or books from the Books & Meditation Audios page or by clicking the Supporters Link, and this one simple act makes a huge difference.

👍 share and Stay safe.

▶️ PODCAST Version

       

Related posts: