Synchronicity Within the Illusion

We live in illusion, the appearance of things, but there is a reality and we are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That’s all there is. – Kalu Rinpoche

The past week has been so powerful in so many ways. With a full moon last Monday leading up to the fall equinox the energy that percolated was invigorating as well as mentally stimulating. As the harvest comes to fruition and the leaves change color and fall from the tree, the fall equinox represents the beginning of new cycle.

This fall equinox provides us with the opportunity to honor all of life’s experiences from the past year. To release them with humility and gratitude and to become empty, once again, so that balance and harmony may enter in to hold the fertile space for the seeds of greater vision to grow. While we sit in the darkness of shorter days and longer nights, we are preparing for the birth of light within, illumination, which occurs on the winter solstice as the light returns to lengthen the day and shorten the night. We are in sync with the cycles of the earth.

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Just Breathe

The most important thing of all is to be in the breath. When we connect to the creative center within ourselves, we kindle our connection with spirit and then with authenticity and originality we are able to walk that pure consciousness into the world.

Being in the breath allows us to shift our attention and open our ability to perceive in new ways. Being in the breath ushers in the ability to accomplish something new and moves us beyond the habitual fixations that may prevent us from seeing beyond the world as we have come to know it. We are capable of shifting our attention through a number of modalities, each person needing to dedicate some time in discovering which method may work best for him/her. For some it may be dancing, or sitting on the earth in silence, or swimming in the ocean, or meditating, or traveling to a place for the first time. There are a number of things through which we can shift our attention and what works for one may not work for another. The point is to allow yourself to find what works for you in order to do something different, something outside of your comfort zone while holding the intention of exploring all possibility and potential that lies dormant or obstructed within you.

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Mastery: Preparation for the Definitive Journey

A level of practical knowledge was included as part of teaching the mastery of awareness. On that practical level don Juan taught the procedures necessary to move the assemblage point. The two great systems devised by the sorcerer seers of ancient times to accomplish this were: dreaming, the control and utilization of dreams; and stalking, the control of behavior. ~ Carlos Castaneda,  The Power of Silence

Warriors know that it is necessary to modify the foundation of our perception from that of reason to that of the abstract; the ultimate foundation of a warrior’s perception rests on the certainty that energy is all there is.

When a warrior makes a commitment to total freedom the only thing that is required is to hone their mastery. Mastery of dreaming and mastery of stalking. Warriors know that they need energy in order to face the unknown and when arriving at the point of facing the pure abstract they must be impeccable.  If they are not, they will not dart past the eagle and will, instead, remain caught within the emanations that recycles them back into the karmic loop of reincarnation.

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The Knock of the Spirit

He reminded me of something he had told me often: that volunteers were not welcome in the sorcerers’ world, because they already had a purpose of their own, which made it particularly hard for them to relinquish their individuality. If the sorcerers’ world demanded ideas and actions contrary to the volunteers’ purpose, the volunteers simply refused to change. ~ Carlos Castaneda, The Power of Silence

As a warrior of freedom for many years, it seemed to me that anyone had the ability to become one, just as one might choose to become a Buddhist, and it would often frustrate me to find that people would not choose to walk this path of knowledge and awareness above all others.

Committed to walking my path and maturing as a seer has brought to know that there truly are no volunteers on the path of sorcery. I blogged about this a little over a year ago in my post Volunteers in the Sorcerer’s World and since then I have come to an even greater understanding of what this means.

Others have incorporated components of sorcery into their writings and works that are grounded in a salvationism framework that many refer to as the Toltec Path. This is not a bad thing because so many people are walking the world in which their volunteer’s purpose can be or is instrumental in this manner and as a result, people are indeed evolving and even releasing the stories that keep them in an endless cycle of samsara and suffering. Evolution for ordinary man is slow and if people choose to walk in such a way as to fulfill their life’s purpose, all we can do is be a witness to their path as it unfolds.

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The Mastery of Stalking

The very first principle of stalking is that a warrior stalks himself, don Juan said. He stalks himself ruthlessly, cunningly, patiently, and sweetly. There are four steps to learning it: Ruthlessness should not be harshness, cunning should not be cruelty, patience should not be negligence, and sweetness should not be foolishness. These four steps have to be practiced and perfected until they are so smooth they are unnoticeable. ~ Carlos Castaneda, The Power of Silence

All warriors who are interested in strengthening their link with intent must practice this. Stalking is not limited to those with a predilection of stalking, it is applicable to dreamers as well. Don Juan said, A warrior needs focus. Heightened awareness is like a springboard. From it one could jump into infinity. He stressed, over and over, that when the assemblage point was dislodged, it either became lodged again at a position very near its customary one or continued moving on into infinity.

As committed warriors we must diligently stalk the dream into infinity. When Silvio Manual screamed Intent!! Intent!! Intent!! he was able to move himself and others into a state of heightened awareness; to open the portal of intent. This was not because he screamed the words, anyone can scream the words. It was because he had become a master of stalking and intent and could move his assemblage point at will. Continue reading

Knowledge and Language are Separate

The nagual Elias used to tell me that the whole of humanity has moved away from the abstract, although at one time we must have been close to it. It must have been our sustaining force. And then something happened and pulled us away from the abstract. Now we can’t get back to it. He used to say that it takes years for an apprentice to be able to go back to the abstract, that is, to know that knowledge and language can exist independent of each other. ~ Don Juan, The Power of Silence

Don Juan goes on to tell Carlos, knowledge and language are separate; for a sorcerer an abstract is something with no parallel in the human condition. Sorcerers meet the abstract without thinking about it or seeing it or touching it or feeling its presence.

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When the Battles Have Ended

On the cosmic scale, the strength of a being is not measured by its physical capability, but by its capacity to manipulate awareness. It follows that if we are to take the next evolutionary step, it must be done by means of discipline, determination, and strategy. Those are our weapons. In order to manipulate and understand the emanations which arrive to our senses, sorcerers develop the power of their attention, sharpening it through discipline to exquisite levels, which allow them to transcend human limitations and to fulfill all the possibilities of perception. Their concentration is so intense that they can penetrate the thick armor of appearances, and expose the essence of things. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters with the Nagual

Recapitulation Complete? Check.

Mold of Man Broken? Check.

Personal History Erased? Check.

Death as an Advisor? Check.

Predator Defeated? Check.

It seemed impossible. Diligently walking the path of the warrior towards total freedom while being constantly mindful to use what Carlos referred to as the weapons of discipline, determination and strategy has had its payoffs. It seemed an arduous task, and it was; breaking the patterns, unplugging from the man-made matrix, experiencing the Toltec mysteries, traveling throughout Mexico, taking the journeys, abstract flights, meeting other warriors, writing, writing, and writing.

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Awareness, Intent, Evolution

The grand task of seers is to bring forth the idea that, in order to evolve, man must first free his awareness from its bindings to the social order. Once awareness is free, intent will redirect it onto a new evolutionary path. ~ Don Juan, The Art of Dreaming

Once awareness is free, intent will redirect it onto a new evolutionary path. What does this mean for the warrior? To free awareness one must recapitulate, erase personal history and allow for the assemblage point (AP) to shift significantly. When the AP shifts the warrior is able to perceive in a different way, free from the impositions of a long line of stories that had been conveyed as the right or only way to live for a very long time. Think about it. If you ever watch any history shows you will recognize the patterns that have been maintained and perpetuated from generation to generation.

Once awareness is free… no longer bound to the social order, you are free to perceive energy directly. Perceiving energy directly becomes different when you no longer attempt to define, label and compare every single experience as it unfolds. This act of perceiving is alignment with intent, to be in the ultimate flow of knowing that things are the way they are for a reason that lies beyond our ability to attempt to control or change it. This is not to say that warriors should not take responsibility for their actions; what it means is that we can only be observers, witnesses to an indescribable force (intent) that is much greater than ourselves while living with integrity and being impeccable.

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A Warrior’s Detachment

And thus with an awareness of his death, with his detachment, and with the power of his decisions a warrior sets his life in a strategical manner. The knowledge of his death guides him and makes him detached and silently lusty; the power of his final decisions makes him able to choose without regrets and what he chooses is always strategically the best; and so he performs everything he has to with gusto and lusty efficiency. When a man behaves in such a manner one may rightfully say that he is a warrior and has acquired patience! ~ don Juan, A Separate Reality

The holiday season is a weird time for a lot of warriors because many choose to appease their family members by maintaining a story that no longer serves them. They feel the pressure from the mold of man to spend time with their friends and loved ones and then they find themselves caught up in a lot of drama, drama that isn’t necessarily theirs but they become unwitting accomplices. And then they complain about the choice that they made to be there in the first place.

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All Time is Here. This Moment. Now.

Sorcery makes us aware of different realities; different possibilities, not only about the world but also about ourselves, to the extent that we no longer are able to believe in even the most solid assumptions about ourselves and our surroundings. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Being in Dreaming

Don Juan used to take Carlos out into the desert chaparral for numerous reasons but most importantly to have what he called an appointment with knowledge. For many years I have visited such a place in the Sonoran desert of the greater Phoenix area that is affectionately known to us as the place of intent. It is an amazing place, a power place of great magnitude that unerringly alters ones perception and provides a heightened state of awareness just by sitting there.

Last weekend a fellow warrior and I hiked in one evening as the moon was waxing towards full. We brought no flashlights with us, the moon in the desert provides sufficient light and we were able to see quite clearly as we walked deeper into the illuminated darkness. That sounds paradoxical but it isn’t when you are in the desert at night with the light of the moon. Once the eyes adjust you can see everything just as well as you can during the day, everything is just bluer.

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