Posts Tagged ‘acts’
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
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Now it's time for you to become accessible to power, and you are going to begin by tackling dreaming. A warrior seeks power, and one of the avenues to power is dreaming. What you call dreams are real for a warrior. Dreaming is real for a warrior because in it he can act deliberately, he can choose and reject, he can select from a variety of items those which lead to power, and then he can manipulate them and use them, while in an ordinary dream he cannot act deliberately. In dreaming you have power; you can change things; you may find out countless concealed facts; you can control whatever you want. You're going to learn how to make yourself accessible to power.
Power is something a warrior deals with. At first it's an incredible, far-fetched affair; it is hard to even think about it. Then power becomes a serious matter; one may not have it, or one may not even fully realize that it exists, yet one knows that something is there, something which was not noticeable before. Next power is manifested as something uncontrollable that comes to oneself. It is not possible for me to say how it comes or what it really is. It is nothing and yet it makes marvels appear before your very eyes. And finally power is something in oneself, something that controls one's acts and yet obeys one's command.
I am going to teach you right here the first step to power. I am going to teach you how to set up dreaming. To set up dreaming means to have a concise and pragmatic control over the general situation of a dream, comparable to the control one has over any choice in the desert for instance, such as climbing up a hill or remaining in the shade of a water canyon. You must start by doing something very simple. Tonight in your dreams you must look at your hands.
Don't think it's a joke. Dreaming is as serious as seeing or dying or any other thing in this awesome, mysterious world. Think of it as something entertaining and don't get discouraged or stop trying if you don't succeed right away. Imagine all the inconceivable things you could accomplish. A man hunting for power has almost no limits in his dreaming. The trick in learning to set up dreaming is obviously not just to look at things but to sustain the sight of them. Dreaming is real when one has succeeded in bringing everything into focus. Then there is no difference between what you do when you sleep and what you do when you are not sleeping.
A warrior has to be perfect in order to deal with the powers he hunts. Look at your hands. When they begin to change shape you must move your sight away from them and pick something else, and then look at your hands again. It takes a long time to perfect this technique.
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Tags: accessible, acts, astral projection, avenues, desert, dream, dreaming, entertaining, far-fetched affair, general situation, hunting, hunts, inconceivable things, incredible, joke, long time, look at your hands, lucid dream, lucid dreaming, lucid dreams, marvels, mysterious world, next power, ordinary dream, perfect, pragmatic control, right away, set, setting up dreaming, shade, step, trick, warrior, warrior deals, water canyon
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Thursday, April 8th, 2010
By now there is no way for you to recollect the immense effort that you needed to establish self-pity as a feature of your island. Self-pity bore witness to everything you did. It was just at your fingertips, ready to advise you. Death is considered by a warrior to be a more amenable adviser, which can also be brought to bear witness on everything one does, just like self-pity, or wrath. Obviously, after an untold struggle you have learned to feel sorry for yourself. But you can also learn, in the same way, to feel your impending end, and thus you can learn to have the idea of your death at your fingertips. As an adviser, self-pity is nothing in comparison to death.
There is seemingly a contradiction in the idea of change; on the one hand, the sorcerers' world calls for a drastic transformation, and on the other, the sorcerers' explanation says that the island of the tonal is complete and not a single element of it can be removed. Change, then, does not mean obliterating anything but rather altering the use assigned to those elements.
Take self-pity for instance. There is no way to get rid of it for good; it has a definite place and character in your island, a definite façade which is recognizable. Thus, every time the occasion arises, self-pity becomes active. It has history. If you then change the façade of self-pity, you would have shifted its place of prominence.
One changes the façade by altering the use of the elements of the island. Take self-pity again. It is useful to you because you either feel important and deserving of better conditions, better treatment, or because you are unwilling to assume responsibility for the acts that brought you to the state that elicited self-pity, or because you are incapable of bringing the idea of your impending death to witness your acts and advise you.
Erasing personal history and its three companion techniques are the sorcerers' means for changing the façade of the elements of the island. For instance, by erasing your personal history, you deny use to self-pity; in order for self-pity to work you have to feel important, irresponsible, and immortal. When those feelings are altered in some way, it is no longer possible for you to feel sorry for yourself.
Your self-pity will still be a feature of your island; it will be there in the back in the same way that the idea of your impending death, or your humbleness, or your responsibility for your acts has been there, without ever being used. Once all those techniques have been presented, the apprentice arrives at a crossroad. Depending on his sensibility, the apprentice does one of two things. He either takes the recommendations and suggestions made by his teacher at their face value, acting without expecting rewards; or he takes everything as a joke or an aberration.
If you use those four techniques to clear and reorder your island of the tonal they lead you to the nagual. Power provides according to your impeccability. If you seriously use those four techniques, you will store enough personal power, you will be impeccable, and power will open all the necessary avenues. That is the rule.
As I've told you, the tonal and the nagual are two different worlds. In one you talk, in the other you act. At first all of us secretly do not want the world of the nagual. We are afraid and have second thoughts. Our unbending intent and our impeccability gets us through that.
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Tags: acts, adviser, amenable adviser, apprentice, change, changing facades, companion, companion techniques, conditions, contradiction, definite façade, definite place, different worlds, drastic transformation, element, elements, explanation, façade, facades, face value, fingertips, human form, immense effort, impeccability, impending death, impending end, irresponsible, joke, nagual, necessary avenues, personal history, personal power, petty, power, prominence, recollect, self importance, self pity, sensibility, single element, sorry for yourself, struggle, the faade of selfpity, the facade of self pity, tonal, unbending intent, untold struggle, warrior, way of the warrior, witness, wrath, yourself
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Thursday, April 8th, 2010
One thing the average man holds onto is his personal history, and it is imperative for a warrior to erase it. A warrior doesn't need personal history. One day, he finds it is no longer necessary for him, and he drops it. Personal history must constantly be renewed by telling parents, relatives, and friends everything one does. On the other hand, for the warrior who has no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with his acts. And above all, no one pins him down with their thoughts and their expectations.
Shamans are vitally concerned with their past, but not their personal past. For shamans, their past is what other shamans in bygone days have accomplished. They consult their past in order to obtain a point of reference. Only shamans genuinely seek a point of reference in their past. For them, establishing a point of reference means a chance to examine intent. Never dwell on past events except in reference. It is not advisable for you to indulge in focusing your attention on past events. We may touch on them, but only in reference. To emphasize them would mean to take away from the importance of what's taking place now. A warrior cannot possibly afford to do that. The average man also examines the past. But it's his personal past he examines, for personal reasons. He measures himself against the past, whether his personal past or the past knowledge of his time, in order to find justifications for his present or future behaviour, or to establish a model for himself.
I have no routines or personal history. One day I found out that they were no longer necessary for me and, like drinking, I dropped them. One must have the desire to drop them and then one must proceed harmoniously to chop them off, little by little. If you have no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with your acts. And above all no one pins you down with their thoughts. It is best to erase all personal history because that makes us free from the encumbering thoughts of other people. I have, little by little, created a fog around me and my life. And now nobody knows for sure who I am or what I do. Not even I. How can I know who I am, when I am all this?
Little by little you must create a fog around yourself; you must erase everything around you until nothing can be taken for granted, until nothing is any longer for sure, or real. Your problem now is that you're too real. Your endeavors are too real; your moods are too real. Don't take things so for granted. You must begin to erase yourself. You've said that you want to learn about plants. Let's put it this way then. If you want to learn about plants, since there is really nothing to say about them, you must, among other things, erase your personal history.
Begin with simple things, such as not revealing what you really do. What's wrong is that once people know you, you are an affair taken for granted and from that moment on you won't be able to break the tie of their thoughts. I personally like the ultimate freedom of being unknown. No one knows me with steadfast certainty, the way people know you, for instance.
From now on you must simply show people whatever you care to show them, but without ever telling exactly how you've done it. You see, we only have two alternatives; we either take everything for sure and real, or we don't. If we follow the first, we end up bored to death with ourselves and with the world. If we follow the second and erase personal history, we create a fog around us, a very exciting and mysterious state in which nobody knows where the rabbit will pop out, not even ourselves. When nothing is for sure we remain alert, perennially on our toes. It is more exciting not to know which bush the rabbit is hiding behind than to behave as though we know everything.
In order to help his ward to erase personal history, the warrior as a teacher teaches three techniques: losing self-importance, using death as an adviser, and assuming responsibility for one's acts. Without the beneficial effect of these three techniques, erasing personal history would involve being shifty, evasive and unnecessarily dubious about oneself and one's actions.
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Tags: acts, alternatives, average man, beneficial effect, bygone, bygone days, chop, consult, desire, dubious, erase personal history, erasing personal history, exciting, explanations, focusing, future behaviour, history, justifications, letting go, letting go of the past, losing self importance, model, mysterious state, no one knows, parents, past events, past knowledge, personal freedom, personal history, personal past, personal reasons, pins, point of reference, rabbit, relatives, self importance, shamans, simple things, steadfast certainty, thoughts, ultimate freedom, warrior, yourself
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Thursday, April 8th, 2010
I am going to teach you the secrets that make up the path of knowledge. You will have to make a very deep commitment because this training is long and arduous. But you will learn in spite of yourself; that is the rule.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it. When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisites, there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.
In order to follow the path of knowledge, one has to be very imaginative. On the path of knowledge, nothing is as clear as we'd like it to be. Nothing in this world is a gift, whatever has to be learned must be learned the hard way. Every time a man sets himself to learn, he has to labour as hard as anyone can, and the limits of his learning are determined by his own nature. Thus I see no point in talking about knowledge. Certain kinds of knowledge are too powerful for the strength you have, and to talk about them would only bring harm to you.
Fear of knowledge is natural; all of us experience it, and there is nothing we can do about it. This is because this knowledge is by definition 'unknown' to us before we learn it. The only viable answer is to learn to love the unknown. But on the other hand, no matter how frightening learning is, it is more terrible to think of a man without an ally or without knowledge. Man lives only to learn. And if he learns it is because that is the nature of his lot, for good or bad.
A warrior seeks knowledge that is useful now or that he knows will be useful later. The power of knowledge lies in its selection according to its usefulness. For what is the sense of knowing things that are useless? They will not prepare us for our unavoidable encounter with the unknown. Knowledge is frightening, but if a warrior accepts the frightening nature of knowledge he cancels out its awesomeness. Knowledge is a most peculiar affair, especially for a warrior. Knowledge for a warrior is something that comes at once, engulfs him, and passes on. Knowledge comes to a warrior, floating, like specks of gold dust, the same dust that covers the wings of moths. So for a warrior, knowledge is like taking a shower, or being rained on by specks of dark gold dust.
The path of knowledge is a forced one. In order to learn we must be spurred, and in the absence of someone to spur us we must spur ourselves. In the path of knowledge we are always fighting something, avoiding something, preparing for something; and that something is always inexplicable, greater, more powerful than us. The inexplicable forces will come to you. Later on it'll be your own ally, so there is nothing you can do now but to prepare yourself for the struggle.
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Tags: absolute assurance, acts, ally, arduous, assurance, cancels, certain kinds, conditions, dark gold dust, deep commitment, experience, fear, fool, frightening nature, gift, going to war, gold dust, hard way, imaginative, inexplicable forces, knowledge, labour, learning, man of knowledge, mistake, moths, natural, nothing in this world, path of knowledge, path of learning, peculiar affair, regrets, requisites, selection, spite, spur, the path of knowledge, training, unavoidable encounter, useful, useless, viable answer, warrior, yourself
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Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Change! If you do not respond to that challenge you are as good as dead. You have never taken the responsibility for being in this unfathomable world. Therefore, you were never an artist, and perhaps you'll never be a hunter. There is one simple thing wrong with you - you think you have plenty of time. You think your life is going to last forever. The countless paths one traverses in one's life are all equal. Oppressors and oppressed meet at the end, and the only thing that prevails is that life was altogether too short for both.
How often are you vehemently asserting some non-sense? You don't have time for this display. This, whatever you're doing now, may be your last act on earth. It may very well be your last battle. There is no power which could guarantee that you are going to live one more minute. If this were your last battle on earth, I would say that you are an idiot. You are wasting your last act on earth in some stupid mood.
You have no time, my friend, no time. None of us have time. Don't just agree with me. Act upon it. What I recommend you to do is to notice that we do not have any assurance that our lives will go on indefinitely. Change comes suddenly and unexpectedly, and so does death. There are some people who are very careful about the nature of their acts. Their happiness is to act with the full knowledge that they don't have time; therefore, their acts have a peculiar power.
Acts have power. Especially when the person acting knows that those acts are his last battle. There is a strange consuming happiness in acting with the full knowledge that whatever one is doing may very well be one's last act on earth. I recommend that you reconsider your life and bring your acts into that light.
You don't have time my friend. That is the misfortune of human beings. None of us have sufficient time. Your acts cannot possibly have the flair, the power, the compelling force of the acts performed by a man who knows that he is fighting his last battle on earth.
We are all going to die. There is something out there waiting for me, for sure; and I will join it, also for sure. Use it. Focus your attention on the link between you and your death, without remorse or sadness or worrying. Focus your attention on the fact you don't have time and let your acts flow accordingly. Let each of your acts be your last battle on earth. Only under those conditions will your acts have their rightful power.
Otherwise they will be, for as long as you live, the acts of a timid man. There is no time for timidity, simply because timidity makes you cling to something that exists only in your thoughts. It soothes you while everything is at a lull, but then the awesome, mysterious world will open its mouth for you, as it will open for every one of us, and then you will realize that your sure ways were not sure at all. Being timid prevents us from examining and exploiting our lot as men.
A warrior-hunter knows that his death is waiting, and the very act he is performing now may well be his last battle on earth. I call it a battle because it is a struggle. Most people move from act to act without any struggle or thought. A hunter, on the contrary, assesses every act; and since he has an intimate knowledge of his death, he proceeds judiciously, as if every act were his last battle. Only a fool would fail to notice the advantage a hunter has over his fellow men. A hunter gives his last battle its due respect. It's only natural that his last act on earth should be the best of himself. It's pleasurable that way. It dulls the edge of his fright.
A warrior is only a man, a humble man. He cannot change the designs of his death. But his impeccable spirit, which has stored power after stupendous hardships, can certainly hold his death for a moment, a moment long enough to let him rejoice for the last time in recalling his power. We may say that that is a gesture which death has with those who have an impeccable spirit.
A warrior dies the hard way. His death must struggle to take him. A warrior does not give himself to death so easily. The spirit of the warrior is not geared to indulging and complaining, nor is it geared to winning or losing. The spirit of a warrior is geared only to struggle, and every struggle is a warrior's last battle on earth. Thus the outcome matters very little to him. In his last battle on earth a warrior lets his spirit flow free and clear. And as he wages his battle, knowing that his intent is impeccable, a warrior laughs and laughs.
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Tags: acting, acts, artist, change, compelling force, conditions, countless paths, death, fellow men, flair, fool, geared, gesture, happiness, hard way, human beings, humble man, hunter, idiot, impeccable, impeccable spirit, intimate knowledge, knowledge, last act, last battle, last battle on earth, link, misfortune, most people, mysterious world, natural, non-sense, oppressors, peculiar power, pleasurable, power, rightful power, simple thing, spirit flow, strange consuming happiness, struggle, stupendous hardships, stupid mood, sufficient time, sure ways, the spirit, thought, thoughts, time, timid man, timid prevents, timidity, traverses, unfathomable world, wages, warrior, warrior laughs, wasting, worrying, your last battle is now
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