Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan’s Teachings

M: You are making the case in point of the prior exchange. Specifically, your “requirement” for how you receive and respond to information and suggestion is very different than others and this is based on the observation that your own version of reality is different than others. That is not necessarily a problem, but it highlights profoundly the prior E-mail(s) statements that the teacher must execute some adaptation to the student, or the potential viability of a student will never be probed on anything but a superficial basis.

R: I guess I don’t even know how to disentangle components of a thought or even what it would then be to expand that thought as extensions. … as extensions of what? Of the disentangled components you must mean.

M: Yes. As extensions of themselves.

R: Let me see, what was one of the thoughts and what then could it’s components be. I’ll take what seems to be the main one I had. “I’m looking at one case as being a flow from the spirit and one case as being a flow from imprinted experience.” Honestly, you’ve got me on that one. I don’t see components.

M: Well, for a beginning, there are two components in overview of the above statement: a) … looking at being a flow from the spirit; and, b) being a flow from imprinted experience.

M: Here is a sample process to consider for example purposes … In smaller view, there are subcomponents … “I’m looking at one case as …

M: subcomponent — a case … is this really a case … a situation … an example … and if any of these can it be cased in a package … or is it not a case but a concept that requires probing and conceptualization.. and if this is a concept where does it extend toward in manifestation …

M: subcomponent —- being a flow from the spirit ….what IS spirit … I talk about it and use the term but what is it? … Is the spirit from within me or external to me, and how does the spirit express itself? … and does it come to me or do I beckon it … If it comes to me, it must be either aware of me, but is it sentient with consciousness, or is it just an energy field that connects to me … by extension it would have no reason to connect to me unless it can gain something so that must mean that I could contribute something so by extension since “freedom means” non-subservience, then it cannot conscript my energy … and there is no true altruism in the universe … so by extension, yes, I can see that I must contribute something … but I have to know that in advance … and if I know that in advance then by extension it must mean that I can reach some level of proficiency so that I indeed beckon it or it wouldn’t know what I had to offer … so it must couple to me so then, by extension what happens …

M: subcomponent — and one case as being a flow from imprinted experience.” but what experiences … and how could these enhance or interfere with the way of knowledge … does imprinted experience have to be negative or could it be positive, or both, and how can I alter the negatives so that they don’t drain energy from me … and expand the positives to bring better understanding … and experience itself, is it a cased-package, or many-many separate events that are entangled within me that I can endeavor to separate so that I can extrapolate each one to learn how they interact within me and either contribute in the positive or detract in the negative..

R: But you did say, “perhaps” it would be of value to me to do this. I’m fine to not. But that’s not fair, I should wait to decide that after I understand what it means in the first place.

M: Only your own impeccability can be probed by yourself internally to find the answers, and ultimately seek the answer if you want to circumvent the eagle or not.

R: I can’t wait (in the expression sense of the term) until peace flows from me

R: Rick

M: and there are subcomponents within that statement.. Peace, Rick, peace …

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R: Hi Michael,

It’s interesting that I’ve always known that I could follow anyone’s thinking given the chance to ask questions, but what I’m noticing is how little practice I’ve had at critical thinking and I’m seeing myself as quite slow at it as a result. Your breakdown below is a good example. I wasn’t able to just read it through and “get” it. And the yawn is there again. I did notice on the read through that I’ve often thought of how I use words that I don’t understand at all as if I did understand them: “The Spirit,” for example.

M: Since this is a pattern in the manner that you have reported it, the challenge is to discover “why” the pattern is in place, yawn and all. There are several potential models of explanation. Remember, I’ll be in Gilroy for the rest of the week.

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R: Enjoy Gilroy, peace (as if I knew what it meant) – Rick

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M: Hummm. Not an encouraging statement.

R: I just finished reading The Sorcerer’s Crossing and will, at some point, add it to my compilation. I very much enjoyed it and thank you for recommending it to me. One thing I’ve wondered about with CC books, and now this one, is the nearly absolute strictness involved in the reported stories: months in a cave recapitulating, mastering tree climbing. Do you think all of that is accurate? Were these people really under such strictness? The discipline described is so very nearly absolute.

M: Yes. There are less-intense approaches to be certain, however the process and the result is mandatory – however accomplished through whatever time period.

R: Then, in Castaneda’s introduction to Taisha Abelar’s book he says that she was in don Juan’s group, but from the book it would seem that Taisha Abelar’s teachers were in the group with don Juan under Julian and therefore Julian’s teachings were the link not don Juan’s as CC reported.

M: Yes. You are correct. This was written in the later segment of CC’s time. By then, he had a growing inaccuracy. CC did NOT have “the ability”. He was only a scribe: a reporter. After DJM and Don Genaro departed, he only had the others of the group to work with and he started placing distance between himself and the others.

R: I’m wondering if Taisha Abelar will now go on as CC did (with more books). His first book had 5 pages that I put into my compilation, compared to 60 pages from The Fire From Within. I suspect that Taisha Abelar’s book will also need only about 5 pages as it too is mostly story.

M: Yes.

R: I know you’ve encouraged me to end my emails with “Peace,” or at least that is how I’ve interpreted your “peace, Rick, peace,” but I really couldn’t do it unless it is understood that I’m doing it just as an exercise, perhaps to just see what happens with doing it. What I understand “peace” to be is something I don’t have yet and therefore I won’t use it unless you want me to just as an exercise. So, I’d of done better, I suppose, by saying instead of, “peace (as if I knew what it meant),” “Peace (as if I knew experiencially what it meant). Your response was a surprise to me. I suspect that you may have pigeon holed me from my past major rant and a couple of minor ones (though I don’t recall what the minor ones were right off hand). Perhaps that sentence is what I should take apart: “Not,” something that isn’t, “an,” one, “encouraging,” that which encourages, gives courage to, gives the power to be oneself, with “statement,” something that is said or written in order to state, to say, to express, a thing, thus, it looks that you are suggesting that my closing doesn’t give me the power to be myself. Interesting, it looks like you have not pigeon holed me after all, but rather have pointed out another area where I can do better. okay! I shall be more careful with words.

M: The above was/is an example of “extension” that we discussed before. The words, it must be emphasized, are prototypes of your thoughts. The admonishment is more likely to be “be careful with your thoughts” because if you accomplish that, the words will be an accurate representation of your thoughts – not just rattle. You were eventually correct: you were not pigeon-holed.

Peace (as an experiment, I won’t add this parenthesis again) Rick

M: Experiment that leads to understanding is precisely an important mechanism of this process.