Carlos Castaneda Overview ========================= Version: 0.

6 (under construction) Last-Updated: Mon Jan 22 22:27:21 CST 1996 Email additions or changes to <sanders@earth.com> The Path of a Man of Knowledge -----------------------------Source: ``The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge''; pages 82-87. A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the hardships of learning. A man who has, without rushing or without faltering, gone as far as he can in unraveling the secrets of power and knowledge. To become a man of knowledge one must challenge and defeat the four natural enemies. The first enemy of a man of knowledge is Fear. A terrible enemy--treacherous, and difficult to overcome. It remains concealed at every turn of the way, prowling, waiting. And if the man, terrified in its presence, runs away, his enemy will have put an end to his quest. Once a man has vanquished fear, he is free from it for the rest of his life because, instead of fear, he has acquired clarity of mind which erases fear. And thus he has encountered his second enemy; Clarity. That clarity of mind, which is so hard to obtain, dispels fear, but also blinds. If the man yields to this make-believe power, he has succumbed to his second enemy and will be patient when he should rush. And he will fumble with learning until he winds up incapable of learing anything more. He must defy his clarity and use it only to see, and wait patiently and measure carefully before taking new steps; he must think, above all, that his clarity is almost a mistake. And a moment will come when he will understand that his clarity was only a point before his eyes. And thus he will have overcome his second enemy, and will arrive at a position where nothing can harm him anymore. It will be true power; the third enemy of a man of knowledge. A man at this stage hardly notices his third enemy closing in on him. And suddenly, without knowing, he will certainly have lost the battle. His enemy will have turned him into a cruel, capricious man. The man must defy his power, deliberately. He has to come to realize the power he has seemingly conquered is in reality never his. He will reach a point where everything is held in check. He will know then when and how to use his power. And thus he will have defeated his third enemy. The man will be, by then, at the end of his journey of learning, and almost without warning he will come upon the last of his enemies: Old age. This enemy is the cruelest of all, the one he won't be able to defeat completely, but only fight away. His

desire to retreat will overrule all his clarity, his power, and his knowledge. But if the man sloughs off his tiredness, and lives his fate through, he can then be called a man of knowledge, if only for the brief moment when he succeeds in fighting off his last, invincible enemy. That moment of clarity, power, and knowledge is enough. The Sorcerers' Explanation -------------------------Summerized from ``Tales of Power''. The secret of the luminous beings is that we are perceivers, we are an awareness without solidity or bounds. The world we think we see is only a description of world told to us by our internal dialog, a description that has been taught to us by others. We are trapped inside that bubble of perception and what we witness on its walls is a reflection of our world view, our description. As luminous beings, our perception is controlled by the position of our Assemblage Point (the point where our luminous being focuses its awareness on the energy fibers of the universe). There are infinite worlds outside our daily perceptions. By stopping the internal dialog you break through this barrier to the totality of oneself. To this end sorcerers use "the right way of walking" as a practical task; it saturates the tonal and without the one-to-one relation with the elements of its description the tonal becomes silent. Also used are acting without believing or expecting rewards; erasing personal history; and "dreaming". To help erase personal history the techniques of losing self-importance, assuming responsibility, and using death as an adviser are applied. To aide in "dreaming" the three techniques of disrupting the routines of life, the gait of power, and not-doing are used. These techniques are bound together by living like a warrior, to give temperance and strength to withstand the path of knowledge. pgs 272-278 The nagual is the unspeakable. All the possible feelings and beings and selves float in it like barges, peaceful, unaltered, forever. Then the glue of life binds some of them together and a being is created. That being loses the sense of its true nature and becomes blinded by the glare and clamor of the tonal, where all unified organizations exist. That cluster is the bubble of perception. The secret of the double is in the bubble of perception. Through the nagual, the cluster of feelings can be rearranged to any form and made to assemble instantly anywhere. In other words, one can perceive the here and the there at once. The nagual is witnessed by "will", and the tonal by "reason". The tonal is but a reflection of that indescribable unknown filled with order; the nagual is but a reflection of that indescribable void that contains everything.

The Seven Gates of Dreaming --------------------------Summerized from ``The Art of Dreaming''. First Gate: You reach the first gate when you become aware you are falling asleep or have a gigantically real dream. You cross the first gate when you are able to sustain the sight of any item in your dream. In order to offset the evanescent quality of dreams, sorcerers have devised the use of the starting point item. Every time you isolate it and look at it, you get a surge of energy. The most convient thing to use is your hands (which follows naturally from looking for your hands in your dreams). Second Gate: You cross the second gate when you are able to change from dream to dream. For example, you wake up from a dream in another dream or use an item of your dream to trigger another dream. Third Gate: You reach the third gate when you dream yourself asleep. You cross the third gate by moving your engery body after having done so. At the third gate you begin to merge your dreaming reality with the reality of the daily world. Fourth Gate: At the fourth gate, the energy body travels to specific, concrete places either in this world, out of this world, or places that exist only in the intent of others. Go to sleep in a certain position, then in dreaming, dream that you lie down in the same position and fall asleep again. This is called the twin positions and it solidifies your dreaming attention. The second dream is intending in the second attention: the only way to cross the fourth gate of dreaming. Glossary -------The Eight Points Nagual +---Seeing----+ / \ Will-----Feeling-----Talking---Reason \ / +---Dreaming--+ Tonal

Stopping the Internal Dialog Stopping our description of the world; breaking the barrier of perception. Stopping the internal dialog is the key to the sorcerers' world. The rest of the activities are only props to accelerate the effect. The Right Way of Walking Tales of Power, WSP Paperback edition, page 236, don Juan says:

The warrior, first by curling his fingers, drew attention to the arms; and then by looking, without focusing his eyses, at any point directly in front of him on the arc that started at the tip of his feet and ended above the horizon, he literally flooded his "tonal" with information. The "tonal", without its one-to-one relationship with the elements of its description, was incapable of talking to itself, and thus one became silent. Acting Without Believing Acting just for the hell of it, without expecting rewards. Erasing Personal History Removing cues of oneself from the world at large, making oneself unavailable. This frees you from the trap of others attention. This also helps to remove Self-Pity from your world. Losing Self-Importance Another aide in removing Self-Pity. Assuming Responsibility Assume responsibility for your actions and being in this world. Using Death as an Advisor Take every act as your last battle on earth. It doesn't matter if you win or lose a battle but never abandon yourself, even to your death. You should replace Self-Pity as your advisor and use death instead. Actions taken with death as an advisor have power. Disrupting the Routines of Life Our routines are what allows death to stalk us. A hunter learns the routines of its pray and uses them to kill it. Gait of Power Running with abandon, but without abandoning oneself. Imagine yourself being chased in the dark by a ferocious animal, if you get away, this is how you will have run. Not-Doing Focusing your attention on features of the world that are ordinarily overlooked, such as the shadows of things. Dreaming Using the natural shift of the Assemblage Point while asleep. Together, disrupting routines, the gate of power, and not-doing are avenues for learning new ways of perceiving the world, and they give a warrior an inkling of incredible possibilities of action. These lead to the knowledge of a separate and pragmatic world of "dreaming". Stalking Fixing the Assemblage Point in position to give your perception coherence. Used in the daily world it's a way of behaving towards our fellow men. Recapitulation Used to free energy trapped in the world. Performed by visualizing past events (to shift your Assemblage Point to that point) and by using Breath to reclaim any energy you left behind and returning energy that isn't yours. Mood of a Warrior A mood in which to approch the world, acting with abandon but without abandoning oneself. Using death as an advisor, each act is your last battle on earth. Controlled Folly

Since a man of knowledge "sees" and he knows that nothing is more important than anything else then nothing matters to him, he has only his controlled folly, acting as if it mattered even though he knows it does not. Gazing A sourcerery technique of looking without staring at something. The "not-doing" of looking at something. Worthy Opponent An opponent to spur you on the path of knowledge. Having to Believe Having no choice, the situation inspired by the worth opponent. Man of Knowledge A warrior who has become a sorcerer and who "sees" and knows. The ultimate state of being, in total control over your being. Energy Body, Double, Dreaming Body, Other A feeling, a surge of energy that is transported by the movement of the assemblage point. FFW 181: I had _seen_ Genaro's _dreaming body_ as it really is, a blob of light. ... [don Juan] had _seen_ my assemblage point first move toward its normal setting in order to compensate for my fright, then move deeper into the left, beyond the point where there are no doubts. "At that position there is only one thing on can _see_: blobs of energy FFW 270: for a moment I was able to _see_ don Juan and don Genaro as two blobs of light. Genaro was not the flesh-and-blood don Genaro that I knew in my state of normal awareness but his _dreaming body_. I could tell because I _saw_ him as a ball of fire that was above the ground. He was not rooted as don Juan was. ... I could, with my _intent_ align the emanations that made me _see_ Genaro as a blob of light, or I could align the emanations that made me _see_ him as mearly odd, unknown, strange. Assemblage Point The point at which your awarness is focused on your luminous being causing the energy fibers at large to align with the energy fibers inside your cocoon. Glow of Awarness The glowing point at which the Assemblage Point is focused, indicating that the being is alive. This glow lights the fibers and makes the luminous being percieve them. First Attention The attention of the tonal. Used to assemble our daily world. Second Attention The attention of the nagual. Third Attention The attention after burning with the fire from within. Dreaming Attention The attention used while dreaming to exercise the energy body,

it's a gateway to the second attention. First Ring of Power Also the first attention Second Ring of Power Also the second attention Gates of Dreaming The seven gates of dreaming are energy obstacles that must be overcome. Dreaming Emissary ??? Scouts Energy beings from other realms in your dreams. By isolating then and indending to follow them they can transport your awareness to inconceivable realms. Dreaming Awake This state results from moving the Assemblage Point during normal awareness. The Tonal and the Nagual The tonal is but a reflection of that indescribable unknown filled with order; the nagual is but a reflection of that indescribable void that contains everything. The Dreamer and the Dreamed The secret of the dreamer and the dreamed is that the dreamed dreams the dreamer, just as the dreamer dreams the dreamed. The Secret of the Luminous Beings The secret of the luminous beings is that we are perceivers, we are an awareness without solidity or bounds. The world we think we see is only a description of world told to us by our internal dialog, a description that has been taught to us by others. We are trapped inside that bubble of perception and what we witness on its walls is a reflection of our world view, our description. Bubble of Perception The bubble of perception is the cluster of feelings that have been assembled in the nagual and bound together by the force of life.