Gaia: The Fire From Within

Re: Dreaming

http://mati.gaia.com — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:11:01 GMT

Don! Thanks! The exact link doesn't work, but its a great site - its going up on EnlightenLinks at once!

I'll be investigating this for a while I think...!

Re: Carlos Castaneda Introduction

http://mati.gaia.com — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:11:03 GMT

Greetings!

Well, personally I have a lot of tonal stuff to do, but I often check in to see if there has been any activity ... Which is not very often though :)

But post a good topic! Lets fire it up a bit! ;)

I would if I didn't have so much work at the university.

Oneness,
Evo

ps. I did see your post some time ago, but then I didn't have the time to answer. :-/

Re: Carlos Castaneda Introduction

http://mandrill.gaia.com — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:10:30 GMT

Hello everyone. I hope you all have not run off - seems like awhile since posts were made here.

I would agree that the details of CC's life are not as important as his works .. those speak for themselves, whatever their ultimate source. I have to say that the books, particular the section on petty tyrants, saved my life once upon a time. For that I will always be grateful to him.

I've read many other works before and since, and, though I find similar threads in many places, no one has presented it in a way that has touched me so much as Castaneda. It is my personal preference, perhaps, but I tend to think of the world very much in his terms.

Good to meet you all!

Re: Carlos Castaneda Introduction

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:10:41 GMT

Conversario can go in any direction we choose... choice is the point. No kill, just opportunity..... There is always inquiry.

Re: Carlos Castaneda Introduction

http://mati.gaia.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:26:19 GMT

DonBear, as always your reply is pleasantly clarifying - which is great, though it kills the threads! ;-)
I can only agree with you... You left me without a single inquiry. :-)

Oneness,
Evo

Dreaming

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:47:59 GMT

It's always great to find the source of CC's ideas. Here is another one...... Tibetan Dream Practice... Remember finding your hands? This is the stuff behind it and the tradition that goes back hundreds of years.

http://www.plotinus.com/zhine_tibetan_dream_yoga.htm

Enjoy the read.

Re: Carlos Castaneda Introduction

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:20:25 GMT

Interesting question. As my partner notes, read between the lines, the energy tells the real story. And story it is. If I were to say who was Don Juan, a man that Carlos did work with called Don Black Crow a mexican shaman, peyoteist... and yet there was more.

I have managed with luck and spirit to meet a similar person who told me that when elders know their talent well and practice their art, they connect with others who practice theirs... so there is community among shaman, often secret.   He told me that he was the last of his generation to be around and it was up to the next to unravel the stories and apply them to living. But he also told me of his community of spiritual warriors that worked together to serve the people and to find and open lines to freedom and awareness. He always taught through story, though not necessarily always truthful ones.

So did Vincente, Genaro, Silvio and all the witches exist, absolutely... In fact old Florinda's house was intense in Mexico, but she was long gone.   What is interesting is most people are not aware that associations of knowledge and power have happened across all cultures. There are always circles of knowledge and associations of awareness even if they don't know it as it is occuring. Before CC's work most Americans thought that the there was not a lot of intellectual knowledge and sharing occuring in Mexico. But in reality there has been for thousands of years.

Whether CC invented carlos as the perfect seeker who had experiences and through these, CC was able to share incredible stories of power or whether CC is carlos is not really all that critical.

The key to the conundrum comes as the buddha said, "follow the dharma, not me. " Try it out, gaze, get a boost from the earth, feel the rolling force, stalk, commit to being a warrior, step into Intent, and dream....I would not recommend jumping off a cliff unless you are completely in dream body, where flying is much easier with less disasterous results (take care of the physical it will care for you) ....... but most important, recapitulate the possessive story so it becomes a story of power.  With this technique the magic is every day and everywhere.

MEanwhile it is always fun to find the sources which CC used. When I run into direct quotes lifted from other works, lines of thought or revelations, I say, "Wow that Casteneda was brilliant!"

Elders all over the world tell stories, they are there to teach us about the universe and its workings. What we do with the stories and how we live a life of heart is more interesting than if the story in and of itself is true. Millions of years of stories, only in the last 100 or so have we worried if they are actually true in a scientific sense.... but that was never the point. We so often get lost in the finger when the elders are pointing at the moon.

It is sad that the followers of CC were such extremests. And then there is the morbid obsessions of a man gone mad with his own story... the end is rarely as interesting as the stories we tell ourselves.    Maybe he lept into the abyss, Don Black Crow lived for 20 years more than CC's association recorded in the first two books.

CC rocks, and that cannot be denied. But no one who understands him gives a fig about whether the stories of power are actually factually true.

Donbear

Re: Carlos Castaneda Introduction

http://mati.gaia.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:38:53 GMT

Greetings...

Thank you for posting everyone!

DonBear, how much of the works of the Carlos are fictitious in your opinion? I have seen a BBC documentary where the Carlos, his linage and his works were... well ridiculed, basically. His linage was regarded almost as a suicide cult. After watching it, it became obvious that the people behind the film haven't read - maybe not even a single book of Castaneda.

I mean, for me there is no doubt about the authenticity of the shaman's world view / the teachings of Don Juan. And besides, it really doesn't matter weather his story is authentic or not (though I must believe it is), the coherence of the teachings is impeccable.

This is not theory or religion. Its simply a way of looking at the world. And it starts by recognizing the simple fact that the word is not the thing in itself (what it is). The mere acknowledgment of this fact, that everything we can think of or utter about the world is a description - and can thus never be exact - and this description is then what we act upon, should be enough to start an avalanche of questions. Questions that will eventually lead one to the truth - that there is no spoon :-)

Tell me what you think!

Oneness,
Evo

Invisibility and Energetic Efficiency

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:27:21 GMT

The Castaneda teachings talk a lot about energetic efficiency, the result of disciplined recapitulation and stalking with utter intent. After years and years of recapitulation and cleaning/clearing the energetic links and just generally functioning through pure intent it seems that significant invisibility has claimed my reality. At first this bothered me; people would steal my ideas and put them into play right in front of me as though my very existence was null and void. In years past, my ego fought for the recognition, my anger would mount and my husband would reassure me that the "nagual" is never noticed, could come and go like the wind, is invisible, catalyzes change behind the scenes etc., etc. This is different though, it isn't a book, a "story", this is my life.

Now, the joy of utter invisibility and lack of "recognition" for so many things is basically confirmation of the personal freedom that has been so ardently and passionately sought after. How incredibly amazing to me, to be standing in the center of a room and no one knows you are there. To be able to truly move in and out like the wind, a mere whisper in the midst of chaos. To really be the observer, the "double", within your own reality, simply watching an unfolding that if, held onto could potentially compromise total freedom while at the same time allowing those participating within it to process, albeit unwittingly, the potential to get closer to their own freedom.

I am already given to the power that rules my fate...

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:03:18 GMT

"I am already given to the power that rules my fate. And I cling to nothing, so I will have nothing to defend. I have no thoughts, so I will see. I fear nothing, so I will remember myself. Detached and at ease, I will dart past the Eagle to be free."
~The Eagle's Gift

Re: Carlos Castaneda Introduction

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:28:59 GMT

If we choose to believe the carlos and what he constructed about his life, this is true, but there are so many other stories especially about him. Don't get lost in the "carlos in search of the Carlos" and miss seeing clearly his constructed story from across the myriad of bands of awareness. He was an artist of pulling many lines together and calling them his own. The story is not as important as the experience. Experience it... practice it.... there is the revelation.

Donbear

Intent, the indescribable, the spirit, the abstract, the nagual..

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:24:53 GMT

"The only way to know intent is to know it directly through a living connection that exists between intent and all sentient beings. Sorcerers call intent the indescribable, the spirit, the abstract, the nagual."

- from The Power Of Silence

Impaccability leads to the full potential...

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:22:11 GMT

"All that is required is impeccability, energy, and that begins with a single act that has to be deliberate, precise, and sustained. If that act is repeated long enough, one acquires a sense of unbending intent, which can be applied to anything else. If that is accomplished, the road is clear. One thing will lead to another until the warrior realizes his full potential."

- from The Fire From Within

Entering into othe realms...

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:18:08 GMT

"Don Juan contended that our world, which we believe to be unique and absolute, is only one in a cluster of consecutive worlds, arranged like the layers of an onion. He asserted that even though we have been energetically conditioned to perceive solely our world, we still have the capability of entering into those other realms, which are as real, unique, absolute, and engulfing as our own world is."

- from The Art Of Dreaming

The internal dialogue is the key...

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:12:56 GMT

"The crux of sorcery is the internal dialogue; that is the key to everything. When a warrior learns to stop it, everything becomes possible; the most farfetched schemes become attainable."

- from Tales Of Power

The fight in the chest...

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:03:53 GMT

"It doesn't matter what anybody says or does. You must be an impeccable man yourself. The fight is right here in this chest. It takes all the time and all the energy we have to conquer the idiocy in us. And that's what matters. The rest is of no importance. To be an impeccable warrior will give you vigor and youth and power. So, it is proper for you to choose wisely."

- from The Second Ring Of Power

The warrior's affection...

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:59:44 GMT

"The life of a warrior cannot possibly be cold and lonely and
without feelings because it is based on his affection, his devotion,
his dedication to his beloved. And who, you may ask, is his
beloved? This earth, this world. For a warrior there can be no
greater love."

- from Tales Of Power

Like a horse with blinders...

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:57:21 GMT

"The world around us is very mysterious. It doesn't yield its secrets easily. As long as you feel that you are the most important thing in the world you cannot really appreciate the world around you. You are like a horse with blinders, all you see is yourself apart from everything else."

- from Journey To Ixtlan

El ensueño...

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:55:00 GMT

"Don Juan Matus explained their classificatory schemes of two types of dreams by using a Spanish word to depict each state. Ordinary dreams he called sueños. Dreams with energy-generating elements, he called ensueños. Dreams which had energy-generating elements were, for those shamans, dreams in which they were capable of seeing energy as it flowed in the universe."

- from Magical Passes

Death, the wise adviser...

http://mati.gaia.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:52:04 GMT

"Death is the only wise adviser that we have. Whenever you feel that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you're wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.'"

- from Journey To Ixtlan