“Ordinarily, events that change our path are impersonal affairs, and yet extremely personal. My teacher, don Juan Matus, said this in guiding me as his apprentice to collect what I considered to be the memorable events of my life…
“Don Juan described the total goal of the shamanistic knowledge that he handled as the preparation for facing the definite journey: the journey that every human being has to take at the end of his life. He said that what modern man referred to vaguely as life after death was, for those shamans, a concrete region filled to capacity with practical affairs of a different order than the practical affairs of daily life, yet bearing a similar functional practicality. Don Juan considered that to collect the memorable events in their lives was, for shamans, the preparation for their entrance into that concrete region, which they called the active side of infinity.”
A mature Carlos Castaneda
The Warrior’s Intent as an Act of War
In the Introduction chapter, Carlos Castaneda relates a discussion that he had with don Juan about his own behaviour.
“What possesses me to act the way I do?” I asked don Juan in earnest. I was, at that instant, utterly baffled. I was so shaken by my realization that without any volition on my part, I began to weep.
“Don’t worry about stupid details,” don Juan said reassuringly. “Every one of us, male and female, is like this.”
“Do you mean, don Juan, that we are naturally petty and contradictory?”
“No, we are not naturally petty and contradictory,” he replied. “Our pettiness and contradictions are, rather, the result of a transcendental conflict that afflicts every one of us, but of which only sorcerers are painfully and hopelessly aware: the conflict of our two minds.”
Don Juan peered at me; his eyes were like two black charcoals.
“You’ve been telling me on and on about our two minds,” I said, “but my brain can’t register what you are saying. Why?”
“You’ll get to know why in due time,” he said. “For the present, it will be sufficient that I repeat to you what I have said before about our two minds. One is our true mind, the product of all our life, the one that rarely speaks because it has been defeated and relegated to obscurity. The other, the mind we use daily for everything we do, is a foreign installation.”
“I think that the crux of the matter is that the concept of the mind being a foreign installation is so outlandish that my mind refuses to take it seriously,” I said, feeling that I had made a real discovery.
Don Juan did not comment on what I had said. He continued explaining the issue of the two minds as if I hadn’t said a word.
“To resolve the conflict of the two minds is a matter of intending it,” he said. “Sorcerers beckon intent by voicing the word intent loud and clear. Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerers beckon intent, it comes to them and sets up the path for attainment, which means that sorcerers always accomplish what they set out to do.”
“Do you mean, don Juan, that sorcerers get anything they want, even if it is something petty and arbitrary?” I asked.
“No, I didn’t mean that. Intent can be called, of course, for anything,” he replied, “but sorcerers have found out, the hard way, that intent comes to them only for something that is abstract. That’s the safety valve for sorcerers; otherwise they would be unbearable. In your case, beckoning intent to resolve the conflict of your two minds, or to hear the voice of your true mind, is not a petty or arbitrary matter. Quite the contrary; it is ethereal and abstract, and yet as vital to you as anything can be.”
Don Juan paused for a moment; then he began to talk again about the album.
“My own album, being an act of war, demanded a super-critical selection,” he said. “It is now a precise collection of unforgettable moments of my life, and everything that led me to them. I have concentrated in it what has been and will be meaningful to me. In my opinion, a warrior’s album is something most concrete, something so to the point that it is shattering.”
The Album
The opening words say it all: “This book is a collection of the memorable events in my life.”
So, this book is, in fact, Carlos Castaneda’s warrior album. It goes back through the events which have been recounted in his previous books, but this time, he explains how and why they are significant to him. In fact, even though some of the events are ‘vaguely’ familiar, without reading this book, their significance may be lost to the reader.
My favourite chapter is this one:
Who Was Juan Matus, Really?
During my first encounter with don Juan, in the bus depot in Nogales, Arizona, something of an unusual nature had happened to me, but it had come to me cushioned in my concerns with the presentation of the self. I had wanted to impress don Juan, and in attempting to do so I had focused all my attention on the act of selling my wares, so to speak. It was only months later that a strange residue of forgotten events began to appear.
One day, out of nowhere, and with no coaxing or coaching on my part, I recollected with extraordinary clarity something that had completely bypassed me during my actual encounter with don Juan. When he had stopped me from telling him my name, he had peered into my eyes and had numbed me with his look. There was infinitely more that I could have said to him about myself. I could have expounded on my knowledge and worth for hours if his look hadn’t completely cut me off.
In light of this new realization, I reconsidered everything that had happened to me on that occasion. My unavoidable conclusion was that I had experienced the interruption of some mysterious flow that kept me going, a flow that had never been interrupted before, at least not in the manner in which don Juan had done it. When I tried to describe to any of my friends what I had physically experienced, a strange perspiration began to cover my entire body, the same perspiration that I had experienced when don Juan had given me that look; I had been, at that moment, not only incapable of voicing a single word, but incapable of having a single thought.
For some time after, I dwelled on the physical sensation of this interruption, for which I found no rational explanation. I argued for a while that don Juan must have hypnotized me, but then my memory told me that he hadn’t given any hypnotic commands, not had he made any movements that could have trapped my attention. In fact, he had merely glanced at me, It was the intensity of that glance that had made it appear as if he had stared at me for a long time. It had obsessed me, and had rendered me discombobulated at a deep physical level.
Castaneda goes on to discuss don Juan throughout the rest of that chapter and, as a reader, I am grateful for the insight into the nagual.
Conclusion
Even if you have never read one single book written by Carlos Castaneda, if you happened to find and read this one, you will be forever enlightened about shamanism as practiced by the Indians in Mexico. We will not see the like of Castaneda again, because he is now on The Active Side of Infinity.
Its symbol, presumably the folded claws of a crab, probably is intended to symbolize the joining together of a male and female spermatozoa — as indicative of the most maternal of all the signs.
The Sun is in Cancer annually from June 21 to July 22. Astrologically and astronomically it is the first thirty-degree arc following the Summer Solstice, marked by the Sun’s passing of the Tropic of Cancer, and occupying a position along the Ecliptic from 90° to 120°.
It is the Leading (Cardinal) quality of the Water element: negative, cold, moist, phlegmatic, nocturnal, commanding, movable, fruitful, weak, unfortunate, crooked, mute.
Most of us recognize the fact that we spend a lot of time every day worrying about the world and his uncle. The media sells its products based on the negative side of life. And, in the end, we are all going to die, so what hope do we have?Plenty!
Meet Alan Cohen
Courtesy of Hay House
Alan Cohen, M.A., is the author of 23 popular inspirational books, including the best-selling The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the award-winning A Deep Breath of Life, and the classic Are You as Happy as Your Dog? He is a contributing writer for the New York Times #1 bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul, and his books have been translated into 24 foreign languages. His work has been featured on Oprah.com and in USA Today, the Washington Post, and 101 Top Experts. Alan’s radio program Get Real is broadcast weekly on Hay House Radio, and his monthly column From the Heart is featured in magazines internationally. Website: www.AlanCohen.com (Hay House biography)
A Course in Miracles
Most of us have heard about ACIM (as it’s affectionately known). When the text was first made public, I bought a copy. Most people have remarked on the fact of its weight. Intuitively, it is as if “what you perceive is what you get.”
What most people forget is that the book was channeled by Dr Helen Schucman as a response to her colleague, William Thetford’s remark that “there must be a better way…” The words were intended originally just for themselves, but the information was so universal, they decided to (mostly) remove the personal elements and share it with the world.
The Source of the information never identified himself, but the words imply that it is Jesus Christ. Apparently, Helen had a past life with him, because he refers to her disappointments and anger over whatever happened. His patience and understanding are also quite evident. He is coming from a place of Love.
Made Easy
Alan Cohen’s interpretation and reiteration of the principles of ACIM mark an easier assimilation of what most have described as a very intense ‘reprogramming’ of their way of thinking. Here are a couple of sample passages:
Illusion and Compassion
While I was presenting a seminar in Japan, a student posed this question: “I asked an ACIM teacher, ‘How are we to relate to the devastating disaster of 2011 in which a huge earthquake and tsunami killed many people and wrought massive destruction in our country?’ The teacher replied, ‘It was all an illusion. It didn’t really happen.’ But I did not find that answer very satisfying. What would you say about that disaster and ones like it?”
I told the student that the answer was technically correct but not immediately helpful. It represents a kind of “ACIM fundamentalism,” which quotes the letter of the law but misses the spirit behind the teaching. The purpose of A Course in Miracles is to bring humanity release from pain. It defines healing as relief from fear. The Course states many times that its teachings must be practical. To tell someone whose entire family has just died in a tsunami, and whose home and business have been destroyed in an earthquake, that nothing really happened does not assuage suffering. Such an answer requires too great a leap in consciousness from where the person stands to the ultimate reality beyond appearances. Instead, you must guide the distressed person to the next level of relief. He requires compassion, not philosophy.
The entire Course in Miracles is an act of compassion. Jesus could have sat in his golden heaven at the right hand of God and decided to leave the mass of humanity writhing in pain because “it was all an illusion” and “nothing really happened.” Instead, he reached into humanity and offered a teaching that meets us where we stand and lifts us beyond our current predicament. A teacher initiates transformation by joining with the student where the student lives, rather than demanding that the student meet the teacher where the teacher lives. The ultimate goal is to lift the student to the highest level of consciousness, but that happens in gentle steps, not demanding quantum leaps of which the student is currently incapable.
I told the questioner that, in response to the disaster, I would simultaneously work from two different levels. I would keep in mind that indeed the entire event was an illusion and ultimately there is no loss or death. At the same time I would recognize that the experience felt real to those who went through it, and I would do everything I could to help relieve suffering in tangible ways. I would donate money, clothing, or medical supplies to a relief fund; or volunteer to help clean up the mess; or provide housing to refugees; or offer a listening ear, counseling, or prayer; or whatever came before me to lighten the burden of those affected. That would be more meaningful and helpful than to tell those who felt victimized that nothing had happened. For those people, something did happen, and compassion calls for service in action.
Kindness is the mark of spiritual maturity. Anyone can spout philosophy. A smaller number of teachers are willing to dive into illusion to extricate humanity from it.
Courtesy of latimes.com
The Happy Dream
In the Book of Genesis we are told that “a deep sleep fell upon Adam” (Genesis 2: 21), but nowhere does the Bible say that he woke up (T-2. I. 3: 6). We are all Adam still asleep, dreaming we are separate from God and each other. A Course in Miracles seeks to awaken us from our slumber, not by throwing cold water on us while we sleep, but by meeting us within the dream and guiding us to the doorstep of reality. The Course works smartly, gently, and steadily to dislodge us from the illusions that bind us, by way of small, firm, consistent steps from emotional conundrum to freedom.
ACIM calls the bridge to awakening “the happy dream.” In the happy dream, we walk the world awhile longer, still driving the kids to soccer practice, downloading smartphone apps, standing in line at the bank, and spending our days in ways familiar to the world. Yet the dream is no longer a nightmare. It is one of inner reward, meaning, and purpose. The peace of God becomes the foundation of our life rather than anxiety and conflict. The events, experiences, and relationships of the world become stepping-stones to heaven. The world is transformed from a prison ruled by terror to a temple consecrated by love.
“The Holy Spirit, ever practical in His wisdom, accepts your dreams and uses them as means for waking. You would have used them to remain asleep. I said before that the first change, before dreams disappear, is that your dreams of fear are changed to happy dreams.” — T-18. II. 6: 1– 3
Courtesy of the Miracle Network
Personal Note
Whenever I find myself being less than I hoped I might be, I try to apply the principles of A Course in Miracles to see what is causing the ‘problem’. In a startling discovery this past week, I have been party to, and witnessed, three separate ‘incidents’ involving Family.
Ordinarily, I shrug off the annoyances and get on with my personal quest for peace and happiness. This time, the issues involved three separate branches of my extended families. Never before have I had that happen. It was a ‘wake-up’ call, for sure.
As I have been married three times, it should come as no surprise to me that the same situations should crop up over time. But in the same week?Never.
It turns out that one can only put off something important for a little while, but eventually one must tackle the root cause. In my case, I ‘see’ that all of this has to do with my attempt to forge my own path in life, without consideration of how it affects others. So, I am resolved to work on my family connections to strengthen the ‘ties that bind’ rather than loosen them. What we resist, persists.
Why Is the Course So Long? (ACIM Made Easy insert)
Complicated minds create complicated issues, ask complicated questions, and require complicated answers. The purpose of A Course in Miracles is to heal complicated minds by guiding our thoughts from the labyrinth of complexity to the salvation of simplicity. The real Course in Miracles is just 14 words long:
“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” — T-IN. 2: 2– 4
All the words that follow are commentary, illuminating this one truth from a thousand different vantage points.
The author of the Course recognized that few people would take such a simple truth and apply it to their lives until they found liberation. The intellect requires clarification, repetition, explanation, rational understanding, and continuous practical applications. So Jesus said, in effect, “Here are another 497,226 words and 1,187 more pages for you to chew on. Then you will feel that you’ve gotten something of value.”
You could complete your study of A Course in Miracles after these 14 words.
But then you would have to live them. The remainder of the Course is given to help you do just that.
Courtesy of understandacim.com
Conclusion
If you want to change your life, the Miracle is already at work. Wake up to that fact, and you will see how much better life can be. Bless.
