Carlos Castaneda & 3 facets of Toltec knowledge

Carlos Castaneda was apprentice to a Mexican Indian 'sorcerer' named don Juan. Under his guidance and also his disciples, Castaneda evolved to heighten his awareness and uncover unlimited courage which led him to accept total freedom. What does this mean?

Specific tutelage led Castaneda to obliterate all rational fears and consciously jump from atop a flat mountain into an abyss. Trust and tremendous discipline led to this incomprehsible act. Perceptual teachings shifted his mental states, perception and focus.

Ten years later, Castenada recollected the process of learning at different levels of awareness. His 'right side' knew don Juan as a sorcerer. Castaneda's 'left side' knew his teacher as Toltec seer and nagual who taught him to bring his mind to focus on anything with uncommon force and clarity. As such heightened awareness isn't susceptible to normal recall, it required staggering effort to recover facets of ancient knowledge:

1)  Mastery of Awareness- the Toltec way reveals each human being has capacity to enlarge the perceptual field. We can evolve to where we can assess not only the external appearances, but also the essence of everything. Discerning energy assemblage points is key. You become minimally conscious of surroundings and shift total focus elsewhere.

2) Mastery of Stalking- the Toltec way explains the act of moving the assemblage point as steadily and as safely as possible. It is the method of imprinting principles at such a deep level of consciousness that human conditioning is bypassed. Natural reactions of refusing and judging suddenly appear offensive to reason.

3) Mastery of Intent- the Toltec way is learning to break the barriers of self-created perception. By intending a new position of assemblage point, and by intending to keep it fixed long enough, you will assemble another world and escape the one you knew. This shapes changes in visibility, physical, mental and other states.

Comments

[mergingpoint]

Awareness--a master key to many doors!

[rainer]

Dear liara,

to my humble opinion Carlos Castaneda was of the type of mysterious man. He was never a nagual as he maintained and all his stories make perfect sense if you assume that for one moment. The people whom he met let him view into a mirror. They told him lies and told him the truth in a mix that were intended to open his eyes about his own behaviour. I bet he never got that.

All the riddles he couldn't understand; his desire to be the nagual, his efforts to put everything in a system and a structure, to put everyone and everybody under his command. His misunderstanding of the meaning of women and, and, and...

Castaneda leaves us all with the same question that every mysterious man leaves his fellows. What do I want? Believe Castaneda and you follow a road of misunderstandings and half truths. Follow yourself and you find out, that all things necessary will find its way to your personal path.

Nowadays, new followers do mental gymnastics with Carlos. Sad story.

[Liara Covert]

mergingpoint, Castaneda certainly does provoke new kinds of thinking about the nature of awareness. We each have potential to become masters of our own will and perception. What we choose to accept and reject determines who we are and where we go (or not).

[Liara Covert]

rainer, some names evoke strong positive or negative feelings in others. Castaneda seems to evoke both. The path of truth and knowledge invites us to reflect on and explore our view of the unknown. The "new seers' offer tools to get rid of pride, a sense of self-importance and other conditioning that prevents us from realizing impeccability. Whenever someone offers you information, you can choose whether or not to listen.

[Titania]

Hello Liara,
Though I have heard of this mystic I have never pursued in actaully reading anything about him. Your post has caught my attention. I would like to read more from a fresh perspective. Thank you for the info.

[Liara Covert]

Titania, Castaneda has written various books which invite readers on personal journeys to self-discovery. As with anything, you will get out of this experience what you choose.

[rainer]

Dear liara, have you met one of the new seers? It is not a question of listening or not listening. It is a question of understanding what someone presents to you.

If someone presents you his own bag of problems without reflecting on them, you wouldn't call that a great accomplishment nor would you recommend that bag to the people you appreciate.

[Liara Covert]

rainer, you can choose to accept or reject what you read or hear about. The truth as you know it arises through experience. Even then, you may not believe your senses. What you believe or not is your choice. No idea is ever imposed on you. If you believe you encounter a "seer," then you do unless you choose to believe otherwise. What you encounter is less meaningful than what you choose to learn and re-apply from a given experience.

[vince]

rainer, everyone has their own beliefs about life and since this is free it is the best way for people to test it out. If they like something, they will choose to stick with it. Stop trying to prevent people from finding something interesting.

[Liara Covert]

vince, you make a valid point. Each of us is offered many choices about what we could experience and believe (or not). No person can prevent you from exploring ideas and opportunities but yourself. A useful analogy is the idea of intimidation. No person ever really intimidates you. You permit another person to evoke fear in you or hold you back. Why give into your own fear? You can always choose to ignore fear, ego and opinions.

[Ramon Venado]

Carlos for me is in the same catagory as "Peter and the Wolf". I don't have enough time in my lifetime to decipher what is true or false in his stories of Don Juan. What a waste of time and effort simply so he could be recognized for something. We live in times where we can only seek through our own direct relationship with nature some of the truth. None of this can be found in a book or in a workshop. Carlos teaches us not to look to others for our path. My path is called the Sun-Earth Way. I encourage you to find your truth. Leave the writers to their fantasies and quests for recognition. Keep it simple and the truth will unfold as you mature. Best of Luck........

[Liara Covert]

Ramon, your insights are appreciated. It is said the truth is only ever felt and grasped through one's own experience. Words are not required to express what is taken in through internal senses. Nonetheless, it can be helpful for people to learn of paths and perspectives that differ from their own. Each person is responsible for breaking down self-created illusions. An ally or guide invites you to step outside of false boundaries you imagine for yourself.

[Anonymous]

It is the personal power that rules who is going to get anything from the Castaneda's books. (as Don Juan noted when Castaneda asked him if he could publish the books). If you have any personal power, you will understand the books and they will talk to you. If you do not have any, it will be a bunch of nonsense and you will do anything to deny them. I would compare it to a math books. If you have great knowledge of math and come to a book that has complicated equations in it, you will enjoy it and will learn from it. If you know nothing about math, you will deny the book as non-sense.

Regarding his apprenticeship :
Yaqi - it does not really matter if Don Juan was Yaqi or not. I believe he could be Yaqi and be sorcerer even though there is no anthropological evidence of sorcery among the Yaqis. It could be due to the secrecy of the teachings. Or Don Juan did not have to be Yaqi at all - they just pick Yaqis not to point directly to Don Juan's history.

Regarding Castaneda's so called "cult' he created:
All the speculation is based on the book of Amy Wallace. It is presumed Carlos was a womanizer. Even Don Juan was joking about it. Interesting all of these speculations appeared after his death, not during his life. I would not be surprised if Castaneda actually directed Amy to write such book after his death. And then of course there is Robert De Mille who completely denies Castaneda's books. I truly appreciate his critique - he was actually one of few who challenged Castaneda's books during his 'fame' years. However, I do not buy Robert de Mille's arguments. First of all, he is , I believe, doctor of psychology, He might be jealous of another way of looking at mind then through the eyes of psychology.(and unexplainable way). He argues about time and place entries in Castaneda's work - sorcery is so crazy that time and places might be completely distorted. Try to ask Harry Potter :-).

Also, I think Castaneda was a bad student. He just did not get it. And when Don Juan left and he was left with his seers, Carlos did not know what to do. I think he has never assumed full responsibility for what has been thought to him. As a bad student, he might also be a bad teacher and leader (nagual) leading his seers nowhere.

In recent past years, we have been witnesses to similar bad leadership in the U.S. presidency .. :-) just to give you an example. The bright side is that the Toltec's teachings have been recorded and passed. It does not matter what Castaneda did with them . What matters is what you are going to do and get out of them. The Don Juan's lineage has not been broken, it has been passed through Castaneda's books. If you have some personal power, you may continue the lineage. Live your life, live your moment - be impeccable.

[Liara Covert]

Anonymous, your views are welcomed here. These insights invite readers to learn to trust their path and their own experiences more. Self-awareness is a process of awakening. As you imply, each person attracts Castaneda's books into his life based on mindset, attitude, curiosity and state of personal progress or deep resistance to truth. As one discerns underlying motivations and core reasons for generating emotions, then new stages are attained on the road to self-mastery. One only senses what one is consciously willing to accept.

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