"ИСТОРИИ
СИЛЫ-МОГУЩЕСТВА" - несколько интересных мыслей из этой книги
"Tales
of Power" - some interesting thoughts from this book
15
"Do you know, that at this very moment you are surrounded by Eternity? And, that you can use that Eternity, if you so desire? There! Eternity is there!" he said, pointing to the horizon, then to the zenith. "Or there, or perhaps we can say that Eternity is like this.” He extended both arms to point to the east and west. "What do you say to that? Do you know, that you can extend Yourself forever in any of the directions I have pointed to? Do you know, that one moment can be Eternity? This is not a riddle (enigma); it's a fact, but only if you mount (fix on) that moment and use it to take the Totality of Yourself forever in any direction. You didn't have this knowledge before. Now you do. I have revealed it to you, but it doesn't make any difference, because you don't have enough personal power to utilize my revelation. Yet if you did have enough power, my words alone would serve as the means for you to round up the Totality of Yourself and to get the crucial part of it out of the boundaries, in which it is contained." Don Juan came to my side and poked my chest with his fingers... "These are the boundaries I'm talking about. One can get out of them. We are a feeling, an awareness encased here."
15
"Ты знаешь, что в этот самый момент ты окружён Вечностью? И что ты можешь использовать эту Вечность, если захочешь? Там! Вечность там!" сказал он, указывая на горизонт, потом наверх в зенит. "Или там, или может быть мы можем сказать, что Вечность вот такая." Он раздвинул обе руки, показывая Восток и Запад. "Что ты на это скажешь? А знаешь ли ты, что можешь расширить себя бесконечно в любом из указанных направлений. Этих Знаний у тебя до этого не было,
а сейчас они есть. Я открыл их тебе, но для тебя это не имеет никакого смысла, потому что у тебя недостаточно личной силы, чтобы использовать это Открытие.
И всё же, если бы у тебя было достаточно личной силы, одни только мои слова помогли бы тебе собрать Тотальность всего себя и вытащить её решающую часть
из границ, в которых она находится." Дон Хуан подошёл ко мне и легонько ткнул меня пальцами в грудь..."Это и есть границы, о которых я говорю. Из них можно выйти. Мы - это чувства и сознание, заключённое здесь, в этом теле."
"Do you know, that at this very moment you are surrounded by Eternity? And, that you can use that Eternity, if you so desire? There! Eternity is there!" he said, pointing to the horizon, then to the zenith. "Or there, or perhaps we can say that Eternity is like this.” He extended both arms to point to the east and west. "What do you say to that? Do you know, that you can extend Yourself forever in any of the directions I have pointed to? Do you know, that one moment can be Eternity? This is not a riddle (enigma); it's a fact, but only if you mount (fix on) that moment and use it to take the Totality of Yourself forever in any direction. You didn't have this knowledge before. Now you do. I have revealed it to you, but it doesn't make any difference, because you don't have enough personal power to utilize my revelation. Yet if you did have enough power, my words alone would serve as the means for you to round up the Totality of Yourself and to get the crucial part of it out of the boundaries, in which it is contained." Don Juan came to my side and poked my chest with his fingers... "These are the boundaries I'm talking about. One can get out of them. We are a feeling, an awareness encased here."
15
"Ты знаешь, что в этот самый момент ты окружён Вечностью? И что ты можешь использовать эту Вечность, если захочешь? Там! Вечность там!" сказал он, указывая на горизонт, потом наверх в зенит. "Или там, или может быть мы можем сказать, что Вечность вот такая." Он раздвинул обе руки, показывая Восток и Запад. "Что ты на это скажешь? А знаешь ли ты, что можешь расширить себя бесконечно в любом из указанных направлений. Этих Знаний у тебя до этого не было,
а сейчас они есть. Я открыл их тебе, но для тебя это не имеет никакого смысла, потому что у тебя недостаточно личной силы, чтобы использовать это Открытие.
И всё же, если бы у тебя было достаточно личной силы, одни только мои слова помогли бы тебе собрать Тотальность всего себя и вытащить её решающую часть
из границ, в которых она находится." Дон Хуан подошёл ко мне и легонько ткнул меня пальцами в грудь..."Это и есть границы, о которых я говорю. Из них можно выйти. Мы - это чувства и сознание, заключённое здесь, в этом теле."
Часть
1: Свидетель Действий Силы-Могущества
1.
Встреча со Знанием
Все Женщины - Dreamers, правда некоторые - более одарённые, чем другие ! Dreamer - это человек, который умеет сознательно переводить своего Двойника на более высокую вибрацию. Обычно среди мужчин это : Колдуны, первопроходцы Роберта Монро, маги, индийские гуру, некоторые монахи и т.д. У всех Женщин этот дар есть из-за того, что у них есть Матка (если она не вырезана), но этот дар имеется у очень малого количества мужчин и этот дар ещё должен быть развит огромным трудом. Dreaming-Awake - это когда Точка Восприятия находится в 2х местах одновременно. Означает быть одновременно в 2х местах : ощущать своё физическое тело, то есть присуствовать в Повседневном Мире, а также сознательно или бессознательно перемещать своего Двойника в другое положение Точки Восприятия, т.е. на более высокую вибрацию, не теряя контроль над собой и исполняя поставленные задачи.
9-10
Я не видел Дон Хуана несколько месяцев. Была осень 1971 года. Я был уверен, что он был в доме Дон Дженаро в Центральной Мексике, и сделал необходимые приготовления для 6-7 дневной поездки навестить его. Однако на второй день моего путешествия, в середине дня меня дёрнуло остановиться в доме Дон Хуана в Соноре. Припарковав машину, я прошёл короткую дистанцию к дому. К моему удивлению, он оказался там: "Дон Хуан, я не ожидал тебя здесь найти!"
Он засмеялся: моё удивление, похоже, доставило ему удовольствие. Он сидел на пустом ящике из-под молока у передней двери. Казалось, он ждал меня. В той расслабленности, с которой он приветствовал меня,. было ощущение достижения. Он спиной опирался о стену, сидя на ящике, как-будто это было седло.
"Сядь уж, сядь, хорошо увидеть тебя снова," сказал он радостным тоном.
"А я собирался ехать всю дорогу в Центральную Мексику зря и потом мне пришлось бы ехать обратно в Лос Анжелес," сказал я. "Найти тебя здесь сэкономило мне дни и дни езды."
"Каким-то образом ты бы всё-таки нашёл меня," мистически ответил он, "но скажем, ты должен мне 6 дней, которые ты потратил бы, чтобы добраться туда, дни,
которые тебе следует использовать на что-то более интересное, чем нажимать на педаль твоей машины." Было что-то заразительное в улыбке Дон Хуана, его тепло передавалось мне. "Где твои писательские принадлежности?" спросил он и я ответил, что они в машине; он сказал, что я выгляжу неестественно без них и заставил меня сходить за ними.
"Я закончил писать книгу," сказал я. Он долго и странно посмотрел на меня так, что это произвело чесотку в основании желудка. Ощущение было, что он толкает середину моего тела мягким предметом. Я почувствовал, что меня вот-вот стошнит, но потом он отвёл свою голову в сторону и моё первоначальное чувство благополучия вернулось. Мне хотелось поговорить о моей книге, но он жестом дал понять, что не хотел, чтобы я об этом говорил. Он улыбался и его настроение было лёгким и чарующим. Он сразу же занял меня обычным разговором о людях и текущих событиях. Наконец мне удалось направить разговор на, интересующую меня, тему. Я начал с упоминания того, что пересмотрел свои ранние записи и понял, что он с самого начала нашего знакомства давал мне детальное описание мира Колдунов. В связи с тем, что он говорил мне в те времена, я начал интересоваться ролью наркотических растений.
"Почему ты заставлял меня употреблять те растения силы так много раз?" спросил я.
Он засмеялся и промямлил очень тихо, "Потому что ты тупой." Я прекрасно слышал, но хотел подтверждения и притворился, что не понял.
"Прошу прощенья?" спросил я.
"Ты знаешь, что я сказал," ответил он, встал и постучал по моей голове, проходя мимо. "Ты слишком медлителен и другого пути, чтобы дать тебе взбучку, не было."
"Так что всё это не было абсолютно необходимо?" спросил я.
"В твоём случае - было. Однако есть другие типы людей, которым это не нужно." Он встал рядом со мной, уставившись на верхушки кустов с левой стороны дома; потом снова сел и заговорил об Элиджио, другом его ученике. Он сказал, что Элиджио употребил наркотические растения только один раз с тех пор, как стал его учеником. И всё же он наверно был даже более продвинутым, чем я.
11-12
"Быть чувствительным - это естественное состояние определённых людей," сказал он. "А ты нет, но и я тоже. В конечном результате, чувствительность не имеет большого значения."
"Тогда что имеет значение?" спросил я. Он, похоже, искал подходящий ответ.
"Чтобы воин был безупречен, вот что," наконец ответил он. "Но это только как сказать"бесполезно терять время". Ты уже достиг некоторых успехов в Колдовстве и я думаю, что наступило время назвать источник всего, что имеет значение. Так что я бы сказал, что для воина главное это - достигнуть себя тотального, всей своей полноты."
"Дон Хуан, что такое "Тотальное Я"?"
"Я сказал, что только собирался упомянуть об этом. В твоей жизни всё ещё много незаконченного, что ты должен закончить, прежде чем мы будем говорить о Тотальном Я."
Там он и закончил наш разговор, жестом руками он посигналил мне прекратить разговор. Наверно было что-то или кто-то рядом. Он склонил голову влево, как-будто слушая. Я мог видеть белки его глаз, когда он сфокусировался на кустах за домом слева. Он внимательно слушал несколько секунд и потом встал, подошёл ко мне и прошептал мне в ухо, что нам нужно покинуть дом и пройтись.
"Что-то случилось?" спросил я тоже шёпотом.
"Нет, ничего не случилось, наоборот, всё - в ажуре." Он повёл меня в кусты пустыни. Мы шли наверно полчаса и затем подошли к небольшому округлённому месту, свободному от растительности, место около 12 шагов в диаметре, где красноватая почва была утромбована и совершенно плоской. Однако не было признаков того, чтобы машина очистила и разровняла землю. Дон Хуан сел в центре этого места лицом на юго-восток. Он указал на место около 5ти шагов от него и попросил меня сесть там лицом к нему.
"Что мы собираемся делать здесь?" спросил я.
"У нас здесь вечером встреча," ответил он и просканировал окрестности быстрым взглядом, поворачиваясь на своём месте, пока он снова не стал лицом на юго-восток. Его движения насторожили меня и я спросил, с кем у нас будет встреча.
"Быть чувствительным - это естественное состояние определённых людей," сказал он. "А ты нет, но и я тоже. В конечном результате, чувствительность не имеет большого значения."
"Тогда что имеет значение?" спросил я. Он, похоже, искал подходящий ответ.
"Чтобы воин был безупречен, вот что," наконец ответил он. "Но это только как сказать"бесполезно терять время". Ты уже достиг некоторых успехов в Колдовстве и я думаю, что наступило время назвать источник всего, что имеет значение. Так что я бы сказал, что для воина главное это - достигнуть себя тотального, всей своей полноты."
"Дон Хуан, что такое "Тотальное Я"?"
"Я сказал, что только собирался упомянуть об этом. В твоей жизни всё ещё много незаконченного, что ты должен закончить, прежде чем мы будем говорить о Тотальном Я."
Там он и закончил наш разговор, жестом руками он посигналил мне прекратить разговор. Наверно было что-то или кто-то рядом. Он склонил голову влево, как-будто слушая. Я мог видеть белки его глаз, когда он сфокусировался на кустах за домом слева. Он внимательно слушал несколько секунд и потом встал, подошёл ко мне и прошептал мне в ухо, что нам нужно покинуть дом и пройтись.
"Что-то случилось?" спросил я тоже шёпотом.
"Нет, ничего не случилось, наоборот, всё - в ажуре." Он повёл меня в кусты пустыни. Мы шли наверно полчаса и затем подошли к небольшому округлённому месту, свободному от растительности, место около 12 шагов в диаметре, где красноватая почва была утромбована и совершенно плоской. Однако не было признаков того, чтобы машина очистила и разровняла землю. Дон Хуан сел в центре этого места лицом на юго-восток. Он указал на место около 5ти шагов от него и попросил меня сесть там лицом к нему.
"Что мы собираемся делать здесь?" спросил я.
"У нас здесь вечером встреча," ответил он и просканировал окрестности быстрым взглядом, поворачиваясь на своём месте, пока он снова не стал лицом на юго-восток. Его движения насторожили меня и я спросил, с кем у нас будет встреча.
"Со Знаниями," сказал он. "Предположим, что Знания бродят вокруг нас." Он не дал мне время ухватиться за этот загадочный ответ. Он быстро поменял тему и весёлым тоном он убедил меня быть естественным, то есть писать и говорить, как если бы мы делали это в его доме. Что особенно давило на мой мозг в тот момент было живое ощущение, которое у меня появилось 6 месяцев до этого, когда я "говорил" с койотом. Для меня то событие означало то, что впервые я был способен представить или понять своими чувствами и трезвым сознанием описание мира Колдунами; описание, в котором общение с животными разговором было обычным явлением.
"Мы не собираемся заниматься обсуждением такого опыта," сказал Дон Хуан, услыхав мой вопрос. "Не советую тебе потакать своим прихотям и фокусировать своё внимание на прошлых событиях. Мы можем относиться к ним только как к ссылкам."
"Почему это так, Дон Хуан?"
"У тебя всё ещё нет достаточно своей силы, чтобы искать объяснения Колдунов."
"Тогда всё же имеется объяснение Колдунов!"
"Конечно. Колдуны - мужчины. Мы - Существа мыслящие. Мы ищем объяснений."
"У меня было мнение, что моим огромным недостатком было - искать объяснений."
"Нет. Твой недостаток - искать удобных объяснений, объяснений, которые подходят тебе и твоему миру. На что я возражаю это - твоей ментальной гимнастике. Колдун тоже объясняет вещи в своём мире, но он более гибкий, эластичный, чем ты."
"Как мне найти объяснение Колдунов?"
"Накапливая свою силу. Личная сила заставит тебя с лёкгостью достигнуть Объяснение Колдунов. Объяснение - это не то, что ты бы назвал объяснением; тем не менее, оно делает мир и его тайны, если не ясными, то по крайней мере, менее внушительными. Это должно быть сутью объяснения, но это не то, что ты ищешь. Тебе нужно отражение твоих идей."
13-14
Я пропустил момент задать вопрос, но его улыбка воодушевила меня продолжать разговор. Другой темой огромной важности для меня был его друг Дон Дженаро и экстраординарный эффект, который его действия произвели на меня. Каждый раз, когда у меня был с ним контакт, я испытывал необычные искажения мира.
Дон Хуан рассмеялся, когда я задал ему этот вопрос.
"Дженаро - непостижим, он - изумителен," сказал он. "Но в настоящее время нет смысла говорить о нём или о том, что он делает с тобой. И опять. У тебя своей силы недостаточно, чтобы разгадать эту тему. Жди, когда сила появится, тогда и поговорим."
"А что если она никогда не появится?"
"Если она никогда не появится, мы никогда не будем об этом говорить."
"В том темпе, в каком я двигаюсь, будет ли у меня достаточно её?" спросил я.
"Это зависит от тебя," ответил он. "Всю необходимую информацию я тебе дал. А сейчас ты - ответственный за то, чтобы накопить достаточно личной силы и тогда чаша весов перевесит в твою сторону."
"Ты говоришь загадками," сказал я. "Говори прямо. Ты мне точно скажи что делать. Если ты уже говорил мне, давай договоримся, что я это забыл."
Дон Хуан усмехнулся и лёг, заложив руки за голову. "Ты точно знаешь, что тебе нужно," сказал он, а я сказал ему, что иногда я знаю, но часто у меня нет уверенности в себе. "Боюсь, что ты путаешь вещи," сказал он. "Уверенность в себе у воина - не то же самое что у обычного человека. Обычный человек ищет подтверждения в глазах смотрящего на него и называет это уверенностью в себе. Воин же ищет безукоризненности в своих собственных глазах и называет это - скромностью. Обычный человек связан со своими друзьями, тогда как воин связан только с самим собой. Наверно ты ищешь несуществующее. Ты ищешь само-
уверенность обычного человека, когда тебе следует искать скромность воина. Разница между этими понятиями - колоссальная. Самоуверенность заключает в себе то, что точно знаешь; скромность имеет ввиду - быть безукоризненным в своих действиях и чувствах."
"Я старался жить согласно твоим советам," ответил я. "Не могу сказать что я самый лучший, но я - стал лучше для себя. Это и есть безукоризненность?"
"Нет. Ты должен добиться большего, чем это. Ты всё время должен толкать себя за пределы своего лимита."
"Но это - ненормально, Дон Хуан. Никто не может это сделать."
"Есть много вещей, которые сейчас ты умеешь делать и которые казались тебе ненормальными 10 лет назад. Те вещи сами не изменились, но твоё представление о себе поменялось. То, что было раньше невозможным, возможно сейчас, и может быть твой тотальный успех в изменении себя - это только дело времени.
В таких делах, единственный реальный путь, который имеется у воина, это постоянно действовать и безоговорочно. Ты знаешь достаточно путь воина, чтобы действовать правильно, но твои старые привычки и рутина стоят на пути." Я понял, что он имел ввиду.
"Ты думаешь, что писать - это одна из моих старых привычек, которые я должен изменить?" спросил я. "Я должен уничтожить свою новую рукопись?"
Он не ответил, встал и повернулся, чтобы посмотреть на край кустов. Я сказал ему, что получил письма от разных людей, пишущих, что это неправильно писать о моей тренировке Колдовству. Они привели пример, что мастера восточной эзотерики требовали абсолютной секретности своих учений.
"Возможно те мастера просто потакают своим слабостям вроде того, как быть мастером," сказал Дон Хуан, не глядя на меня. "Я - не мастер, а только воин. Так что я реально не знаю, что такое мастер."
"Может быть я открываю вещи, которые я не должен, Дон Хуан?"
"Это неважно, что открывается или что держится при себе," ответил он. "Всё, что мы делаем, всё, что мы есть покоится на нашей личной силе. Если у нас её достаточно, лишь одно, произнесёное для нас, слово может быть достаточным поменять направление нашей жизни. Но если у нас недостаточно личной силы, самые прекрасные слова мудрости могут быть открыты нам, но это открытие для нас не будет иметь никакого значения." Затем он снизил голос, как-будто мне сообщал секретную информацию. "Я собираюсь произнести наверно величайшие знания, какие только можно произнести," сказал он. "Посмотрим, что ты сможешь с ними сделать."
15
"Ты знаешь, что в этот самый момент ты окружён Вечностью? И что ты можешь использовать эту Вечность, если захочешь? Там! Вечность там!" сказал он, указывая на горизонт, потом наверх в зенит. "Или там, или может быть мы можем сказать, что Вечность вот такая." Он раздвинул обе руки, показывая Восток и Запад. "Что ты на это скажешь? А знаешь ли ты, что можешь расширить себя бесконечно в любом из указанных направлений. Этих Знаний у тебя до этого не было, а сейчас они есть. Я открыл их тебе, но для тебя это не имеет никакого значения, потому что у тебя недостаточно личной силы, чтобы использовать это Открытие.
И всё же, если бы у тебя было достаточно личной силы, одни только мои слова помогли бы тебе собрать Тотальность всего себя и вытащить её решающую часть
из границ, в которых она находится." Дон Хуан подошёл ко мне и легонько ткнул меня пальцами в грудь..."Это и есть границы, о которых я говорю. Из них можно выйти. Мы - это чувства, сознание, заключённое здесь, в этом теле." Он хлопнул по моим плечам обоими руками: мой блокнот и карандаш упали на землю.
Дон Хуан поставил свою ногу на блокнот, уставился на меня и затем рассмеялся. Я спросил, не возражает ли он, если я буду писать. Убедительным тоном
он сказал нет и убрал ногу с блокнота. "Мы - Светящиеся Существа," сказал он, ритмически покачивая головой. "А для Светящихся Существ только личная сила имеет значение. Но если ты меня спросишь меня, что такое личная сила, мне придётся сказать тебе, что моё объяснение это не объяснит." Дон Хуан посмотрел на запад горизонта и сказал, что всё ещё есть несколько часов дневного света. "Нам придёться оставаться здесь долгое время," объяснил он. "Так что мы или спокойно сидим, или разговариваем. Но для тебя неестественно молчать, тогда давай поговорим. Это место - место Силы и оно должно привыкнуть к нам до прихода ночи. Ты должен сидеть здесь как можно естественнее без страха или нетерпения. Похоже, что самый лёгким для тебя расслабиться будет писать, так что пиши сколько хочешь. А сейчас предположим ты расскажешь мне о своих внетелесные полётах."
Этот неожиданный поворот захватил меня врасплох. Он повторил своё предложение. Было много поговорить об этом. "Полёты" заключают в себе развитие необычного контроля над своими снами до такой степени, что испытания, полученные в них, и те испытания, прожитые в часы бодрствования, требуют той же способности объединяться с чем-то ещё. Заявлением Колдунов было: под влиянием или воздействием полётов обычное мерило отличия полёта во сне от реальности - не срабатывает. Практическое упражнение Полёта Дон Хуана было упражнение, которое состоит в обнаружении своих рук во сне. Другими словами,
человеку нужно было нарочно представить, что ищешь и можешь найти свои руки во сне, просто воображая, что поднимаешь свои руки на уровень глаз. После нескольких лет неудачных попыток я наконец, справился с заданием. Смотря в прошлое, мне стало ясно, что я добился этого только после того, как приобрёл степень контроля над миром моей ежедневной жизни. Дон Хуан хотел знать, привлекающие внимание, точки. Я стал рассказывать ему о трудности дать команду - смотреть на руки - что довольно часто кажется невозможным. Он предупредил меня, что ранние стадии подготовительного периода-аспекта, который он называл
"подготовка к Полётам", состояла из смертельной игры, которую разум играл с самим собой, и что какая-то часть меня собиралась делать всё, что было в её силах, чтобы помешать выполнению моего задания. Что могло включать, как сказал Дон Хуан, погружение меня в меланхолию, потерю смысла и даже в самоубийственную депрессию.
17-18
Однако я не пошёл так далеко. Моё испытание было скорее на лёгкой, комической стороне; и тем не менее, результат был всё равно огорчающий. Каждый раз, когда я собирался увидеть свои руки во сне, происходило что-то экстраординарное. Я начинал летать или мой сон превращался в кошмар или это становилось просто очень приятным телесным возбуждением. Всё во сне увеличивалось далеко за пределы "нормального" в смысле яркости, и таким образом, был ужасно вовлекающим. Моё первоначальное намерение - видеть свои руки - всегда забывалось в свете новой ситуации. Одной ночью, совершенно неожиданно я нашёл свои руки во сне. Мне снилось, что я шёл по незнакомой улице незнакомого города и вдруг я поднял руки и загородил ими лицо. Было так, как-будто что-то внутри меня сдалось и разрешило мне увидеть заднюю часть моих рук. Инструктажем Дон Хуана было: как только вид моих рук начнёт рассеиваться или меняться во что-то другое, мне нужно отвести взгляд от рук на какой-то другой элемент в окружении в моём сне. В этом сне я перевёл взгляд на здание в конце улицы. Когда вид здания начал рассеиваться, я сфокусировал внимание на другие элементы, окружающие мой сон. Конечный результат - был невероятно ясная картина безлюдной улицы в каком-то неизвестном чужом городе. Дон Хуан велел мне продолжать вспоминать другие случаи во сне. Мы говорили долгое время. В конце моего изложения он встал и пошёл в кусты. Я тоже встал, я нервничал. Это было непредвиденное ощущение, так как не было надвигающегося страха или торопливости. Дон Хуан быстро вернулся, заметил моё беспокойство и сказал, мягко придерживая мою руку. "Успокойся," он заставил меня сесть и положил блокнот мне на колени, убедив меня писать. Его аргументом было то, что я не должен беспокоить место Силы ненужными чувствами страха и колебания.
"Почему я нервничаю?" спросил я.
"Это - естественно," ответил он. "Что-то в тебе под угрозой из-за твоих действий в Полётах. Если не будешь думать об тех действиях, то будешь - в порядке.
Но сейчас, так как ты выдал свои действия, ты вот-вот потеряешь сознание. У каждого воина свой метод Полётов. Каждый метод - разный. Единственное, что у всех, у нас общее это - что мы проделываем трюки, чтобы заставить себя бросить поиски. В противовес этому нужно быть настойчивым, несмотря на все барьеры и разочарования." Потом он спросил меня, смог бы я выбрать тему для Полёта. Я признался, что понятия не имею как это делать. "Объяснения Колдунов - как выбрать тему для Полёта," сказал он, "в том, что воин выбирает тему, держа нарочно в голове образ, пока останавливает свой внутренний диалог. Другими словами, если он способен не говорить с самим собой какой-то момент, и затем держит образ или мысль того, что он хочет в Полёте, даже если это только на секунду, тогда желаемая тема придёт к нему. Я уверен, что это делал, хотя ты этого не подозреваешь." Наступило долгое молчание и затем Дон Хуан начал нюхать воздух. Казалось, он продувал нос: с огромной силой выдохнул 3-4 раза через ноздри. Мускулы его живота сжались в спазме, которую он контролировал, короткими вдохами беря воздух. "Говорить о Полётах мы больше не будем," сказал он. "У тебя это может превратиться в навязчивую идею, если хочешь преуспеть в чём-то, то успех должен придти неторопливо, с огромным усилием, но без стресса и зависимостей." Он встал и пошёл к кромке кустов, наклонился и уставился в листву. Похоже, он что-то рассматривал в листьях, не подходя к ним слишком близко.
"Что ты делаешь?" спросил я, не способный унять своё любопытство. Он повернулся ко мне, улыбнулся и поднял бровь.
"Кусты заполнены странными вещами," ответил он, снова садясь. Его тон был такой беспечный, что напугал меня больше чем, если бы он издал неожиданный крик. Мой блокнот и карандаш вывалились из рук. Он засмеялся, передразнил меня и сказал, что мои преувеличенные реакции были одно из незаконченных вещей, которые всё ещё существовали в моей жизни. Я хотел поговорить об этом, но он не дал мне.
19-20
"Осталось немного дневного света," сказал он. "Есть другие вещи, которые нужно затронуть пока не стемнеет." Затем он добавил, что судя по моим результатам в Полётах, я должно быть научился волей останавливать свой внутренний диалог. Я сказал ему, что научился.
Вначале нашего знакомства Дон Хуан описал другой метод: пройти длинное расстояние, не фокусируя глаза ни на чём. Его совет был - не смотреть ни на что прямо, а слегка скосив глаза, чтобы сохранять боковое зрение всего, что представлялось глазам. Он настаивал: если глаза не фокусировать в точке чуть выше горизонта, то было возможным сразу заметить перед глазами всё почти на полные 180 градусов (хотя я этого тогда не понял). Он заверил меня, что это упражнение было единственным средством прекратить внутренний диалог. Он бывало спрашивал меня о моём прогрессе и затем он прекратил спрашивать об этом. Я сказал Дон Хуану, что практиковал этот метод годами, не замечая никаких изменений, но я итак ничего и не ожидал. Однако однажды, меня шокировало осознать, что я только что прошёл 10 минут, не сказав себе ни единого слова. Я поделился с Дон Хуаном, что в то же время я также полностью осознал, что остановка внутреннего диалога заключала в себе больше, чем просто сокращать слова, сказанные самому себе. Весь мой ментальный процесс остановился
и я почувствовал себя практически подвешенным на плаву. Ощущение паники появилось от этой мысли и мне пришлось вернуться к внутреннему диалогу из предосторожности.
"Я сказал тебе, что это Внутренний Диалог то, что приземляет нас," сказал Дон Хуан. "Мир такой/сякой, только потому, что мы говорим сами с собой о том, что мир - такой/сякой." Дон Хуан объяснил, что путь в мир Колдунов открывается только после того, как воин научится останавливать внутренний диалог.
"Изменить наше представление о мире это - самое главное, и остановка Внутреннего Диалога - это единственный метод добиться этого. Остальное - просто легче. Сейчас ты знаешь, что ничего из того, что ты видел или делал, кроме Остановки Внутреннего Диалога, могло само поменять что-то в тебе или в твоём представлении мира. Конечно при условии, что перемена не должна быть беспорядочной. Сейчас ты понимаешь, почему учитель не ограничивает своего ученика. От этого только возникают навязчивые идеи и болезни." Он интересовался деталями других случаев, произошедших со мной, когда я боролся остановить Внутренний Диалог. Я пересказал всё, что мог вспомнить. Мы шли пока не стемнело и я уже не мог писать: мне пришлось переключить своё внимание на записи и это поменяло мою концентрацию. Дон Хуан, увидев это, начал хохотать. Он указал на то, что я достиг другой цели Колдовства: писать не концентрируясь.
В тот момент, когда он это высказал, я понял, что я реально не обращал внимания на то, как я писал. Это казалось отдельным действием, к которому я не имел никакого отношения. Я странно себя почувствовал. Дон Хуан попросил меня сесть рядом с ним в центре круга. Он сказал, что было слишком темно, и сидеть близко к краю кустов было нежелательно. Я почувствовал холод на спине и отпрыгнул к нему. Он велел мне быть лицом к юго-востоку и попросил меня дать себе команду молчать и не иметь мыслей. Таинственным тоном он добавил, что он обдумывает проблему для меня, и если я её разрешу, то я буду готов к другой грани мира Колдунов. Я пытался задать вопрос о природе проблемы. Он тихо посмеялся. Я ждал ответа и затем что-то во мне отключилось. Я почувствовал: что стал подвешенным. Мои уши казалось, раскупорились и стали слышны тысячи шумов в кустах. Их было так много, что я не мог различить их отдельно. Чувствовал, что засыпаю и затем вдруг что-то привлекло моё внимание.
21-22
Перевод на русский продолжится
It was not something, which involved my thought processes; it was not a vision, or a feature of the environment either, yet my awareness had been engaged by something. I was fully awake. My eyes were focused on a spot on the edge of the chaparral, but I was not looking, or thinking, or talking to myself. My feelings were clear bodily sensations; they did not need words. I felt, I was rushing through something indefinite. Perhaps, what would have ordinarily been my thoughts, were rushing; at any rate, I had the sensation, that I had been caught in a landslide and something was avalanching, with me at the crest. I felt the rush in my stomach. Something was pulling me into the chaparral. I could distinguish the dark mass of the bushes in front of me. It was not, however, an undifferentiated darkness, as it would ordinarily be. I could see every individual bush, as if I were looking at them in a dark twilight. They seemed to be moving; the mass of their foliage looked like black skirts flowing towards me, as if they were being blown by the wind, but there was no wind. I became absorbed in their mesmerizing movements; it was a pulsating ripple, that seemed to draw them nearer and nearer to me. And then I noticed a lighter silhouette, which seemed to be superimposed on the dark shapes of the bushes. I focused my eyes on a spot to the side of the lighter silhouette and I could make out a chartreuse glow on it. Then I looked at it without focusing and I had the certainty, that the lighter silhouette was a man hiding in the underbrush. I was, at that moment, in a most peculiar state of awareness. I was cognizant of the surroundings and of the mental processes, that the surroundings engendered in myself, yet I was not thinking, as I ordinarily think. For instance, when I realized, that the silhouette superimposed on the bushes was a man, I recalled another occasion on the desert; I had noticed then, while don Genaro and I were walking in the chaparral at night, that a man was hiding in the bushes behind us, but the instant I had attempted to explain the phenomenon rationally, I lost sight of the man. This time, however, I felt I had the upper hand and I refused to explain or to think anything at all. For a moment I had the impression, that I could hold the man and force him to remain, where he was. I then experienced a strange pain in the pit of my stomach. Something seemed to rip inside me and I could not hold the muscles of my midsection tense any longer. At the very moment I let go, the dark shape of an enormous bird, or some sort of flying animal, lurched at me from the chaparral. It was, as if the shape of the man had turned into the shape of a bird. I had the clear conscious perception of fear. I gasped and then let out a loud yell and fell on my back. Don Juan helped me up. His face was very close to mine. He was laughing.
"What was that?" I shouted. He hushed me, putting his hand over my mouth. He put his lips to my ear and whispered, that we had to leave the area in a calm and collected fashion, as if nothing had happened. We walked side by side. His pace was relaxed and even. A couple of times he turned around quickly. I did the same and twice I caught sight of a dark mass, that seemed to be following us. I heard a loud eerie shriek behind me. I experienced a moment of sheer terror; ripples ran through the muscles of my stomach; they came in spasms and grew in intensity, until they simply forced my body to run. The only way of talking about my reaction has to be in don Juan's terminology; and thus I can say, that my body, due to the fright I was experiencing, was capable of executing what he had called "the gait of power," a technique he had taught me years before, consisting of running in the darkness without tripping or hurting oneself in any way. I was not fully aware of what I had done or how I had done it. Suddenly I found myself again at don Juan's house. Apparently he had also run and we had arrived at the same time. He lit his kerosene lantern, hung it from a beam in the ceiling and casually asked me to sit down and relax. I jogged on the same spot for a while, until my nervousness became more manageable. Then I sat down. He forcefully ordered me to act, as if nothing had happened and handed me my notebook. I had not realized, that in my haste to leave the bushes I had dropped it.
"What happened out there, don Juan?" I finally asked.
"You had an appointment with Knowledge," he said, pointing with a movement of his chin to the dark edge of the desert chaparral.
23-24
"I took you there, because I caught a Glimpse of Knowledge prowling (roaming) around the house earlier. You might say, that knowledge knew, that you were coming and was waiting for you. Rather than meeting it here, I felt it was proper to meet it on a Power Spot. Then I set up a test to see, if you had enough personal power to isolate it from the rest of the things around us. You did fine."
"Wait a minute!" I protested. "I saw the silhouette of a man hiding behind a bush and then I saw a huge bird."
"You didn't see a man!" he said emphatically. "Neither did you see a bird. The silhouette in the bushes and what flew to us was a moth. If you want to be accurate in sorcerers' terms, but very ridiculous in your own terms, you could say, that tonight you had an appointment with a moth. Knowledge is a moth." He looked at me piercingly. The light of the lantern created strange shadows on his face. I moved my eyes away. "Perhaps you'll have enough personal power to unravel that mystery tonight," he said. "If not tonight, perhaps tomorrow; remember, you still owe me six days." Don Juan stood up and walked to the kitchen in the back of the house. He took the lantern and set it against the wall on the short round stump, that he used as a bench. We sat down on the floor opposite each other and served ourselves some beans and meat from a pot, that he had placed in front of us. We ate in silence. He gave me furtive (mysterious) glances from time to time and seemed on the verge of laughing. His eyes were like two slits. When he looked at me, he would open them a bit and the moistness of the corneas (circular transparent structures sending light onto the lens) reflected the light of the lantern. It was, as if he were using the light to create a mirror reflection. He played with it, shaking his head almost imperceptibly every time he focused his eyes on me. The effect was a fascinating quiver (vibration) of light. I became aware of his maneuvers after he had executed them a couple of times. I was convinced, that he was acting with a definite purpose in mind. I felt compelled (forced) to ask him about it. "I have an ulterior (concealed intentionally) reason," he said reassuringly. "I'm soothing you with my eyes. You don't seem to be getting more nervous, do you?" I had to admit, that I felt quite at ease. The steady flicker in his eyes was not menacing and it had not scared or annoyed me in any way.
"How do you soothe me with your eyes?" I asked.
He repeated the imperceptible shake of his head. The corneas of his eyes were indeed reflecting the light of the kerosene lantern. "Try to do it yourself," he said casually, as he gave himself another serving of food. "You can soothe yourself." I tried to shake my head; my movements were awkward. "You won't soothe yourself bobbing your head like that," he said and laughed. "You'll give yourself a headache instead. The secret is not in the head shake, but in the feeling, that comes to the eyes from the area below the stomach. This is what makes the head shake." He rubbed his umbilical region. After I had finished eating I slouched (drop, hang down) against a pile of wood and some burlap (hemp cloth) sacks. I tried to imitate his head shake. Don Juan seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. He giggled and slapped his thighs. Then a sudden noise interrupted his laughter. I heard a strange deep sound, like tapping on wood, that came from the chaparral. Don Juan jutted (protrude) his chin, signaling me to remain alert. "That's the little moth calling you," he said in an unemotional tone. I jumped to my feet. The sound ceased instantaneously. I looked at don Juan for an explanation. He made a comical gesture of helplessness, shrugging his shoulders. "You haven't fulfilled your appointment yet," he added. I told him, that I felt unworthy and that perhaps I should go home and come back when I felt stronger. "You're talking nonsense," he snapped. "A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness. He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as grounds for regret, but as a living challenge. It takes time for every one of us to understand that point and fully live it. I, for instance, hated the mere mention of the word “humbleness”. I'm an Indian and we Indians have always been humble and have done nothing else, but lower our heads.
25-26
I thought humbleness was not in the warrior's way. I was wrong! I know now, that the humbleness of a warrior is not the humbleness of a beggar. The warrior lowers his head to noone, but at the same time, he doesn't permit anyone to lower his head to him. The beggar, on the other hand, falls to his knees at the drop of a hat and scrapes the floor for anyone he deems to be higher; but at the same time, he demands, that someone lower, than him scrape the floor for him. "That's why I told you earlier today, that I didn't understand what masters felt like. I know only the humbleness of a warrior, and that will never permit me to be anyone's master." We were quiet for a moment. His words had caused me a profound agitation. I was moved by them and at the same time I felt concerned with what I had witnessed in the chaparral. My conscious assessment was, that don Juan was holding out on me and that he must have known what was really taking place. I was involved in those deliberations (careful and slow decision), when the same strange tapping noise jolted me out of my thoughts. Don Juan smiled and then began to chuckle.
"You like the humbleness of a beggar," he said softly. "You bow your head to reason."
"I always think, that I'm being tricked," I said. "That's the crux of my problem."
"You're right. You are being tricked," he retorted with a disarming smile. "That cannot be your problem. The real crux of the matter is, that you feel, that I am deliberately lying to you, am I correct?"
"Yes. There is something in myself, that doesn't let me believe, that what's taking place is real."
"You're right again. Nothing of what is taking place is real."
"What do you mean by that, don Juan?"
"Things are real only after one has learned to agree on their realness. What took place this evening, for instance, cannot possibly be real to you, because noone could agree with you about it."
"Do you mean, that you didn't see what happened?"
"Of course I did. But I don't count. I am the one who's lying to you, remember?" Don Juan laughed until he coughed and choked. His laughter was friendly, even though he was making fun of me. "Don't pay too much attention to all my gibberish," he said reassuringly. "I'm just trying to relax you and I know, that you feel at home only when you're muddled up (confused)." His expression was deliberately comical and we both laughed. I told him, that what he had just said, made me feel more afraid, than ever. "You're afraid of me?" he asked.
"Not of you, but of what you represent."
"I represent the warrior's freedom. Are you afraid of that?"
"No. But I'm afraid of the awesomeness of your knowledge. There is no solace (comfort in sorrow) for me, no haven to go to."
"You're again confusing issues. Solace, haven, fear, all of them are moods, that you have learned without ever questioning their value. As one can see, the black magicians have already engaged all your allegiance (loyalty, fidelity)."
"Who are the black magicians, don Juan?"
"Our fellow men are the black magicians. And since you are with them, you too are a black magician. Think for a moment. Can you deviate from the path, that they've lined up for you? No. Your thoughts and your actions are fixed forever in their terms. That is slavery. I, on the other hand, brought you freedom. Freedom is expensive, but the price is not impossible. So, fear your captors, your masters. Don't waste your time and your power fearing me." I knew, that he was right, and yet in spite of my genuine agreement with him, I also knew, that my lifelong habits would unavoidably make me stick to my old path. I did indeed feel like a slave. After a long silence don Juan asked me if I had enough strength for another bout (fight, match) with Knowledge.
"Do you mean with the moth?" I asked half in jest (in humorous tone). His body contorted with laughter. It was as if I had just told him the funniest joke in the world.
"What do you really mean when you say that knowledge is a moth?" I asked.
"I have no other meanings," he replied. "A moth is a moth.
27-28
I thought, that by now, with all your accomplishments, you would have had enough power to see. You caught sight of a man instead and that was not true Seeing."
From the beginning of my apprenticeship, don Juan had depicted the concept of "Seeing" as a special capacity, that one could develop and which would allow one to apprehend the "ultimate" nature of things. Over the years of our association I had developed a notion, that what he meant by 'Seeing' was an intuitive grasp of things, or the capacity to understand something at once, or perhaps the ability to see through human interactions and discover covert meanings and motives.
"I should say that tonight, when you faced the moth, you were half looking and half Seeing," don Juan proceeded. "In that state, although you were not altogether your usual self, you were still capable of being fully aware in order to operate your knowledge of the world." Don Juan paused and looked at me.
I did not know what to say at first. "How was I operating my knowledge of the world?" I asked.
"Your knowledge of the world told you, that in the bushes one can only find animals prowling or men hiding behind the foliage. You held that thought, and naturally you had to find ways to make the world conform to that thought."
"But I wasn't thinking at all, don Juan."
"Let's not call it thinking then. It is rather the habit of having the world always conform to our thoughts. When it doesn't, we simply make it conform. Moths as large, as a man cannot be even a thought, therefore, for you, what was in the bushes had to be a man. The same thing happened with the coyote. Your old habits decided the nature of that encounter too. Something took place between you and the coyote, but it wasn't talk. I have been in the same quandary (dilemma, predicament) myself. I've told you, that once I talked with a deer; now you've talked to a coyote, but neither you, nor I will ever know what really took place at those times."
"What are you telling me, don Juan?"
"When the sorcerers' explanation became clear to me, it was too late to know what the deer did to me. I said, that we talked, but that wasn't so. To say, that we had a conversation, is only a way of arranging it, so I can talk about it. The deer and I did something, but at the time it was taking place I needed to make the world conform to my ideas, just like you did. I had been talking all my life, just like you, therefore my habits prevailed and were extended to the deer. When the deer came to me and did whatever it did, I was forced to understand it as talking."
"Is this the sorcerers' explanation?"
"No. This is my explanation for you. But it is not opposed to the sorcerers' explanation." His statement threw me into a state of great intellectual excitation. For a while I forgot the prowling moth or even to take notes. I tried to rephrase his statements and we involved ourselves in a long discussion about the reflexive (automatic, habitual action) nature of our world. The world, according to don Juan, had to conform to its description; that is, the description reflected itself. Another point in his elucidation (clarifying) was that we had learned to relate ourselves to our description of the world in terms of what he called "habits." I introduced what
I thought was a more engulfing term, intentionality, the property of human consciousness whereby an object is referred to, or is intended. Our conversation engendered (produced) a most interesting speculation (conclusion). Examined in light of don Juan's explanation, my "talk" with the coyote acquired a new character. I had indeed "intended" the dialogue, since I have never known another avenue of intentional communication. I had also succeeded in conforming to the description, that communication takes place through dialogue, and thus I made the description reflect itself. I had a moment of great elation. Don Juan laughed and said, that to be so moved by words was another aspect of my foolery. He made a comical gesture of talking without sounds. "All of us go through the same shenanigans (mischief, treachery, deceit)," he said after a long pause. "The only way to overcome them is to persist in acting like a warrior. The rest comes of itself and by itself."
"What is the rest, don Juan?"
"Knowledge and Power. Men of Knowledge have both. And yet none of them could tell how they got to have them, except, that they had kept on acting like warriors and at a given moment everything changed."
29-30
He looked at me. He seemed undecided, then stood up and said, that I had no other recourse (way), but to keep my appointment with knowledge. I felt a shiver; my heart began to pound fast. I got up. Don Juan moved around me, as if he were examining my body from every possible angle. He signaled me to sit down and keep on writing. "If you get too frightened you won't be able to keep your appointment," he said. "A warrior must be calm and collected and must never lose his grip."
"I'm really scared," I said. "Moth or whatever, there is something prowling around out there in the bushes."
"Of course there is!" he exclaimed. "My objection is, that you insist on thinking, that it is a man, just like you insist on thinking, that you talked with a coyote." A part of me fully understood his point; there was, however, another aspect of myself, that would not let go and, in spite of the evidence, clung steadfast (unchanging) to "reason." I told don Juan, that his explanation did not satisfy my senses, although I was in complete intellectual agreement with it. "That's the flaw with words,"
he said in an assuring tone. "They always force us to feel enlightened, but when we turn around to face the world, they always fail us and we end up facing the world as we always have, without enlightenment. For this reason, a sorcerer seeks to act rather, than to talk and to this effect he gets a new description of the world — a new description, where talking is not that important, and where new acts have new reflections." He sat down by me and gazed into my eyes and asked me to voice, what I had really seen in the chaparral. I was confronted at the moment with an absorbing inconsistency. I had seen the dark shape of a man, but I had also seen, that shape turn into a bird. I had, therefore, witnessed more, than my reason would allow me to consider possible. But rather than discarding my reason altogether, something in myself had selected parts of my experience, such as the size and general contour of the dark shape, and held them as reasonable possibilities, while
it discarded other parts, such as the dark shape turning into a bird. And thus I had become convinced, that I had seen a man. Don Juan roared with laughter when
I expressed my quandary. He said, that sooner or later the sorcerers' explanation would come to my rescue and everything would then be perfectly clear, without having to be reasonable or unreasonable. "In the meantime all I can do for you is to guarantee, that that was not a man," he said. Don Juan's gaze became quite unnerving. My body shivered involuntarily. He made me feel embarrassed and nervous. "I'm looking for marks on your body," he explained. "You may not know it, but this evening you had quite a bout (struggle, match) out there."
"What kind of marks are you looking for?"
"Not actual physical marks on your body, but signs, indications in your Luminous Fibers, areas of Brightness. We are Luminous Beings and everything we are or everything we feel shows in our fibers. Humans have a Brightness peculiar only to them. That's the only way to tell them apart from other Luminous Living Beings.
If you would have seen tonight, you would have noticed, that the shape in the bushes was not a Luminous Living Being." I wanted to ask more, but he put his hand on my mouth and hushed me. He then put his mouth to my ear and whispered, that I should listen and try to hear a soft rustling, the gentle muffled steps of a moth on the dry leaves and branches on the ground. I could not hear anything. Don Juan stood up abruptly, picked up the lantern and said, that we were going to sit under the ramada by the front door.
He led me through the back and around the house, on the edge of the chaparral rather, than going through the room and out the front door. He explained, that it was essential to make our presence obvious. We half circled around the house on the left side. Don Juan's pace was extremely slow. His steps were weak and vacillating (fluctuating). His arm shook, as he held the lantern. I asked him if there was something wrong with him. He winked at me and whispered, that the big moth, that was prowling around, had an appointment with a young man, and that the slow gait of a feeble old man was an obvious way of showing, who was the appointee.
31-32
When we finally arrived at the front of the house, don Juan hooked the lantern on a beam and made me sit with my back against the wall. He sat to my right.
"We're going to sit here," he said, "and you are going to write and talk to me in a very normal manner. The moth, that lurched at you today, is around, in the bushes. After a while it'll come closer to look at you. That's why I've put the lantern on a beam right above you. The light will guide the moth to find you. When it gets to the edge of the bushes, it will call you. It is a very special sound. The sound by itself may help you."
"What kind of sound is it, don Juan?"
"It is a song. A haunting call, that moths produce. Ordinarily, it cannot be heard, but the moth out there in the bushes is a rare moth; you will hear its call clearly and, providing, that you are impeccable, it will remain with you for the rest of your life."
"What is it going to help me with?"
"Tonight, you're going to try to finish what you've started earlier. Seeing happens only when the warrior is capable of stopping the internal dialogue. Today, you stopped your talk at will, out there in the bushes. And you saw. What you saw was not clear. You thought, that it was a man. I say it was a moth. Neither of us is correct, but that's because we have to talk. I still have the upper hand, because I see better, than you and because I'm familiar with the sorcerers' explanation; so
I know, although it's not altogether accurate, that the shape you saw tonight was a moth. And now, you're going to remain silent and thoughtless and let that little moth come to you again." I could hardly take notes. Don Juan laughed and urged me to keep on writing, as if nothing bothered me. He touched my arm and said, that writing was the best protective shield, that I had. "We've never talked about moths," he went on. "The time was not right until now. As you already know, your spirit was unbalanced. To counteract that, I taught you to live the warrior's way. Well, a warrior starts off with the certainty, that his Spirit is off Balance; then by living in full Control and Awareness, but without hurry or compulsion, he does his ultimate best to gain this Balance. In your case, as in the case of every man, your imbalance was due to the sum total of all your actions. But now your Spirit seems to be in the proper light to talk about moths."
"How did you know, that this was the right time to talk about moths?"
"I caught a glimpse of the moth prowling around, when you arrived. It was the first time it was friendly and open. I had seen it before in the mountains around Genaro's house, but only as a menacing figure reflecting your lack of order." I heard a strange sound at that moment. It was like a muffled creaking of a branch, rubbing against another, or like the sputtering of a small motor, heard from a distance. It changed scales, like a musical tone, creating an eerie rhythm. Then it stopped. "That was the moth," don Juan said. "Perhaps you've already noticed that, although the light of the lantern is bright enough to attract moths, there isn't a single one flying around it." I had not paid attention to it, but once don Juan made me aware of it, I also noticed an incredible silence in the desert around the house.
"Don't get jumpy," he said calmly. "There is nothing in this world, that a warrior cannot account for. You see, a warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing for him to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he's clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect, that he has witnessed everything." Don Juan's words, and above all his mood, were very soothing to me. I told him, that in my day-to-day life I no longer experienced the obsessive fear I used to, but that my body entered into convulsions of fright at the thought of what was out there in the dark. "Out there, there is only knowledge," he said in a factual tone. "Knowledge is frightening, true; but if a warrior accepts the frightening nature of knowledge, he cancels out its awesomeness." The strange sputtering noise happened again. It seemed closer and louder. I listened carefully. The more attention I paid to it, the more difficult it was to determine its nature. It did not seem to be the call of a bird or the cry of a land animal.
33-34
The tone of each sputter was rich and deep; some were produced in a low key, others in a high one. They had a rhythm and a specific duration; some were long, I heard them like a single unit of sound; others were short and happened in a cluster, like the staccato sound of a machine gun. "The moths are the heralds or, better yet, the guardians of eternity," don Juan said after the sound had stopped. "For some reason, or for no reason at all, they are the depositories of the gold dust of Eternity." The metaphor was foreign to me. I asked him to explain it. "The moths carry a dust on their wings," he said. "A dark gold dust. That dust is the dust of knowledge." His explanation had made the metaphor even more obscure. I vacillated (vibrate) for a moment, trying to find the best way of wording my question. But he began to talk again.
"Knowledge is a most peculiar affair," he said, "especially for a warrior. Knowledge for a warrior is something, that comes at once, engulfs him, and passes on."
"What does knowledge have to do with the dust on the wings of moths?" I asked after a long pause.
"Knowledge comes, floating like specks of gold dust, the same dust, that covers the wings of moths. So, for a warrior, knowledge is like taking a shower, or being rained on by specks of dark gold dust." In the most polite manner I was capable of, I mentioned, that his explanations had confused me even more. He laughed and assured me, that he was making perfect sense, except that my reason would not allow me to be at ease. "The moths have been the intimate friends and helpers of sorcerers from time immemorial," he said. "I had not touched upon this subject before, because of your lack of preparation."
"But how can the dust on their wings be knowledge?"
"You'll see." He put his hand over my notebook and told me to close my eyes and become silent and without thoughts. He said, that the call of the moth in the chaparral was going to aid me. If I paid attention to it, it would tell me of imminent events. He stressed, that he did not know how the communication between the moth and myself was going to be established, neither did he know what the terms of the communication would be. He urged me to feel at ease and confident and trust my personal power. After an initial period of impatience and nervousness I succeeded in becoming silent. My thoughts diminished in number, until my mind was perfectly blank. The noises of the desert chaparral seemed to have been turned on as I became more calm. The strange sound, that don Juan said, was made by a moth, occurred again. It registered as a feeling in my body and not as a thought in my mind. It occurred to me, that it was not threatening or malevolent at all. It was sweet and simple. It was like a child's call. It brought back the memory of a little boy, that I once knew. The long sounds reminded me of his round blond head, the short staccato sounds of his laughter. The most anguishing feeling oppressed me, and yet there were no thoughts in my mind; I felt the anguish in my body. I could no longer remain sitting and slid to the floor on my side. My sadness was so intense, that I began to think. I assessed my pain and sorrow and suddenly found myself in the midst of an internal debate about the little boy. The sputtering sound had ceased. My eyes were closed. I heard don Juan standing up and then I felt him helping me to sit up. I did not want to speak. He did not say a word. I heard him moving by me. I opened my eyes; he had knelt in front of me and was examining my face, holding the lantern close to me. He ordered me to put my hands over my stomach. He stood up, went to the kitchen and brought me some water. He splashed some on my face and gave me the rest to drink. He sat down next to me and handed me my notes. I told him, that the sound had involved me in the most painful reverie. "You are indulging beyond your limits," he said dryly. He seemed to immerse himself in thought, as if he were searching for an appropriate suggestion to make. "The problem for tonight is seeing people," he finally said. "First you must stop your Internal Dialogue, then you must bring up the image of the person, that you want to see; any thought, that one holds in mind in a state of silence, is properly a command, since there are no other thoughts to compete with it. Tonight, the moth in the bushes wants to help you, so it will sing for you.
35-36
Its song will bring the golden specks and then you will see the person, you've selected." I wanted to have more details, but he made an abrupt gesture and signaled me to proceed. After struggling for a few minutes to stop my internal dialogue I was thoroughly silent. And then I deliberately held the brief thought of a friend of mine. I kept my eyes closed for what I believed to be just an instant and then I became aware, that someone was shaking me by the shoulders. It was a slow realization. I opened my eyes and found myself lying on my left side. I had apparently fallen asleep so deeply, that I did not remember having slumped to the ground. Don Juan helped me to sit up again. He was laughing. He imitated my snoring and said, that if he had not witnessed it himself, he would not believe, that anyone could fall asleep so fast. He said, that it was a treat for him to be around me whenever I had to do something, that my reason did not understand. He pushed my notebook away from me and said, that we had to start all over. I followed the necessary steps. The strange sputtering (like machinegun) sound happened again. This time, however, it did not come from the chaparral; rather it seemed to happen inside of me, as if my lips, or legs, or arms were producing it. The sound soon engulfed me. I felt like soft balls were being sputtered out from or against me; it was a soothing, exquisite feeling of being bombarded by heavy cotton puffs. Suddenly I heard a door blown open by a gust of wind and I was thinking again. I thought, that I had ruined another chance. I opened my eyes and found myself in my room. The objects on my desk were as I had left them. The door was open; there was a strong wind outside. The thought crossed my mind, that I should check the water heater. I then heard a rattling on the sliding windows, that I had put up myself and which did not fit well on the window frame. It was a furious rattling, as if someone wanted to enter. I experienced a jolt of fright. I stood up from my chair. I felt something pulling me. I screamed. Don Juan was shaking me by the shoulders. I excitedly gave him an account of my vision. It had been so vivid, that I was shivering. I felt, that I had just been at my desk, in my full corporeal (of material) form. Don Juan shook his head in disbelief and said, that I was a genius in tricking myself. He did not seem impressed by what I had done. He discarded it flatly and ordered me to start again. I then heard the mysterious sound again. It came to me, as don Juan had suggested, in the form of a rain of golden specks. I did not feel that they were flat specks or flakes, as he had described them, but rather spherical bubbles. They floated towards me. One of them burst open and revealed a scene to me. It was as if it had stopped in front of my eyes and opened up, disclosing a strange object. It looked like a mushroom. I was definitely looking at it, and, what I was experiencing, was not a dream. The mushroomlike object remained unchanged within my field of "vision" and then it popped, as though the light, that was shining on it, had been turned off. An interminable (endless) darkness followed it. I felt a tremor, a very unsettling jolt, and then I had the abrupt realization, that I was being shaken. All at once my senses were turned on. Don Juan was shaking me vigorously, and I was looking at him. I must have just opened my eyes at that moment. He sprinkled water on my face. The coldness of the water was very appealing. After a moment's pause he wanted to know what had happened. I recounted every detail of my vision. "But what did I see?" I asked.
"Your friend," he retorted. I laughed and patiently explained, that I had seen a mushroom-like figure. Although I had no criteria (official standard, rule, test) to judge dimensions, I had had the feeling, that it was about a foot long. Don Juan emphasized, that feeling was all, that counted. He said, that my feelings were the gauge (instrument for testing), that assessed the state of being of the subject, that I was seeing. "From your description and your feelings I must conclude, that your friend must be a very fine man," he said. I was baffled by his words. He said, that the mushroomlike formation was the essential shape of Human Beings, when a Sorcerer was Seeing them from far away, but when a Sorcerer was directly facing the person, he was Seeing, the human quality was shown as an Egglike Cluster of Luminous Fibers.
37-38
"You were not facing your friend," he said. "Therefore, he appeared like a mushroom."
"Why is that so, don Juan?"
"No one knows. That simply is the way men appear in this specific type of Seeing." He added, that every feature of the mushroomlike formation had a special significance, but that it was impossible for a beginner to accurately interpret that significance. I then had an intriguing recollection. Some years before, in a state of nonordinary reality elicited (draw out) by the intake of psychotropic plants, I had experienced or perceived, while I was looking at a water stream, that a cluster of bubbles floated towards me, engulfing me. The golden bubbles I had just envisioned had floated and engulfed me in exactly the same manner. In fact, I could say, that both clusters had had the same structure and the same pattern. Don Juan listened to my commentaries without interest. "Don't waste your power on trifles," he said. "You are dealing with that immensity out there." He pointed towards the chaparral with a movement of his hand. "To turn that magnificence out there into reasonableness, doesn't do anything for you. Here, surrounding us, is Eternity itself. To engage in reducing it to a manageable nonsense is petty and outright disastrous." He then insisted, that I should attempt to see another person from my realm of acquaintances. He added, that once the vision had terminated, I should strive to open my eyes by myself and surface to the full awareness of my immediate surroundings. I succeeded in holding the view of another mushroomlike form, but while the first one had been yellowish and small, the second one was whitish, larger and contorted. By the time we had finished talking about the two shapes, I had seen, I had forgotten the "moth" in the bushes, which had been so overwhelming a little while before. I told don Juan, that it amazed me, that I had such a facility for discarding something so truly uncanny (unexpected, weird). It was as if I were not the person, I knew myself to be. "I don't see why you make such a fuss out of this," don Juan said. "Whenever the dialogue stops, the world collapses and extraordinary facets of ourselves surface, as though they had been kept heavily guarded by our words. You are, like you are, because you tell yourself, that you are that way." After a short rest, don Juan urged me to continue "calling" friends. He said, that the point was to attempt to see as many times, as possible, in order to establish a guideline for feeling. I called thirty-two persons in succession. After each attempt, he demanded a careful and detailed rendition (description) of everything I had perceived in my vision. He changed that procedure, however, as I became more proficient in my performance, judging by my stopping the internal dialogue in a matter of seconds, by my being capable of opening my eyes by myself at the end of each experience, and by my resuming ordinary activities without any transition. I noticed this change, while we were discussing the coloration of the mushroomlike formations. He had already made the point, that what I called coloration, was not a hue, but a glow of different intensities. I was about to describe a yellowish glow, that I had envisioned, when he interrupted me and accurately described what I had seen. From that point on he discussed the content of each vision, not as if he had understood what I had said, but as if he had seen it himself. When I called him to comment on it, he flatly refused to talk about it. By the time I had finished calling the thirty-two persons, I had realized, that I had seen a variety of mushroomlike shapes, and glows, and I had had a variety of feelings towards them, ranging from mild delight to sheer disgust. Don Juan explained, that men were filled with configurations, that could be wishes, problems, sorrows, worries, and so on. He asserted, that only a profoundly powerful sorcerer could untangle the meaning of those configurations, and that I had to be content with viewing only the general shape of men. I was very tired. There was something indeed fatiguing about those strange shapes. My overall sensation was one of queasiness (nausea). I had not liked them. They had made me feel trapped and doomed. Don Juan commanded me to write, in order to dispel the sensation of somberness (melancholy,gloom).
39-40
And after a long silent interval, during which I could not write anything, he asked me to call on people, that he himself would select. A new series of forms emerged. They were not mushroomlike, but looked more like Japanese cups for sake (japanese alcohol), turned upside down. Some of them had a headlike formation, just like the foot of sake cups; others were more round. Their shapes were appealing and peaceful. I sensed, that there was some inherent feeling of happiness about them. They bounced, as opposed to the earthbound heaviness, that the previous batch had exhibited. Somehow, the mere fact, that they were there, eased my fatigue. Among the persons he had selected was his apprentice Eligio. When I summoned the vision of Eligio, I got a jolt, that shook me out of my visionary state. Eligio had a long white shape, that jerked and seemed to leap at me. Don Juan explained, that Eligio was a very talented apprentice and that he, no doubt, had noticed, that someone was Seeing him. Another of don Juan's selections was Pablito, don Genaro's apprentice. The jolt, that the vision of Pablito gave me, was even greater, than Eligio's. Don Juan laughed so hard, that tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Why are those people shaped differently?" I asked.
"They have more personal power," he replied. "As you might have noticed, they are not pegged down to the ground."
"What has given them that lightness? Were they born that way?"
"We all are born that light and bouncy, but we become earth-bound and fixed. We make ourselves that way. So perhaps we may say, that these people are shaped differently, because they live like warriors. That's not important though. What's of value is, that you are at the edge now. You've called forty-seven people, and there is only one more left in order for you to complete the original forty-eight." I remembered at that moment, that years before he had told me, while discussing corn sorcery and divination (insight,intuition, inspiration), that the number of corn kernels, that a sorcerer possessed was forty-eight. He had never explained why.
I asked him again, "Why forty-eight?"
"Forty-eight is our number," he said. "That's what makes us men. I don't know why. Don't waste your power in idiotic questions." He stood up and stretched his arms and legs. He told me to do the same. I noticed, that there was a tinge of light in the sky towards the east. We sat down again. He leaned over and put his mouth to my ear. "The last person you're going to call is Genaro, the real McCoy," he whispered. I felt a surge of curiosity and excitation. I breezed through the required steps.
The strange sound from the edge of the chaparral became vivid and acquired new strength. I had almost forgotten about it. The golden bubbles engulfed me and then in one of them I saw don Genaro himself. He was standing in front of me, holding his hat in his hand. He was smiling. I hurriedly opened my eyes and was about to speak to don Juan, but before I could say a word, my body stiffened like a board; my hair stood on end and for a long moment I did not know what to do or say.
Don Genaro was standing right in front of me. In person! I turned to don Juan; he was smiling. Then both of them broke into a giant laugh. I also tried to laugh. I could not. I stood up. Don Juan handed me a cup of water. I drank it automatically. I thought he was going to sprinkle water on my face. Instead, he refilled my cup. Don Genaro scratched his head and hid a grin. "Aren't you going to greet Genaro?" don Juan asked. It took an enormous effort for me to organize my thoughts and my feelings. I finally mumbled some greetings to don Genaro. He took a bow.
"You called me, didn't you?" he asked, smiling. I muttered my amazement at having found him standing there.
"He did call you," don Juan interjected.
"Well, here I am," don Genaro said to me. "What can I do for you?"
41-42
Slowly my mind seemed to become organized and finally I had a sudden insight. My thoughts were crystal clear and I "knew" what had really taken place. I figured, that don Genaro had been visiting with don Juan, and that as soon, as they had heard my car approaching, don Genaro had slipped into the bushes and had remained in hiding, until it got dark. I believed the evidence was convincing. Don Juan, since he had no doubt engineered the entire affair, gave me clues from time to time, thus guiding its development. At the appropriate time, don Genaro had made me notice his presence, and when don Juan and I were walking back to the house, he followed us in the most obvious manner in order to arouse my fear. Then he had waited in the chaparral and made the strange sound, whenever don Juan had signaled him. The final signal to come out from behind the bushes must have been given by don Juan while my eyes were closed, after he had asked me to "call" don Genaro. Then don Genaro must have walked to the ramada and waited until I opened my eyes and then scared me out of my wits (out of my senses).
The only incongruencies (incompartibility) in my logical explanatory scheme were, that I had actually seen the man hiding in the bushes turn into a bird, and that
I had first visualized don Genaro as an image in a golden bubble. In my vision he had been dressed exactly as he was in person. Since there was no logical way for me to explain those incongruencies, I assumed, as I have always done in similar circumstances, that the emotional stress may have played an important role in determining what I "believed I saw." I began to laugh quite involuntarily at the thought of their preposterous trick. I told them about my deductions. They laughed uproariously. I honestly believed, that their laughter was the giveaway.
"You were hiding in the bushes, weren't you?" I asked don Genaro. Don Juan sat down and held his head in both hands.
"No. I wasn't hiding," don Genaro said patiently. "I was far from here and then you called, so I came to see you."
"Where were you, don Genaro?"
"Far away."
"How far?"
Don Juan interrupted me and said, that don Genaro had showed up as an act of deference (courtious respect, honour) to me, and that I could not ask, where he had been, because he had been nowhere. Don Genaro came to my defense and said, that it was all right to ask him anything.
"If you were not hiding around the house, where were you, don Genaro?" I asked.
"I was at my house," he said with great candor (straight forward).
"In central Mexico?"
"Yes! It's the only house I've got."
They looked at each other and again broke into laughter. I knew, that they were kidding me, but I decided not to contest the point any further. I thought they must have had a reason for engaging themselves in such an elaborate production. I sat down. I felt, that I was truthfully cut in two; some part of me was not shocked at all and could accept any of don Juan or don Genaro's acts at their face value. But there was another part of me, that flatly refused; it was my strongest part.
My conscious assessment was, that I had accepted don Juan's sorcery description of the world merely on an intellectual basis, while my body, as a whole entity, refused it, thus my dilemma. But then over the course of the years of my association with don Juan and don Genaro I had experienced extraordinary phenomena and those had been bodily experiences, not intellectual ones. Earlier that very night I had executed the "gait of power," which, from the point of view of my intellect, was an inconceivable accomplishment; and best of all, I had had incredible visions through no other means, than my own volition. I explained to them the nature of my painful and at the same time bona fide perplexity (real puzzle).
"This guy is a genius," don Juan said to don Genaro, shaking his head in disbelief.
"You're a huge genius, Carlitos," don Genaro said, as if he were relaying a message. They sat down on either side of me, don Juan to my right and don Genaro to my left. Don Juan observed, that soon it was going to be morning. At that instant I again heard the moth's call. It had moved. The sound was coming from the opposite direction. I looked at both of them, holding their gaze. My logical scheme began to disintegrate. The sound had a mesmerizing richness and depth.
Moth is an Ally
43-44
Then I heard muffled steps, soft feet crushing the dry underbrush. The sputtering sound came closer and I huddled (draw myself together) against don Juan. He dryly ordered me to see it. I made a supreme effort, not so much to please him, as to please myself. I had been sure, that don Genaro was the moth. But don Genaro was sitting with me; what, then, was in the bushes? A moth? The sputtering sound echoed in my ears. I could not stop my internal dialogue altogether. I heard the sound, but I could not feel it in my body, as I had done earlier. I heard definite steps. Something was creeping in the dark. There was a loud cracking noise, as if a branch had been snapped in two, and suddenly a terrifying memory seized me. Years before I had spent a dreadful night in the wilderness and had been harassed by something, something very light and soft, that had stepped on my neck over and over, while I crouched (bent) on the ground. Don Juan had explained the event as an encounter with the ally, a mysterious force, that a sorcerer learned to perceive as an entity (Inorganic Beings, LM). I leaned closer to don Juan and whispered, what I had remembered. Don Genaro crawled on all fours to get closer to us.
"What did he say?" he asked don Juan in a whisper.
"He said, that there is an ally out there," don Juan replied in a low voice. Don Genaro crawled back and sat down. Then he turned to me and said in a loud whisper: "You're a genius." They laughed quietly. Don Genaro pointed towards the chaparral with a movement of his chin.
"Go out there and grab it," he said. "Take off your clothes and scare the devil out of that ally." They shook with laughter. The sound in the meantime had ceased.
Don Juan ordered me to stop my thoughts, but to keep my eyes open, focused on the edge of the chaparral in front of me. He said, that the moth had changed positions, because don Genaro was there, and that if it were going to manifest itself to me, it would choose to come from the front. After a moment's struggle to quiet my thoughts, I perceived the sound again. It was richer, than ever. I heard first the muffled steps on dry twigs and then I felt them on my body. At that instant I distinguished a dark mass directly in front of me, at the edge of the chaparral. I felt, I was being shaken. I opened my eyes. Don Juan and don Genaro were standing above me and I was kneeling, as if I had fallen asleep in a crouching position. Don Juan gave me some water and I sat down again with my back against the wall. A short while later it was dawn. The chaparral seemed to wake up. The morning cold was crisp and invigorating. The moth had not been don Genaro.
Moth is an Ally
My rational structure was falling apart. I did not want to ask any more questions, nor did I want to remain quiet. I finally had to talk. "But if you were in central Mexico, don Genaro, how did you get here?" I asked. Don Genaro made some ludicrous (laughable, foolish) and utterly hilarious (boisterously funny, gay, merry) gestures with his mouth.
"I'm sorry," he said to me, "my mouth doesn't want to talk." He then turned to don Juan and said, grinning, "Why don't you tell him?"
Don Juan vacillated (sway from one side to the other). Then he said, that don Genaro, as a consummate (perfect) artist of Sorcery, was capable of prodigious (extraordinary, marvelous) deeds. Don Genaro's chest swelled, as if don Juan's words were inflating it. He seemed to have inhaled so much air, that his chest looked twice its normal size.
He appeared to be on the verge of floating. He leaped in the air. I had the impression, that the air inside his lungs had forced him to jump. He paced back and forth on the dirt floor, until he apparently got his chest under control; he patted it and with great force ran the palms of his hands from his pectoral muscles to his stomach, as if he were deflating the inner tube of a tire. He finally sat down. Don Juan was grinning. His eyes were shining with sheer delight: "Write your notes," he ordered me softly. "Write, write or you'll die!" Then he remarked, that even don Genaro no longer felt, that my taking notes was so outlandish.
"That's right!" don Genaro retorted. "I've been thinking of taking up writing myself."
45-46
"Genaro is a Man of Knowledge," don Juan said dryly. "And being a Man of Knowledge, he's perfectly capable of transporting himself (his Double - the Other - Second Body - Energy Body) over great distances." He reminded me, that once, years before, the three of us had been in the mountains, and that don Genaro, in an effort to help me overcome my stupid reason, had taken a prodigious leap to the peaks of the Sierras, ten miles away. I remembered the event, but I also remembered, that I could not even conceive, that he had jumped. Don Juan added, that don Genaro was capable of performing extraordinary feats at certain times. "Genaro at certain times, is not Genaro, but his Double," he said. He repeated it three or four times. Then both of them watched me, as if waiting for my impending (imminent, due to happen soon) reaction. I had not understood what he meant by "his Double." He had never mentioned that before. I asked for a clarification. "There is another Genaro," he explained. All three of us looked at one another. I became very apprehensive (anxious). Don Juan urged me with a movement of his eyes to keep on talking.
"Do you have a twin brother?" I asked, turning to don Genaro.
"Of course," he said. "I have a twin." I could not determine whether or not they were putting me on (teasing). They both giggled with the abandon of children, that were pulling a prank (practical joke, mischievous trick).
"You may say," don Juan went on, "that at this moment Genaro is his twin." That statement brought both of them to the ground with laughter. But I could not enjoy their mirth.
My body shivered involuntarily. Don Juan said in a severe tone, that I was too heavy and self-important. "Let go!" he commanded me dryly. "You know, that Genaro is a sorcerer and an impeccable warrior. So he's capable of performing deeds, that would be unthinkable for the average man. His Double, the other Genaro, is one of those deeds." I was speechless.
I could not conceive, that they were just teasing me. "For a warrior like Genaro," he went on, "to produce the Other is not such a farfetched (improbable in nature) enterprise."
After pondering for a long time, what to say next, I asked: "Is the Other like the Self?"
"The Other is the Self," don Juan replied. His explanation had taken an incredible turn, and yet it was not really more incredible, than anything else they did.
"What's the Other made of?" I asked don Juan after minutes of indecision.
"There is no way of knowing that," he said. (The Double or the Other is made of Sun Energy! LM.)
"Is it real or just an illusion?"
"It's real of course."
"Would it be possible then to say, that it is made of flesh and blood?" I asked.
"No. It would not be possible," don Genaro answered.
"But if it is as real, as I am . . ."
"As real, as you?" don Juan and don Genaro interjected (interrupted) in unison. They looked at each other and laughed, until I thought they were going to get ill. Don Genaro threw his hat on the floor and danced around it. His dance was agile (light) and graceful and, for some inexplicable reason, utterly funny. Perhaps the humor was in the exquisitely "professional" movements, he executed. The incongruency (discordant parts, arythmical movements) was so subtle and at the same time so remarkable, that I doubled up with laughter.
"The trouble with you, Carlitos," he said, as he sat down again, "is that you're a genius."
"I have to know about the Double," I said.
"There's no way of knowing ,whether he's flesh and blood," don Juan said. "Because he is not as real, as you. Genaro's Double is as real, as Genaro. Do you see what I mean?"
"But you have to admit, don Juan, that there must be a way to know."
"The Double is the Self; that explanation should suffice. If you would see, however, you'd know, that there is a great difference between Genaro and his Double. For a Sorcerer, who Sees, the Double is brighter."
47-48 (this is a funny page)
I felt, I was too weak to ask any more questions. I put my writing pad down and for a moment I thought I was going to pass out. I had tunnel vision; everything around me was dark with the exception of a round spot of clear scenery in front of my eyes. Don Juan said, that I had to get some food. I was not hungry. Don Genaro announced, that he was famished, stood up and went to the back of the house. Don Juan also stood up and signaled me to follow. In the kitchen, don Genaro gave himself a serving of food and then became involved in the most comical mimicking of a person, who wants to eat, but can't swallow. I thought, that don Juan was going to die; he roared, kicked, cried, coughed and choked with laughter. I thought, I too was going to split my sides. Don Genaro's antics were priceless. He finally gave up and looked at don Juan and me in succession; he had shiny eyes and a beaming smile.
"It doesn't work," he said, shrugging his shoulders. I ate a huge amount of food, and so did don Juan; then all of us returned to the front of the house. The sunlight was brilliant, the sky was clear and the morning breeze sharpened the air. I felt happy and strong. We sat in a triangle facing one another. After a polite silence I decided to ask them to clarify my dilemma. I felt, that I was again in top form and wanted to exploit my strength.
"Tell me more about the Double, don Juan," I said. Don Juan pointed at don Genaro and don Genaro bowed.
"There he is," don Juan said. "There is nothing to tell. He's here for you to witness him."
"But he's don Genaro," I said in a feeble attempt to guide the conversation.
"Surely I'm Genaro," he said and perked his shoulders.
"What is a Double then, don Genaro?" I asked.
"Ask him," he snapped, pointing to don Juan. "He's the one, who talks. I'm dumb."
"A Double is the Sorcerer himself, developed through his Dreaming" don Juan explained. "A Double is an Act of Power to a Sorcerer, but only a tale of Power to you. In the case of Genaro, his Double is indistinguishable from the Original. That's, because his impeccability, as a warrior, is supreme; thus, you've never noticed the difference yourself. But in the years, that you've known him, you've been with the original Genaro only twice; every other time you've been with his Double."
"But this is preposterous (foolish)!" I exclaimed. I felt an anxiety building up in my chest. I became so agitated, that I dropped my writing pad, and my pencil rolled out of sight.
Don Juan and don Genaro practically dove to the ground and began the most farcical search for it. I had never seen a more astonishing performance of theatrical magic and sleight of hand. Except, that there was no stage, or props, or any type of gadgetry, and most likely the performers were not using sleight (trickery) of hand. Don Genaro, the head magician, and his assistant, don Juan, produced in a matter of minutes the most astounding, bizarre and outlandish collection of objects, which they found underneath, or behind, or above every object within the periphery of the ramada. In the style of stage magic, the assistant set up the props, which in this case were the few items on the dirt floor - rocks, burlap sacks, pieces of wood, a milk crate, a lantern and my jacket - then the magician, don Genaro, would proceed to find an object, which he would throw away as soon, as he had attested, that it was not my pencil. The collection of objects found included pieces of clothing, wigs, eyeglasses, toys, utensils, pieces of machinery, women's underwear, human teeth, sandwiches, and religious objects. One of them was outright disgusting. It was a piece of compact human excrement, that don Genaro took from underneath my jacket. Finally, don Genaro found my pencil and handed it to me after dusting it off with the tail of his shirt. They celebrated their clowning with yells and chuckles. I found myself watching, unable to join them. "Don't take things so seriously, Carlitos," don Genaro said with a tone of concern. "Otherwise you're going to bust a ..." He made a ludicrous gesture, that could have meant anything. After their laughter subsided, I asked don Genaro, what a Double did, or what a Sorcerer did with the Double. Don Juan answered.
49-50
He said, that the Double had Power, and that it was used to accomplish feats, that would be unimaginable under ordinary terms. "I've told you time and time again, that the world is unfathomable (to deep to measure)," he said to me. "And so are we, and so is every Being, that exists in this World. It is impossible, therefore, to reason out the Double. You've been allowed to witness it, though, and that should be more, than enough."
"But there must be a way to talk about it," I said. "You yourself have told me, that you explained your conversation with the deer in order to talk about it. Can't you do the same with the Double?"
He was quiet for a moment. I pleaded with him. The anxiety I was experiencing was beyond anything I had ever gone through.
"Well, a Sorcerer can double up," don Juan said. "That's all one can say."
"But is he aware, that he is doubled?"
"Of course he's aware of it."
"Does he know, that he is in two places at once?" Both of them looked at me and then they exchanged a glance. "Where is the Other don Genaro?" I asked. Don Genaro leaned towards me and stared into my eyes.
"I don't know," he said softly. "No Sorcerer knows, where his Other is."
"Genaro is right," don Juan said. "A Sorcerer has no notion, that he is in two places at once. To be aware of that would be the equivalent of facing his Double, and the Sorcerer, that finds himself face to face with himself is a Dead Sorcerer. That is the rule. That is the way Power has set things up. No one knows why."
Don Juan explained, that by the time a Warrior had conquered Dreaming and Seeing and had developed a Double, he must have also succeeded in erasing Personal History, Self-importance, and routines. He said, that all the techniques, which he had taught me, and which I had considered to be empty talk, were, in essence, means for removing the impracticality of having a Double in the ordinary World, by making the Self and the World fluid, and by placing them outside the bounds of prediction. "A fluid warrior can no longer make the World chronological," don Juan explained. "And for him, the world and himself are no longer objects. He's a Luminous Being existing in a Luminous World. The Double is a simple affair for a Sorcerer, because he knows, what he's doing. To take notes is a simple affair for you, but you still scare Genaro with your pencil."
"Can an outsider, looking at a Sorcerer, see that he is in two places at once?" I asked don Juan.
"Certainly. That would be the only way to know it."
"But can't one logically assume, that the Sorcerer would also notice, that he has been in two places?"
"Aha!" don Juan exclaimed. "For once you've got it right. A Sorcerer may certainly notice afterwards, that he has been in two places at once. But this is only bookkeeping and has no bearing on the fact, that while he's acting, he has no notion of his Duality." My mind boggled. I felt, that if I did not keep on writing, I would explode. "Think of this," he went on.
"The World doesn't yield to us directly, the description of the World stands in between. So, properly speaking, we are always one step removed and our experience of the World is always a Recollection (Recall) of the experience. We are perennially recollecting the instant, that has just happened, just passed. We recollect, recollect, recollect." He turned his hand over and over to give me the feeling of, what he meant. "If our entire experience of the World is Recollection, then it's not so outlandish to conclude, that a Sorcerer can be in two places at once. This is not the case from the point of view of his own perception, because in order to experience the World, a Sorcerer, like every other man, has to recollect the act, he has just performed, the event, he has just witnessed, the experience he has just lived. In his awareness there is only a single recollection. But for an outsider, looking at the Sorcerer, it may appear, as if the Sorcerer is acting two different episodes at once. The Sorcerer, however, recollects two separate single instants, because the glue of the description of time is no longer binding him." When don Juan had finished talking, I was sure, I was running a temperature. Don Genaro examined me with curious eyes.
51-52-53
"He's right," he said. "We're always one jump behind." He moved his hand as don Juan had done; his body started to jerk and he jumped back on his seat. It was, as if he had the hiccups and the hiccups were forcing his body to jump back. He began to move backwards, jumping on his seat, and went all the way to the end of the ramada and back. The sight of don Genaro leaping backwards on his buttocks, instead of being funny, as it should have been, threw me into an attack of fear so intense, that don Juan had to strike me repeatedly on the top of my head with his knuckles.
"I just can't grasp all this, don Juan," I said.
"I can't either," don Juan retorted, shrugging his shoulders.
"Neither can I, dear Carlitos," don Genaro added. My fatigue, the bulk of my sensory experience, the mood of lightness and humor, that prevailed, and don Genaro's clowning were too much for my nerves. I could not stop the agitation in my stomach muscles. Don Juan made me roll on the ground, until I had regained my calmness, then I sat down facing them again. My body leaped in the air, as if I had been propelled by a formidable force. I ran to my car.
"Is the Double solid?" I asked don Juan after a long silence. They looked at me. "Does the Double have corporealness (materiality)?" I asked.
"Certainly," don Juan said. "Solidity, corporealness are memories. Therefore, like everything else we feel about the world, they are memories, we accumulate. Memories of the description. You have the memory of my solidity, the same way you have the memory of communicating through words. Thus, you talked with a coyote and you feel me, as being solid." Don Juan put his shoulder next to mine and nudged (push gently) me lightly. "Touch me," he said. I patted him and then, I embraced him. I was close to tears.
Don Genaro stood up and came closer to me. He looked like a small child with shiny mischievous eyes. He puckered up his lips and looked at me for a long moment.
"What about me?" he asked, trying to hide a smile. "Aren't you going to embrace me too (but he is not physical, he is his Plasmic Double! LM)?" I stood up and extended my arms to touch him; my body seemed to freeze on the spot. I had no power to move. I tried to force my arms to reach him, but my struggle was in vain. Don Juan and don Genaro stood by, watching me. I felt my body contorting under an unknown pressure. Don Genaro sat down and pretended to sulk (withdrawn in silent protest), because I had not embraced him; he pouted (protrude lips to show displeasure) and hit the ground with his heels, then both of them exploded into more roaring laughter. The muscles of my stomach trembled, making my whole body shake. Don Juan pointed out, that I was moving my head the way he had recommended earlier, and that that was the chance to soothe myself by reflecting a beam of light on the cornea of my eyes. He forcefully dragged me from under the roof of his ramada to the open field and manipulated my body into position, so that my eyes would catch the eastern sunlight; but by the time he had put my body in place, I had stopped shivering. I noticed, that I was clutching (grasp and hold tightly) my notebook only after don Genaro said, that the weight of the sheets was giving me the shivers. I told don Juan, that my body was pulling me to leave. I waved my hand to don Genaro. I did not want to give them time to make me change my mind. "Good-by, don Genaro," I yelled. "I have to go now." He waved back at me. Don Juan walked a few yards with me towards my car. "Do you also have a Double, don Juan?" I asked.
"Of course!" he exclaimed. I had at that moment a maddening thought. I wanted to discard it and leave in a hurry, but something in myself kept on needling me. Over the course of the years of our association, it had become customary for me, that every time I wanted to see don Juan, I would just go to Sonora or central Mexico, and I would always find him waiting for me. I had learned to take that for granted and it had never occurred to me until then, to think anything of it. "Tell me something, don Juan," I said, half in jest.
"Are you yourself or are you your Double?"
He leaned over towards me. He was grinning. "My Double," he whispered. "I was just kidding," don Juan said in a loud voice. "You can't go yet. You still owe me five more days." Both of them ran towards my car, as I was backing up. They were laughing and jumping up and down.
"Carlitos, call me any time!" don Genaro shouted.
Однако я не пошёл так далеко. Моё испытание было скорее на лёгкой, комической стороне; и тем не менее, результат был всё равно огорчающий. Каждый раз, когда я собирался увидеть свои руки во сне, происходило что-то экстраординарное. Я начинал летать или мой сон превращался в кошмар или это становилось просто очень приятным телесным возбуждением. Всё во сне увеличивалось далеко за пределы "нормального" в смысле яркости, и таким образом, был ужасно вовлекающим. Моё первоначальное намерение - видеть свои руки - всегда забывалось в свете новой ситуации. Одной ночью, совершенно неожиданно я нашёл свои руки во сне. Мне снилось, что я шёл по незнакомой улице незнакомого города и вдруг я поднял руки и загородил ими лицо. Было так, как-будто что-то внутри меня сдалось и разрешило мне увидеть заднюю часть моих рук. Инструктажем Дон Хуана было: как только вид моих рук начнёт рассеиваться или меняться во что-то другое, мне нужно отвести взгляд от рук на какой-то другой элемент в окружении в моём сне. В этом сне я перевёл взгляд на здание в конце улицы. Когда вид здания начал рассеиваться, я сфокусировал внимание на другие элементы, окружающие мой сон. Конечный результат - был невероятно ясная картина безлюдной улицы в каком-то неизвестном чужом городе. Дон Хуан велел мне продолжать вспоминать другие случаи во сне. Мы говорили долгое время. В конце моего изложения он встал и пошёл в кусты. Я тоже встал, я нервничал. Это было непредвиденное ощущение, так как не было надвигающегося страха или торопливости. Дон Хуан быстро вернулся, заметил моё беспокойство и сказал, мягко придерживая мою руку. "Успокойся," он заставил меня сесть и положил блокнот мне на колени, убедив меня писать. Его аргументом было то, что я не должен беспокоить место Силы ненужными чувствами страха и колебания.
"Почему я нервничаю?" спросил я.
"Это - естественно," ответил он. "Что-то в тебе под угрозой из-за твоих действий в Полётах. Если не будешь думать об тех действиях, то будешь - в порядке.
Но сейчас, так как ты выдал свои действия, ты вот-вот потеряешь сознание. У каждого воина свой метод Полётов. Каждый метод - разный. Единственное, что у всех, у нас общее это - что мы проделываем трюки, чтобы заставить себя бросить поиски. В противовес этому нужно быть настойчивым, несмотря на все барьеры и разочарования." Потом он спросил меня, смог бы я выбрать тему для Полёта. Я признался, что понятия не имею как это делать. "Объяснения Колдунов - как выбрать тему для Полёта," сказал он, "в том, что воин выбирает тему, держа нарочно в голове образ, пока останавливает свой внутренний диалог. Другими словами, если он способен не говорить с самим собой какой-то момент, и затем держит образ или мысль того, что он хочет в Полёте, даже если это только на секунду, тогда желаемая тема придёт к нему. Я уверен, что это делал, хотя ты этого не подозреваешь." Наступило долгое молчание и затем Дон Хуан начал нюхать воздух. Казалось, он продувал нос: с огромной силой выдохнул 3-4 раза через ноздри. Мускулы его живота сжались в спазме, которую он контролировал, короткими вдохами беря воздух. "Говорить о Полётах мы больше не будем," сказал он. "У тебя это может превратиться в навязчивую идею, если хочешь преуспеть в чём-то, то успех должен придти неторопливо, с огромным усилием, но без стресса и зависимостей." Он встал и пошёл к кромке кустов, наклонился и уставился в листву. Похоже, он что-то рассматривал в листьях, не подходя к ним слишком близко.
"Что ты делаешь?" спросил я, не способный унять своё любопытство. Он повернулся ко мне, улыбнулся и поднял бровь.
"Кусты заполнены странными вещами," ответил он, снова садясь. Его тон был такой беспечный, что напугал меня больше чем, если бы он издал неожиданный крик. Мой блокнот и карандаш вывалились из рук. Он засмеялся, передразнил меня и сказал, что мои преувеличенные реакции были одно из незаконченных вещей, которые всё ещё существовали в моей жизни. Я хотел поговорить об этом, но он не дал мне.
19-20
"Осталось немного дневного света," сказал он. "Есть другие вещи, которые нужно затронуть пока не стемнеет." Затем он добавил, что судя по моим результатам в Полётах, я должно быть научился волей останавливать свой внутренний диалог. Я сказал ему, что научился.
Вначале нашего знакомства Дон Хуан описал другой метод: пройти длинное расстояние, не фокусируя глаза ни на чём. Его совет был - не смотреть ни на что прямо, а слегка скосив глаза, чтобы сохранять боковое зрение всего, что представлялось глазам. Он настаивал: если глаза не фокусировать в точке чуть выше горизонта, то было возможным сразу заметить перед глазами всё почти на полные 180 градусов (хотя я этого тогда не понял). Он заверил меня, что это упражнение было единственным средством прекратить внутренний диалог. Он бывало спрашивал меня о моём прогрессе и затем он прекратил спрашивать об этом. Я сказал Дон Хуану, что практиковал этот метод годами, не замечая никаких изменений, но я итак ничего и не ожидал. Однако однажды, меня шокировало осознать, что я только что прошёл 10 минут, не сказав себе ни единого слова. Я поделился с Дон Хуаном, что в то же время я также полностью осознал, что остановка внутреннего диалога заключала в себе больше, чем просто сокращать слова, сказанные самому себе. Весь мой ментальный процесс остановился
и я почувствовал себя практически подвешенным на плаву. Ощущение паники появилось от этой мысли и мне пришлось вернуться к внутреннему диалогу из предосторожности.
"Я сказал тебе, что это Внутренний Диалог то, что приземляет нас," сказал Дон Хуан. "Мир такой/сякой, только потому, что мы говорим сами с собой о том, что мир - такой/сякой." Дон Хуан объяснил, что путь в мир Колдунов открывается только после того, как воин научится останавливать внутренний диалог.
"Изменить наше представление о мире это - самое главное, и остановка Внутреннего Диалога - это единственный метод добиться этого. Остальное - просто легче. Сейчас ты знаешь, что ничего из того, что ты видел или делал, кроме Остановки Внутреннего Диалога, могло само поменять что-то в тебе или в твоём представлении мира. Конечно при условии, что перемена не должна быть беспорядочной. Сейчас ты понимаешь, почему учитель не ограничивает своего ученика. От этого только возникают навязчивые идеи и болезни." Он интересовался деталями других случаев, произошедших со мной, когда я боролся остановить Внутренний Диалог. Я пересказал всё, что мог вспомнить. Мы шли пока не стемнело и я уже не мог писать: мне пришлось переключить своё внимание на записи и это поменяло мою концентрацию. Дон Хуан, увидев это, начал хохотать. Он указал на то, что я достиг другой цели Колдовства: писать не концентрируясь.
В тот момент, когда он это высказал, я понял, что я реально не обращал внимания на то, как я писал. Это казалось отдельным действием, к которому я не имел никакого отношения. Я странно себя почувствовал. Дон Хуан попросил меня сесть рядом с ним в центре круга. Он сказал, что было слишком темно, и сидеть близко к краю кустов было нежелательно. Я почувствовал холод на спине и отпрыгнул к нему. Он велел мне быть лицом к юго-востоку и попросил меня дать себе команду молчать и не иметь мыслей. Таинственным тоном он добавил, что он обдумывает проблему для меня, и если я её разрешу, то я буду готов к другой грани мира Колдунов. Я пытался задать вопрос о природе проблемы. Он тихо посмеялся. Я ждал ответа и затем что-то во мне отключилось. Я почувствовал: что стал подвешенным. Мои уши казалось, раскупорились и стали слышны тысячи шумов в кустах. Их было так много, что я не мог различить их отдельно. Чувствовал, что засыпаю и затем вдруг что-то привлекло моё внимание.
21-22
Перевод на русский продолжится
It was not something, which involved my thought processes; it was not a vision, or a feature of the environment either, yet my awareness had been engaged by something. I was fully awake. My eyes were focused on a spot on the edge of the chaparral, but I was not looking, or thinking, or talking to myself. My feelings were clear bodily sensations; they did not need words. I felt, I was rushing through something indefinite. Perhaps, what would have ordinarily been my thoughts, were rushing; at any rate, I had the sensation, that I had been caught in a landslide and something was avalanching, with me at the crest. I felt the rush in my stomach. Something was pulling me into the chaparral. I could distinguish the dark mass of the bushes in front of me. It was not, however, an undifferentiated darkness, as it would ordinarily be. I could see every individual bush, as if I were looking at them in a dark twilight. They seemed to be moving; the mass of their foliage looked like black skirts flowing towards me, as if they were being blown by the wind, but there was no wind. I became absorbed in their mesmerizing movements; it was a pulsating ripple, that seemed to draw them nearer and nearer to me. And then I noticed a lighter silhouette, which seemed to be superimposed on the dark shapes of the bushes. I focused my eyes on a spot to the side of the lighter silhouette and I could make out a chartreuse glow on it. Then I looked at it without focusing and I had the certainty, that the lighter silhouette was a man hiding in the underbrush. I was, at that moment, in a most peculiar state of awareness. I was cognizant of the surroundings and of the mental processes, that the surroundings engendered in myself, yet I was not thinking, as I ordinarily think. For instance, when I realized, that the silhouette superimposed on the bushes was a man, I recalled another occasion on the desert; I had noticed then, while don Genaro and I were walking in the chaparral at night, that a man was hiding in the bushes behind us, but the instant I had attempted to explain the phenomenon rationally, I lost sight of the man. This time, however, I felt I had the upper hand and I refused to explain or to think anything at all. For a moment I had the impression, that I could hold the man and force him to remain, where he was. I then experienced a strange pain in the pit of my stomach. Something seemed to rip inside me and I could not hold the muscles of my midsection tense any longer. At the very moment I let go, the dark shape of an enormous bird, or some sort of flying animal, lurched at me from the chaparral. It was, as if the shape of the man had turned into the shape of a bird. I had the clear conscious perception of fear. I gasped and then let out a loud yell and fell on my back. Don Juan helped me up. His face was very close to mine. He was laughing.
"What was that?" I shouted. He hushed me, putting his hand over my mouth. He put his lips to my ear and whispered, that we had to leave the area in a calm and collected fashion, as if nothing had happened. We walked side by side. His pace was relaxed and even. A couple of times he turned around quickly. I did the same and twice I caught sight of a dark mass, that seemed to be following us. I heard a loud eerie shriek behind me. I experienced a moment of sheer terror; ripples ran through the muscles of my stomach; they came in spasms and grew in intensity, until they simply forced my body to run. The only way of talking about my reaction has to be in don Juan's terminology; and thus I can say, that my body, due to the fright I was experiencing, was capable of executing what he had called "the gait of power," a technique he had taught me years before, consisting of running in the darkness without tripping or hurting oneself in any way. I was not fully aware of what I had done or how I had done it. Suddenly I found myself again at don Juan's house. Apparently he had also run and we had arrived at the same time. He lit his kerosene lantern, hung it from a beam in the ceiling and casually asked me to sit down and relax. I jogged on the same spot for a while, until my nervousness became more manageable. Then I sat down. He forcefully ordered me to act, as if nothing had happened and handed me my notebook. I had not realized, that in my haste to leave the bushes I had dropped it.
"What happened out there, don Juan?" I finally asked.
"You had an appointment with Knowledge," he said, pointing with a movement of his chin to the dark edge of the desert chaparral.
23-24
"I took you there, because I caught a Glimpse of Knowledge prowling (roaming) around the house earlier. You might say, that knowledge knew, that you were coming and was waiting for you. Rather than meeting it here, I felt it was proper to meet it on a Power Spot. Then I set up a test to see, if you had enough personal power to isolate it from the rest of the things around us. You did fine."
"Wait a minute!" I protested. "I saw the silhouette of a man hiding behind a bush and then I saw a huge bird."
"You didn't see a man!" he said emphatically. "Neither did you see a bird. The silhouette in the bushes and what flew to us was a moth. If you want to be accurate in sorcerers' terms, but very ridiculous in your own terms, you could say, that tonight you had an appointment with a moth. Knowledge is a moth." He looked at me piercingly. The light of the lantern created strange shadows on his face. I moved my eyes away. "Perhaps you'll have enough personal power to unravel that mystery tonight," he said. "If not tonight, perhaps tomorrow; remember, you still owe me six days." Don Juan stood up and walked to the kitchen in the back of the house. He took the lantern and set it against the wall on the short round stump, that he used as a bench. We sat down on the floor opposite each other and served ourselves some beans and meat from a pot, that he had placed in front of us. We ate in silence. He gave me furtive (mysterious) glances from time to time and seemed on the verge of laughing. His eyes were like two slits. When he looked at me, he would open them a bit and the moistness of the corneas (circular transparent structures sending light onto the lens) reflected the light of the lantern. It was, as if he were using the light to create a mirror reflection. He played with it, shaking his head almost imperceptibly every time he focused his eyes on me. The effect was a fascinating quiver (vibration) of light. I became aware of his maneuvers after he had executed them a couple of times. I was convinced, that he was acting with a definite purpose in mind. I felt compelled (forced) to ask him about it. "I have an ulterior (concealed intentionally) reason," he said reassuringly. "I'm soothing you with my eyes. You don't seem to be getting more nervous, do you?" I had to admit, that I felt quite at ease. The steady flicker in his eyes was not menacing and it had not scared or annoyed me in any way.
"How do you soothe me with your eyes?" I asked.
He repeated the imperceptible shake of his head. The corneas of his eyes were indeed reflecting the light of the kerosene lantern. "Try to do it yourself," he said casually, as he gave himself another serving of food. "You can soothe yourself." I tried to shake my head; my movements were awkward. "You won't soothe yourself bobbing your head like that," he said and laughed. "You'll give yourself a headache instead. The secret is not in the head shake, but in the feeling, that comes to the eyes from the area below the stomach. This is what makes the head shake." He rubbed his umbilical region. After I had finished eating I slouched (drop, hang down) against a pile of wood and some burlap (hemp cloth) sacks. I tried to imitate his head shake. Don Juan seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. He giggled and slapped his thighs. Then a sudden noise interrupted his laughter. I heard a strange deep sound, like tapping on wood, that came from the chaparral. Don Juan jutted (protrude) his chin, signaling me to remain alert. "That's the little moth calling you," he said in an unemotional tone. I jumped to my feet. The sound ceased instantaneously. I looked at don Juan for an explanation. He made a comical gesture of helplessness, shrugging his shoulders. "You haven't fulfilled your appointment yet," he added. I told him, that I felt unworthy and that perhaps I should go home and come back when I felt stronger. "You're talking nonsense," he snapped. "A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness. He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as grounds for regret, but as a living challenge. It takes time for every one of us to understand that point and fully live it. I, for instance, hated the mere mention of the word “humbleness”. I'm an Indian and we Indians have always been humble and have done nothing else, but lower our heads.
25-26
I thought humbleness was not in the warrior's way. I was wrong! I know now, that the humbleness of a warrior is not the humbleness of a beggar. The warrior lowers his head to noone, but at the same time, he doesn't permit anyone to lower his head to him. The beggar, on the other hand, falls to his knees at the drop of a hat and scrapes the floor for anyone he deems to be higher; but at the same time, he demands, that someone lower, than him scrape the floor for him. "That's why I told you earlier today, that I didn't understand what masters felt like. I know only the humbleness of a warrior, and that will never permit me to be anyone's master." We were quiet for a moment. His words had caused me a profound agitation. I was moved by them and at the same time I felt concerned with what I had witnessed in the chaparral. My conscious assessment was, that don Juan was holding out on me and that he must have known what was really taking place. I was involved in those deliberations (careful and slow decision), when the same strange tapping noise jolted me out of my thoughts. Don Juan smiled and then began to chuckle.
"You like the humbleness of a beggar," he said softly. "You bow your head to reason."
"I always think, that I'm being tricked," I said. "That's the crux of my problem."
"You're right. You are being tricked," he retorted with a disarming smile. "That cannot be your problem. The real crux of the matter is, that you feel, that I am deliberately lying to you, am I correct?"
"Yes. There is something in myself, that doesn't let me believe, that what's taking place is real."
"You're right again. Nothing of what is taking place is real."
"What do you mean by that, don Juan?"
"Things are real only after one has learned to agree on their realness. What took place this evening, for instance, cannot possibly be real to you, because noone could agree with you about it."
"Do you mean, that you didn't see what happened?"
"Of course I did. But I don't count. I am the one who's lying to you, remember?" Don Juan laughed until he coughed and choked. His laughter was friendly, even though he was making fun of me. "Don't pay too much attention to all my gibberish," he said reassuringly. "I'm just trying to relax you and I know, that you feel at home only when you're muddled up (confused)." His expression was deliberately comical and we both laughed. I told him, that what he had just said, made me feel more afraid, than ever. "You're afraid of me?" he asked.
"Not of you, but of what you represent."
"I represent the warrior's freedom. Are you afraid of that?"
"No. But I'm afraid of the awesomeness of your knowledge. There is no solace (comfort in sorrow) for me, no haven to go to."
"You're again confusing issues. Solace, haven, fear, all of them are moods, that you have learned without ever questioning their value. As one can see, the black magicians have already engaged all your allegiance (loyalty, fidelity)."
"Who are the black magicians, don Juan?"
"Our fellow men are the black magicians. And since you are with them, you too are a black magician. Think for a moment. Can you deviate from the path, that they've lined up for you? No. Your thoughts and your actions are fixed forever in their terms. That is slavery. I, on the other hand, brought you freedom. Freedom is expensive, but the price is not impossible. So, fear your captors, your masters. Don't waste your time and your power fearing me." I knew, that he was right, and yet in spite of my genuine agreement with him, I also knew, that my lifelong habits would unavoidably make me stick to my old path. I did indeed feel like a slave. After a long silence don Juan asked me if I had enough strength for another bout (fight, match) with Knowledge.
"Do you mean with the moth?" I asked half in jest (in humorous tone). His body contorted with laughter. It was as if I had just told him the funniest joke in the world.
"What do you really mean when you say that knowledge is a moth?" I asked.
"I have no other meanings," he replied. "A moth is a moth.
27-28
I thought, that by now, with all your accomplishments, you would have had enough power to see. You caught sight of a man instead and that was not true Seeing."
From the beginning of my apprenticeship, don Juan had depicted the concept of "Seeing" as a special capacity, that one could develop and which would allow one to apprehend the "ultimate" nature of things. Over the years of our association I had developed a notion, that what he meant by 'Seeing' was an intuitive grasp of things, or the capacity to understand something at once, or perhaps the ability to see through human interactions and discover covert meanings and motives.
"I should say that tonight, when you faced the moth, you were half looking and half Seeing," don Juan proceeded. "In that state, although you were not altogether your usual self, you were still capable of being fully aware in order to operate your knowledge of the world." Don Juan paused and looked at me.
I did not know what to say at first. "How was I operating my knowledge of the world?" I asked.
"Your knowledge of the world told you, that in the bushes one can only find animals prowling or men hiding behind the foliage. You held that thought, and naturally you had to find ways to make the world conform to that thought."
"But I wasn't thinking at all, don Juan."
"Let's not call it thinking then. It is rather the habit of having the world always conform to our thoughts. When it doesn't, we simply make it conform. Moths as large, as a man cannot be even a thought, therefore, for you, what was in the bushes had to be a man. The same thing happened with the coyote. Your old habits decided the nature of that encounter too. Something took place between you and the coyote, but it wasn't talk. I have been in the same quandary (dilemma, predicament) myself. I've told you, that once I talked with a deer; now you've talked to a coyote, but neither you, nor I will ever know what really took place at those times."
"What are you telling me, don Juan?"
"When the sorcerers' explanation became clear to me, it was too late to know what the deer did to me. I said, that we talked, but that wasn't so. To say, that we had a conversation, is only a way of arranging it, so I can talk about it. The deer and I did something, but at the time it was taking place I needed to make the world conform to my ideas, just like you did. I had been talking all my life, just like you, therefore my habits prevailed and were extended to the deer. When the deer came to me and did whatever it did, I was forced to understand it as talking."
"Is this the sorcerers' explanation?"
"No. This is my explanation for you. But it is not opposed to the sorcerers' explanation." His statement threw me into a state of great intellectual excitation. For a while I forgot the prowling moth or even to take notes. I tried to rephrase his statements and we involved ourselves in a long discussion about the reflexive (automatic, habitual action) nature of our world. The world, according to don Juan, had to conform to its description; that is, the description reflected itself. Another point in his elucidation (clarifying) was that we had learned to relate ourselves to our description of the world in terms of what he called "habits." I introduced what
I thought was a more engulfing term, intentionality, the property of human consciousness whereby an object is referred to, or is intended. Our conversation engendered (produced) a most interesting speculation (conclusion). Examined in light of don Juan's explanation, my "talk" with the coyote acquired a new character. I had indeed "intended" the dialogue, since I have never known another avenue of intentional communication. I had also succeeded in conforming to the description, that communication takes place through dialogue, and thus I made the description reflect itself. I had a moment of great elation. Don Juan laughed and said, that to be so moved by words was another aspect of my foolery. He made a comical gesture of talking without sounds. "All of us go through the same shenanigans (mischief, treachery, deceit)," he said after a long pause. "The only way to overcome them is to persist in acting like a warrior. The rest comes of itself and by itself."
"What is the rest, don Juan?"
"Knowledge and Power. Men of Knowledge have both. And yet none of them could tell how they got to have them, except, that they had kept on acting like warriors and at a given moment everything changed."
29-30
He looked at me. He seemed undecided, then stood up and said, that I had no other recourse (way), but to keep my appointment with knowledge. I felt a shiver; my heart began to pound fast. I got up. Don Juan moved around me, as if he were examining my body from every possible angle. He signaled me to sit down and keep on writing. "If you get too frightened you won't be able to keep your appointment," he said. "A warrior must be calm and collected and must never lose his grip."
"I'm really scared," I said. "Moth or whatever, there is something prowling around out there in the bushes."
"Of course there is!" he exclaimed. "My objection is, that you insist on thinking, that it is a man, just like you insist on thinking, that you talked with a coyote." A part of me fully understood his point; there was, however, another aspect of myself, that would not let go and, in spite of the evidence, clung steadfast (unchanging) to "reason." I told don Juan, that his explanation did not satisfy my senses, although I was in complete intellectual agreement with it. "That's the flaw with words,"
he said in an assuring tone. "They always force us to feel enlightened, but when we turn around to face the world, they always fail us and we end up facing the world as we always have, without enlightenment. For this reason, a sorcerer seeks to act rather, than to talk and to this effect he gets a new description of the world — a new description, where talking is not that important, and where new acts have new reflections." He sat down by me and gazed into my eyes and asked me to voice, what I had really seen in the chaparral. I was confronted at the moment with an absorbing inconsistency. I had seen the dark shape of a man, but I had also seen, that shape turn into a bird. I had, therefore, witnessed more, than my reason would allow me to consider possible. But rather than discarding my reason altogether, something in myself had selected parts of my experience, such as the size and general contour of the dark shape, and held them as reasonable possibilities, while
it discarded other parts, such as the dark shape turning into a bird. And thus I had become convinced, that I had seen a man. Don Juan roared with laughter when
I expressed my quandary. He said, that sooner or later the sorcerers' explanation would come to my rescue and everything would then be perfectly clear, without having to be reasonable or unreasonable. "In the meantime all I can do for you is to guarantee, that that was not a man," he said. Don Juan's gaze became quite unnerving. My body shivered involuntarily. He made me feel embarrassed and nervous. "I'm looking for marks on your body," he explained. "You may not know it, but this evening you had quite a bout (struggle, match) out there."
"What kind of marks are you looking for?"
"Not actual physical marks on your body, but signs, indications in your Luminous Fibers, areas of Brightness. We are Luminous Beings and everything we are or everything we feel shows in our fibers. Humans have a Brightness peculiar only to them. That's the only way to tell them apart from other Luminous Living Beings.
If you would have seen tonight, you would have noticed, that the shape in the bushes was not a Luminous Living Being." I wanted to ask more, but he put his hand on my mouth and hushed me. He then put his mouth to my ear and whispered, that I should listen and try to hear a soft rustling, the gentle muffled steps of a moth on the dry leaves and branches on the ground. I could not hear anything. Don Juan stood up abruptly, picked up the lantern and said, that we were going to sit under the ramada by the front door.
He led me through the back and around the house, on the edge of the chaparral rather, than going through the room and out the front door. He explained, that it was essential to make our presence obvious. We half circled around the house on the left side. Don Juan's pace was extremely slow. His steps were weak and vacillating (fluctuating). His arm shook, as he held the lantern. I asked him if there was something wrong with him. He winked at me and whispered, that the big moth, that was prowling around, had an appointment with a young man, and that the slow gait of a feeble old man was an obvious way of showing, who was the appointee.
31-32
When we finally arrived at the front of the house, don Juan hooked the lantern on a beam and made me sit with my back against the wall. He sat to my right.
"We're going to sit here," he said, "and you are going to write and talk to me in a very normal manner. The moth, that lurched at you today, is around, in the bushes. After a while it'll come closer to look at you. That's why I've put the lantern on a beam right above you. The light will guide the moth to find you. When it gets to the edge of the bushes, it will call you. It is a very special sound. The sound by itself may help you."
"What kind of sound is it, don Juan?"
"It is a song. A haunting call, that moths produce. Ordinarily, it cannot be heard, but the moth out there in the bushes is a rare moth; you will hear its call clearly and, providing, that you are impeccable, it will remain with you for the rest of your life."
"What is it going to help me with?"
"Tonight, you're going to try to finish what you've started earlier. Seeing happens only when the warrior is capable of stopping the internal dialogue. Today, you stopped your talk at will, out there in the bushes. And you saw. What you saw was not clear. You thought, that it was a man. I say it was a moth. Neither of us is correct, but that's because we have to talk. I still have the upper hand, because I see better, than you and because I'm familiar with the sorcerers' explanation; so
I know, although it's not altogether accurate, that the shape you saw tonight was a moth. And now, you're going to remain silent and thoughtless and let that little moth come to you again." I could hardly take notes. Don Juan laughed and urged me to keep on writing, as if nothing bothered me. He touched my arm and said, that writing was the best protective shield, that I had. "We've never talked about moths," he went on. "The time was not right until now. As you already know, your spirit was unbalanced. To counteract that, I taught you to live the warrior's way. Well, a warrior starts off with the certainty, that his Spirit is off Balance; then by living in full Control and Awareness, but without hurry or compulsion, he does his ultimate best to gain this Balance. In your case, as in the case of every man, your imbalance was due to the sum total of all your actions. But now your Spirit seems to be in the proper light to talk about moths."
"How did you know, that this was the right time to talk about moths?"
"I caught a glimpse of the moth prowling around, when you arrived. It was the first time it was friendly and open. I had seen it before in the mountains around Genaro's house, but only as a menacing figure reflecting your lack of order." I heard a strange sound at that moment. It was like a muffled creaking of a branch, rubbing against another, or like the sputtering of a small motor, heard from a distance. It changed scales, like a musical tone, creating an eerie rhythm. Then it stopped. "That was the moth," don Juan said. "Perhaps you've already noticed that, although the light of the lantern is bright enough to attract moths, there isn't a single one flying around it." I had not paid attention to it, but once don Juan made me aware of it, I also noticed an incredible silence in the desert around the house.
"Don't get jumpy," he said calmly. "There is nothing in this world, that a warrior cannot account for. You see, a warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing for him to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he's clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect, that he has witnessed everything." Don Juan's words, and above all his mood, were very soothing to me. I told him, that in my day-to-day life I no longer experienced the obsessive fear I used to, but that my body entered into convulsions of fright at the thought of what was out there in the dark. "Out there, there is only knowledge," he said in a factual tone. "Knowledge is frightening, true; but if a warrior accepts the frightening nature of knowledge, he cancels out its awesomeness." The strange sputtering noise happened again. It seemed closer and louder. I listened carefully. The more attention I paid to it, the more difficult it was to determine its nature. It did not seem to be the call of a bird or the cry of a land animal.
33-34
The tone of each sputter was rich and deep; some were produced in a low key, others in a high one. They had a rhythm and a specific duration; some were long, I heard them like a single unit of sound; others were short and happened in a cluster, like the staccato sound of a machine gun. "The moths are the heralds or, better yet, the guardians of eternity," don Juan said after the sound had stopped. "For some reason, or for no reason at all, they are the depositories of the gold dust of Eternity." The metaphor was foreign to me. I asked him to explain it. "The moths carry a dust on their wings," he said. "A dark gold dust. That dust is the dust of knowledge." His explanation had made the metaphor even more obscure. I vacillated (vibrate) for a moment, trying to find the best way of wording my question. But he began to talk again.
"Knowledge is a most peculiar affair," he said, "especially for a warrior. Knowledge for a warrior is something, that comes at once, engulfs him, and passes on."
"What does knowledge have to do with the dust on the wings of moths?" I asked after a long pause.
"Knowledge comes, floating like specks of gold dust, the same dust, that covers the wings of moths. So, for a warrior, knowledge is like taking a shower, or being rained on by specks of dark gold dust." In the most polite manner I was capable of, I mentioned, that his explanations had confused me even more. He laughed and assured me, that he was making perfect sense, except that my reason would not allow me to be at ease. "The moths have been the intimate friends and helpers of sorcerers from time immemorial," he said. "I had not touched upon this subject before, because of your lack of preparation."
"But how can the dust on their wings be knowledge?"
"You'll see." He put his hand over my notebook and told me to close my eyes and become silent and without thoughts. He said, that the call of the moth in the chaparral was going to aid me. If I paid attention to it, it would tell me of imminent events. He stressed, that he did not know how the communication between the moth and myself was going to be established, neither did he know what the terms of the communication would be. He urged me to feel at ease and confident and trust my personal power. After an initial period of impatience and nervousness I succeeded in becoming silent. My thoughts diminished in number, until my mind was perfectly blank. The noises of the desert chaparral seemed to have been turned on as I became more calm. The strange sound, that don Juan said, was made by a moth, occurred again. It registered as a feeling in my body and not as a thought in my mind. It occurred to me, that it was not threatening or malevolent at all. It was sweet and simple. It was like a child's call. It brought back the memory of a little boy, that I once knew. The long sounds reminded me of his round blond head, the short staccato sounds of his laughter. The most anguishing feeling oppressed me, and yet there were no thoughts in my mind; I felt the anguish in my body. I could no longer remain sitting and slid to the floor on my side. My sadness was so intense, that I began to think. I assessed my pain and sorrow and suddenly found myself in the midst of an internal debate about the little boy. The sputtering sound had ceased. My eyes were closed. I heard don Juan standing up and then I felt him helping me to sit up. I did not want to speak. He did not say a word. I heard him moving by me. I opened my eyes; he had knelt in front of me and was examining my face, holding the lantern close to me. He ordered me to put my hands over my stomach. He stood up, went to the kitchen and brought me some water. He splashed some on my face and gave me the rest to drink. He sat down next to me and handed me my notes. I told him, that the sound had involved me in the most painful reverie. "You are indulging beyond your limits," he said dryly. He seemed to immerse himself in thought, as if he were searching for an appropriate suggestion to make. "The problem for tonight is seeing people," he finally said. "First you must stop your Internal Dialogue, then you must bring up the image of the person, that you want to see; any thought, that one holds in mind in a state of silence, is properly a command, since there are no other thoughts to compete with it. Tonight, the moth in the bushes wants to help you, so it will sing for you.
35-36
Its song will bring the golden specks and then you will see the person, you've selected." I wanted to have more details, but he made an abrupt gesture and signaled me to proceed. After struggling for a few minutes to stop my internal dialogue I was thoroughly silent. And then I deliberately held the brief thought of a friend of mine. I kept my eyes closed for what I believed to be just an instant and then I became aware, that someone was shaking me by the shoulders. It was a slow realization. I opened my eyes and found myself lying on my left side. I had apparently fallen asleep so deeply, that I did not remember having slumped to the ground. Don Juan helped me to sit up again. He was laughing. He imitated my snoring and said, that if he had not witnessed it himself, he would not believe, that anyone could fall asleep so fast. He said, that it was a treat for him to be around me whenever I had to do something, that my reason did not understand. He pushed my notebook away from me and said, that we had to start all over. I followed the necessary steps. The strange sputtering (like machinegun) sound happened again. This time, however, it did not come from the chaparral; rather it seemed to happen inside of me, as if my lips, or legs, or arms were producing it. The sound soon engulfed me. I felt like soft balls were being sputtered out from or against me; it was a soothing, exquisite feeling of being bombarded by heavy cotton puffs. Suddenly I heard a door blown open by a gust of wind and I was thinking again. I thought, that I had ruined another chance. I opened my eyes and found myself in my room. The objects on my desk were as I had left them. The door was open; there was a strong wind outside. The thought crossed my mind, that I should check the water heater. I then heard a rattling on the sliding windows, that I had put up myself and which did not fit well on the window frame. It was a furious rattling, as if someone wanted to enter. I experienced a jolt of fright. I stood up from my chair. I felt something pulling me. I screamed. Don Juan was shaking me by the shoulders. I excitedly gave him an account of my vision. It had been so vivid, that I was shivering. I felt, that I had just been at my desk, in my full corporeal (of material) form. Don Juan shook his head in disbelief and said, that I was a genius in tricking myself. He did not seem impressed by what I had done. He discarded it flatly and ordered me to start again. I then heard the mysterious sound again. It came to me, as don Juan had suggested, in the form of a rain of golden specks. I did not feel that they were flat specks or flakes, as he had described them, but rather spherical bubbles. They floated towards me. One of them burst open and revealed a scene to me. It was as if it had stopped in front of my eyes and opened up, disclosing a strange object. It looked like a mushroom. I was definitely looking at it, and, what I was experiencing, was not a dream. The mushroomlike object remained unchanged within my field of "vision" and then it popped, as though the light, that was shining on it, had been turned off. An interminable (endless) darkness followed it. I felt a tremor, a very unsettling jolt, and then I had the abrupt realization, that I was being shaken. All at once my senses were turned on. Don Juan was shaking me vigorously, and I was looking at him. I must have just opened my eyes at that moment. He sprinkled water on my face. The coldness of the water was very appealing. After a moment's pause he wanted to know what had happened. I recounted every detail of my vision. "But what did I see?" I asked.
"Your friend," he retorted. I laughed and patiently explained, that I had seen a mushroom-like figure. Although I had no criteria (official standard, rule, test) to judge dimensions, I had had the feeling, that it was about a foot long. Don Juan emphasized, that feeling was all, that counted. He said, that my feelings were the gauge (instrument for testing), that assessed the state of being of the subject, that I was seeing. "From your description and your feelings I must conclude, that your friend must be a very fine man," he said. I was baffled by his words. He said, that the mushroomlike formation was the essential shape of Human Beings, when a Sorcerer was Seeing them from far away, but when a Sorcerer was directly facing the person, he was Seeing, the human quality was shown as an Egglike Cluster of Luminous Fibers.
37-38
"You were not facing your friend," he said. "Therefore, he appeared like a mushroom."
"Why is that so, don Juan?"
"No one knows. That simply is the way men appear in this specific type of Seeing." He added, that every feature of the mushroomlike formation had a special significance, but that it was impossible for a beginner to accurately interpret that significance. I then had an intriguing recollection. Some years before, in a state of nonordinary reality elicited (draw out) by the intake of psychotropic plants, I had experienced or perceived, while I was looking at a water stream, that a cluster of bubbles floated towards me, engulfing me. The golden bubbles I had just envisioned had floated and engulfed me in exactly the same manner. In fact, I could say, that both clusters had had the same structure and the same pattern. Don Juan listened to my commentaries without interest. "Don't waste your power on trifles," he said. "You are dealing with that immensity out there." He pointed towards the chaparral with a movement of his hand. "To turn that magnificence out there into reasonableness, doesn't do anything for you. Here, surrounding us, is Eternity itself. To engage in reducing it to a manageable nonsense is petty and outright disastrous." He then insisted, that I should attempt to see another person from my realm of acquaintances. He added, that once the vision had terminated, I should strive to open my eyes by myself and surface to the full awareness of my immediate surroundings. I succeeded in holding the view of another mushroomlike form, but while the first one had been yellowish and small, the second one was whitish, larger and contorted. By the time we had finished talking about the two shapes, I had seen, I had forgotten the "moth" in the bushes, which had been so overwhelming a little while before. I told don Juan, that it amazed me, that I had such a facility for discarding something so truly uncanny (unexpected, weird). It was as if I were not the person, I knew myself to be. "I don't see why you make such a fuss out of this," don Juan said. "Whenever the dialogue stops, the world collapses and extraordinary facets of ourselves surface, as though they had been kept heavily guarded by our words. You are, like you are, because you tell yourself, that you are that way." After a short rest, don Juan urged me to continue "calling" friends. He said, that the point was to attempt to see as many times, as possible, in order to establish a guideline for feeling. I called thirty-two persons in succession. After each attempt, he demanded a careful and detailed rendition (description) of everything I had perceived in my vision. He changed that procedure, however, as I became more proficient in my performance, judging by my stopping the internal dialogue in a matter of seconds, by my being capable of opening my eyes by myself at the end of each experience, and by my resuming ordinary activities without any transition. I noticed this change, while we were discussing the coloration of the mushroomlike formations. He had already made the point, that what I called coloration, was not a hue, but a glow of different intensities. I was about to describe a yellowish glow, that I had envisioned, when he interrupted me and accurately described what I had seen. From that point on he discussed the content of each vision, not as if he had understood what I had said, but as if he had seen it himself. When I called him to comment on it, he flatly refused to talk about it. By the time I had finished calling the thirty-two persons, I had realized, that I had seen a variety of mushroomlike shapes, and glows, and I had had a variety of feelings towards them, ranging from mild delight to sheer disgust. Don Juan explained, that men were filled with configurations, that could be wishes, problems, sorrows, worries, and so on. He asserted, that only a profoundly powerful sorcerer could untangle the meaning of those configurations, and that I had to be content with viewing only the general shape of men. I was very tired. There was something indeed fatiguing about those strange shapes. My overall sensation was one of queasiness (nausea). I had not liked them. They had made me feel trapped and doomed. Don Juan commanded me to write, in order to dispel the sensation of somberness (melancholy,gloom).
39-40
And after a long silent interval, during which I could not write anything, he asked me to call on people, that he himself would select. A new series of forms emerged. They were not mushroomlike, but looked more like Japanese cups for sake (japanese alcohol), turned upside down. Some of them had a headlike formation, just like the foot of sake cups; others were more round. Their shapes were appealing and peaceful. I sensed, that there was some inherent feeling of happiness about them. They bounced, as opposed to the earthbound heaviness, that the previous batch had exhibited. Somehow, the mere fact, that they were there, eased my fatigue. Among the persons he had selected was his apprentice Eligio. When I summoned the vision of Eligio, I got a jolt, that shook me out of my visionary state. Eligio had a long white shape, that jerked and seemed to leap at me. Don Juan explained, that Eligio was a very talented apprentice and that he, no doubt, had noticed, that someone was Seeing him. Another of don Juan's selections was Pablito, don Genaro's apprentice. The jolt, that the vision of Pablito gave me, was even greater, than Eligio's. Don Juan laughed so hard, that tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Why are those people shaped differently?" I asked.
"They have more personal power," he replied. "As you might have noticed, they are not pegged down to the ground."
"What has given them that lightness? Were they born that way?"
"We all are born that light and bouncy, but we become earth-bound and fixed. We make ourselves that way. So perhaps we may say, that these people are shaped differently, because they live like warriors. That's not important though. What's of value is, that you are at the edge now. You've called forty-seven people, and there is only one more left in order for you to complete the original forty-eight." I remembered at that moment, that years before he had told me, while discussing corn sorcery and divination (insight,intuition, inspiration), that the number of corn kernels, that a sorcerer possessed was forty-eight. He had never explained why.
I asked him again, "Why forty-eight?"
"Forty-eight is our number," he said. "That's what makes us men. I don't know why. Don't waste your power in idiotic questions." He stood up and stretched his arms and legs. He told me to do the same. I noticed, that there was a tinge of light in the sky towards the east. We sat down again. He leaned over and put his mouth to my ear. "The last person you're going to call is Genaro, the real McCoy," he whispered. I felt a surge of curiosity and excitation. I breezed through the required steps.
The strange sound from the edge of the chaparral became vivid and acquired new strength. I had almost forgotten about it. The golden bubbles engulfed me and then in one of them I saw don Genaro himself. He was standing in front of me, holding his hat in his hand. He was smiling. I hurriedly opened my eyes and was about to speak to don Juan, but before I could say a word, my body stiffened like a board; my hair stood on end and for a long moment I did not know what to do or say.
Don Genaro was standing right in front of me. In person! I turned to don Juan; he was smiling. Then both of them broke into a giant laugh. I also tried to laugh. I could not. I stood up. Don Juan handed me a cup of water. I drank it automatically. I thought he was going to sprinkle water on my face. Instead, he refilled my cup. Don Genaro scratched his head and hid a grin. "Aren't you going to greet Genaro?" don Juan asked. It took an enormous effort for me to organize my thoughts and my feelings. I finally mumbled some greetings to don Genaro. He took a bow.
"You called me, didn't you?" he asked, smiling. I muttered my amazement at having found him standing there.
"He did call you," don Juan interjected.
"Well, here I am," don Genaro said to me. "What can I do for you?"
41-42
Slowly my mind seemed to become organized and finally I had a sudden insight. My thoughts were crystal clear and I "knew" what had really taken place. I figured, that don Genaro had been visiting with don Juan, and that as soon, as they had heard my car approaching, don Genaro had slipped into the bushes and had remained in hiding, until it got dark. I believed the evidence was convincing. Don Juan, since he had no doubt engineered the entire affair, gave me clues from time to time, thus guiding its development. At the appropriate time, don Genaro had made me notice his presence, and when don Juan and I were walking back to the house, he followed us in the most obvious manner in order to arouse my fear. Then he had waited in the chaparral and made the strange sound, whenever don Juan had signaled him. The final signal to come out from behind the bushes must have been given by don Juan while my eyes were closed, after he had asked me to "call" don Genaro. Then don Genaro must have walked to the ramada and waited until I opened my eyes and then scared me out of my wits (out of my senses).
The only incongruencies (incompartibility) in my logical explanatory scheme were, that I had actually seen the man hiding in the bushes turn into a bird, and that
I had first visualized don Genaro as an image in a golden bubble. In my vision he had been dressed exactly as he was in person. Since there was no logical way for me to explain those incongruencies, I assumed, as I have always done in similar circumstances, that the emotional stress may have played an important role in determining what I "believed I saw." I began to laugh quite involuntarily at the thought of their preposterous trick. I told them about my deductions. They laughed uproariously. I honestly believed, that their laughter was the giveaway.
"You were hiding in the bushes, weren't you?" I asked don Genaro. Don Juan sat down and held his head in both hands.
"No. I wasn't hiding," don Genaro said patiently. "I was far from here and then you called, so I came to see you."
"Where were you, don Genaro?"
"Far away."
"How far?"
Don Juan interrupted me and said, that don Genaro had showed up as an act of deference (courtious respect, honour) to me, and that I could not ask, where he had been, because he had been nowhere. Don Genaro came to my defense and said, that it was all right to ask him anything.
"If you were not hiding around the house, where were you, don Genaro?" I asked.
"I was at my house," he said with great candor (straight forward).
"In central Mexico?"
"Yes! It's the only house I've got."
They looked at each other and again broke into laughter. I knew, that they were kidding me, but I decided not to contest the point any further. I thought they must have had a reason for engaging themselves in such an elaborate production. I sat down. I felt, that I was truthfully cut in two; some part of me was not shocked at all and could accept any of don Juan or don Genaro's acts at their face value. But there was another part of me, that flatly refused; it was my strongest part.
My conscious assessment was, that I had accepted don Juan's sorcery description of the world merely on an intellectual basis, while my body, as a whole entity, refused it, thus my dilemma. But then over the course of the years of my association with don Juan and don Genaro I had experienced extraordinary phenomena and those had been bodily experiences, not intellectual ones. Earlier that very night I had executed the "gait of power," which, from the point of view of my intellect, was an inconceivable accomplishment; and best of all, I had had incredible visions through no other means, than my own volition. I explained to them the nature of my painful and at the same time bona fide perplexity (real puzzle).
"This guy is a genius," don Juan said to don Genaro, shaking his head in disbelief.
"You're a huge genius, Carlitos," don Genaro said, as if he were relaying a message. They sat down on either side of me, don Juan to my right and don Genaro to my left. Don Juan observed, that soon it was going to be morning. At that instant I again heard the moth's call. It had moved. The sound was coming from the opposite direction. I looked at both of them, holding their gaze. My logical scheme began to disintegrate. The sound had a mesmerizing richness and depth.
Moth is an Ally
43-44
Then I heard muffled steps, soft feet crushing the dry underbrush. The sputtering sound came closer and I huddled (draw myself together) against don Juan. He dryly ordered me to see it. I made a supreme effort, not so much to please him, as to please myself. I had been sure, that don Genaro was the moth. But don Genaro was sitting with me; what, then, was in the bushes? A moth? The sputtering sound echoed in my ears. I could not stop my internal dialogue altogether. I heard the sound, but I could not feel it in my body, as I had done earlier. I heard definite steps. Something was creeping in the dark. There was a loud cracking noise, as if a branch had been snapped in two, and suddenly a terrifying memory seized me. Years before I had spent a dreadful night in the wilderness and had been harassed by something, something very light and soft, that had stepped on my neck over and over, while I crouched (bent) on the ground. Don Juan had explained the event as an encounter with the ally, a mysterious force, that a sorcerer learned to perceive as an entity (Inorganic Beings, LM). I leaned closer to don Juan and whispered, what I had remembered. Don Genaro crawled on all fours to get closer to us.
"What did he say?" he asked don Juan in a whisper.
"He said, that there is an ally out there," don Juan replied in a low voice. Don Genaro crawled back and sat down. Then he turned to me and said in a loud whisper: "You're a genius." They laughed quietly. Don Genaro pointed towards the chaparral with a movement of his chin.
"Go out there and grab it," he said. "Take off your clothes and scare the devil out of that ally." They shook with laughter. The sound in the meantime had ceased.
Don Juan ordered me to stop my thoughts, but to keep my eyes open, focused on the edge of the chaparral in front of me. He said, that the moth had changed positions, because don Genaro was there, and that if it were going to manifest itself to me, it would choose to come from the front. After a moment's struggle to quiet my thoughts, I perceived the sound again. It was richer, than ever. I heard first the muffled steps on dry twigs and then I felt them on my body. At that instant I distinguished a dark mass directly in front of me, at the edge of the chaparral. I felt, I was being shaken. I opened my eyes. Don Juan and don Genaro were standing above me and I was kneeling, as if I had fallen asleep in a crouching position. Don Juan gave me some water and I sat down again with my back against the wall. A short while later it was dawn. The chaparral seemed to wake up. The morning cold was crisp and invigorating. The moth had not been don Genaro.
Moth is an Ally
My rational structure was falling apart. I did not want to ask any more questions, nor did I want to remain quiet. I finally had to talk. "But if you were in central Mexico, don Genaro, how did you get here?" I asked. Don Genaro made some ludicrous (laughable, foolish) and utterly hilarious (boisterously funny, gay, merry) gestures with his mouth.
"I'm sorry," he said to me, "my mouth doesn't want to talk." He then turned to don Juan and said, grinning, "Why don't you tell him?"
Don Juan vacillated (sway from one side to the other). Then he said, that don Genaro, as a consummate (perfect) artist of Sorcery, was capable of prodigious (extraordinary, marvelous) deeds. Don Genaro's chest swelled, as if don Juan's words were inflating it. He seemed to have inhaled so much air, that his chest looked twice its normal size.
He appeared to be on the verge of floating. He leaped in the air. I had the impression, that the air inside his lungs had forced him to jump. He paced back and forth on the dirt floor, until he apparently got his chest under control; he patted it and with great force ran the palms of his hands from his pectoral muscles to his stomach, as if he were deflating the inner tube of a tire. He finally sat down. Don Juan was grinning. His eyes were shining with sheer delight: "Write your notes," he ordered me softly. "Write, write or you'll die!" Then he remarked, that even don Genaro no longer felt, that my taking notes was so outlandish.
"That's right!" don Genaro retorted. "I've been thinking of taking up writing myself."
45-46
"Genaro is a Man of Knowledge," don Juan said dryly. "And being a Man of Knowledge, he's perfectly capable of transporting himself (his Double - the Other - Second Body - Energy Body) over great distances." He reminded me, that once, years before, the three of us had been in the mountains, and that don Genaro, in an effort to help me overcome my stupid reason, had taken a prodigious leap to the peaks of the Sierras, ten miles away. I remembered the event, but I also remembered, that I could not even conceive, that he had jumped. Don Juan added, that don Genaro was capable of performing extraordinary feats at certain times. "Genaro at certain times, is not Genaro, but his Double," he said. He repeated it three or four times. Then both of them watched me, as if waiting for my impending (imminent, due to happen soon) reaction. I had not understood what he meant by "his Double." He had never mentioned that before. I asked for a clarification. "There is another Genaro," he explained. All three of us looked at one another. I became very apprehensive (anxious). Don Juan urged me with a movement of his eyes to keep on talking.
"Do you have a twin brother?" I asked, turning to don Genaro.
"Of course," he said. "I have a twin." I could not determine whether or not they were putting me on (teasing). They both giggled with the abandon of children, that were pulling a prank (practical joke, mischievous trick).
"You may say," don Juan went on, "that at this moment Genaro is his twin." That statement brought both of them to the ground with laughter. But I could not enjoy their mirth.
My body shivered involuntarily. Don Juan said in a severe tone, that I was too heavy and self-important. "Let go!" he commanded me dryly. "You know, that Genaro is a sorcerer and an impeccable warrior. So he's capable of performing deeds, that would be unthinkable for the average man. His Double, the other Genaro, is one of those deeds." I was speechless.
I could not conceive, that they were just teasing me. "For a warrior like Genaro," he went on, "to produce the Other is not such a farfetched (improbable in nature) enterprise."
After pondering for a long time, what to say next, I asked: "Is the Other like the Self?"
"The Other is the Self," don Juan replied. His explanation had taken an incredible turn, and yet it was not really more incredible, than anything else they did.
"What's the Other made of?" I asked don Juan after minutes of indecision.
"There is no way of knowing that," he said. (The Double or the Other is made of Sun Energy! LM.)
"Is it real or just an illusion?"
"It's real of course."
"Would it be possible then to say, that it is made of flesh and blood?" I asked.
"No. It would not be possible," don Genaro answered.
"But if it is as real, as I am . . ."
"As real, as you?" don Juan and don Genaro interjected (interrupted) in unison. They looked at each other and laughed, until I thought they were going to get ill. Don Genaro threw his hat on the floor and danced around it. His dance was agile (light) and graceful and, for some inexplicable reason, utterly funny. Perhaps the humor was in the exquisitely "professional" movements, he executed. The incongruency (discordant parts, arythmical movements) was so subtle and at the same time so remarkable, that I doubled up with laughter.
"The trouble with you, Carlitos," he said, as he sat down again, "is that you're a genius."
"I have to know about the Double," I said.
"There's no way of knowing ,whether he's flesh and blood," don Juan said. "Because he is not as real, as you. Genaro's Double is as real, as Genaro. Do you see what I mean?"
"But you have to admit, don Juan, that there must be a way to know."
"The Double is the Self; that explanation should suffice. If you would see, however, you'd know, that there is a great difference between Genaro and his Double. For a Sorcerer, who Sees, the Double is brighter."
47-48 (this is a funny page)
I felt, I was too weak to ask any more questions. I put my writing pad down and for a moment I thought I was going to pass out. I had tunnel vision; everything around me was dark with the exception of a round spot of clear scenery in front of my eyes. Don Juan said, that I had to get some food. I was not hungry. Don Genaro announced, that he was famished, stood up and went to the back of the house. Don Juan also stood up and signaled me to follow. In the kitchen, don Genaro gave himself a serving of food and then became involved in the most comical mimicking of a person, who wants to eat, but can't swallow. I thought, that don Juan was going to die; he roared, kicked, cried, coughed and choked with laughter. I thought, I too was going to split my sides. Don Genaro's antics were priceless. He finally gave up and looked at don Juan and me in succession; he had shiny eyes and a beaming smile.
"It doesn't work," he said, shrugging his shoulders. I ate a huge amount of food, and so did don Juan; then all of us returned to the front of the house. The sunlight was brilliant, the sky was clear and the morning breeze sharpened the air. I felt happy and strong. We sat in a triangle facing one another. After a polite silence I decided to ask them to clarify my dilemma. I felt, that I was again in top form and wanted to exploit my strength.
"Tell me more about the Double, don Juan," I said. Don Juan pointed at don Genaro and don Genaro bowed.
"There he is," don Juan said. "There is nothing to tell. He's here for you to witness him."
"But he's don Genaro," I said in a feeble attempt to guide the conversation.
"Surely I'm Genaro," he said and perked his shoulders.
"What is a Double then, don Genaro?" I asked.
"Ask him," he snapped, pointing to don Juan. "He's the one, who talks. I'm dumb."
"A Double is the Sorcerer himself, developed through his Dreaming" don Juan explained. "A Double is an Act of Power to a Sorcerer, but only a tale of Power to you. In the case of Genaro, his Double is indistinguishable from the Original. That's, because his impeccability, as a warrior, is supreme; thus, you've never noticed the difference yourself. But in the years, that you've known him, you've been with the original Genaro only twice; every other time you've been with his Double."
"But this is preposterous (foolish)!" I exclaimed. I felt an anxiety building up in my chest. I became so agitated, that I dropped my writing pad, and my pencil rolled out of sight.
Don Juan and don Genaro practically dove to the ground and began the most farcical search for it. I had never seen a more astonishing performance of theatrical magic and sleight of hand. Except, that there was no stage, or props, or any type of gadgetry, and most likely the performers were not using sleight (trickery) of hand. Don Genaro, the head magician, and his assistant, don Juan, produced in a matter of minutes the most astounding, bizarre and outlandish collection of objects, which they found underneath, or behind, or above every object within the periphery of the ramada. In the style of stage magic, the assistant set up the props, which in this case were the few items on the dirt floor - rocks, burlap sacks, pieces of wood, a milk crate, a lantern and my jacket - then the magician, don Genaro, would proceed to find an object, which he would throw away as soon, as he had attested, that it was not my pencil. The collection of objects found included pieces of clothing, wigs, eyeglasses, toys, utensils, pieces of machinery, women's underwear, human teeth, sandwiches, and religious objects. One of them was outright disgusting. It was a piece of compact human excrement, that don Genaro took from underneath my jacket. Finally, don Genaro found my pencil and handed it to me after dusting it off with the tail of his shirt. They celebrated their clowning with yells and chuckles. I found myself watching, unable to join them. "Don't take things so seriously, Carlitos," don Genaro said with a tone of concern. "Otherwise you're going to bust a ..." He made a ludicrous gesture, that could have meant anything. After their laughter subsided, I asked don Genaro, what a Double did, or what a Sorcerer did with the Double. Don Juan answered.
49-50
He said, that the Double had Power, and that it was used to accomplish feats, that would be unimaginable under ordinary terms. "I've told you time and time again, that the world is unfathomable (to deep to measure)," he said to me. "And so are we, and so is every Being, that exists in this World. It is impossible, therefore, to reason out the Double. You've been allowed to witness it, though, and that should be more, than enough."
"But there must be a way to talk about it," I said. "You yourself have told me, that you explained your conversation with the deer in order to talk about it. Can't you do the same with the Double?"
He was quiet for a moment. I pleaded with him. The anxiety I was experiencing was beyond anything I had ever gone through.
"Well, a Sorcerer can double up," don Juan said. "That's all one can say."
"But is he aware, that he is doubled?"
"Of course he's aware of it."
"Does he know, that he is in two places at once?" Both of them looked at me and then they exchanged a glance. "Where is the Other don Genaro?" I asked. Don Genaro leaned towards me and stared into my eyes.
"I don't know," he said softly. "No Sorcerer knows, where his Other is."
"Genaro is right," don Juan said. "A Sorcerer has no notion, that he is in two places at once. To be aware of that would be the equivalent of facing his Double, and the Sorcerer, that finds himself face to face with himself is a Dead Sorcerer. That is the rule. That is the way Power has set things up. No one knows why."
Don Juan explained, that by the time a Warrior had conquered Dreaming and Seeing and had developed a Double, he must have also succeeded in erasing Personal History, Self-importance, and routines. He said, that all the techniques, which he had taught me, and which I had considered to be empty talk, were, in essence, means for removing the impracticality of having a Double in the ordinary World, by making the Self and the World fluid, and by placing them outside the bounds of prediction. "A fluid warrior can no longer make the World chronological," don Juan explained. "And for him, the world and himself are no longer objects. He's a Luminous Being existing in a Luminous World. The Double is a simple affair for a Sorcerer, because he knows, what he's doing. To take notes is a simple affair for you, but you still scare Genaro with your pencil."
"Can an outsider, looking at a Sorcerer, see that he is in two places at once?" I asked don Juan.
"Certainly. That would be the only way to know it."
"But can't one logically assume, that the Sorcerer would also notice, that he has been in two places?"
"Aha!" don Juan exclaimed. "For once you've got it right. A Sorcerer may certainly notice afterwards, that he has been in two places at once. But this is only bookkeeping and has no bearing on the fact, that while he's acting, he has no notion of his Duality." My mind boggled. I felt, that if I did not keep on writing, I would explode. "Think of this," he went on.
"The World doesn't yield to us directly, the description of the World stands in between. So, properly speaking, we are always one step removed and our experience of the World is always a Recollection (Recall) of the experience. We are perennially recollecting the instant, that has just happened, just passed. We recollect, recollect, recollect." He turned his hand over and over to give me the feeling of, what he meant. "If our entire experience of the World is Recollection, then it's not so outlandish to conclude, that a Sorcerer can be in two places at once. This is not the case from the point of view of his own perception, because in order to experience the World, a Sorcerer, like every other man, has to recollect the act, he has just performed, the event, he has just witnessed, the experience he has just lived. In his awareness there is only a single recollection. But for an outsider, looking at the Sorcerer, it may appear, as if the Sorcerer is acting two different episodes at once. The Sorcerer, however, recollects two separate single instants, because the glue of the description of time is no longer binding him." When don Juan had finished talking, I was sure, I was running a temperature. Don Genaro examined me with curious eyes.
51-52-53
"He's right," he said. "We're always one jump behind." He moved his hand as don Juan had done; his body started to jerk and he jumped back on his seat. It was, as if he had the hiccups and the hiccups were forcing his body to jump back. He began to move backwards, jumping on his seat, and went all the way to the end of the ramada and back. The sight of don Genaro leaping backwards on his buttocks, instead of being funny, as it should have been, threw me into an attack of fear so intense, that don Juan had to strike me repeatedly on the top of my head with his knuckles.
"I just can't grasp all this, don Juan," I said.
"I can't either," don Juan retorted, shrugging his shoulders.
"Neither can I, dear Carlitos," don Genaro added. My fatigue, the bulk of my sensory experience, the mood of lightness and humor, that prevailed, and don Genaro's clowning were too much for my nerves. I could not stop the agitation in my stomach muscles. Don Juan made me roll on the ground, until I had regained my calmness, then I sat down facing them again. My body leaped in the air, as if I had been propelled by a formidable force. I ran to my car.
"Is the Double solid?" I asked don Juan after a long silence. They looked at me. "Does the Double have corporealness (materiality)?" I asked.
"Certainly," don Juan said. "Solidity, corporealness are memories. Therefore, like everything else we feel about the world, they are memories, we accumulate. Memories of the description. You have the memory of my solidity, the same way you have the memory of communicating through words. Thus, you talked with a coyote and you feel me, as being solid." Don Juan put his shoulder next to mine and nudged (push gently) me lightly. "Touch me," he said. I patted him and then, I embraced him. I was close to tears.
Don Genaro stood up and came closer to me. He looked like a small child with shiny mischievous eyes. He puckered up his lips and looked at me for a long moment.
"What about me?" he asked, trying to hide a smile. "Aren't you going to embrace me too (but he is not physical, he is his Plasmic Double! LM)?" I stood up and extended my arms to touch him; my body seemed to freeze on the spot. I had no power to move. I tried to force my arms to reach him, but my struggle was in vain. Don Juan and don Genaro stood by, watching me. I felt my body contorting under an unknown pressure. Don Genaro sat down and pretended to sulk (withdrawn in silent protest), because I had not embraced him; he pouted (protrude lips to show displeasure) and hit the ground with his heels, then both of them exploded into more roaring laughter. The muscles of my stomach trembled, making my whole body shake. Don Juan pointed out, that I was moving my head the way he had recommended earlier, and that that was the chance to soothe myself by reflecting a beam of light on the cornea of my eyes. He forcefully dragged me from under the roof of his ramada to the open field and manipulated my body into position, so that my eyes would catch the eastern sunlight; but by the time he had put my body in place, I had stopped shivering. I noticed, that I was clutching (grasp and hold tightly) my notebook only after don Genaro said, that the weight of the sheets was giving me the shivers. I told don Juan, that my body was pulling me to leave. I waved my hand to don Genaro. I did not want to give them time to make me change my mind. "Good-by, don Genaro," I yelled. "I have to go now." He waved back at me. Don Juan walked a few yards with me towards my car. "Do you also have a Double, don Juan?" I asked.
"Of course!" he exclaimed. I had at that moment a maddening thought. I wanted to discard it and leave in a hurry, but something in myself kept on needling me. Over the course of the years of our association, it had become customary for me, that every time I wanted to see don Juan, I would just go to Sonora or central Mexico, and I would always find him waiting for me. I had learned to take that for granted and it had never occurred to me until then, to think anything of it. "Tell me something, don Juan," I said, half in jest.
"Are you yourself or are you your Double?"
He leaned over towards me. He was grinning. "My Double," he whispered. "I was just kidding," don Juan said in a loud voice. "You can't go yet. You still owe me five more days." Both of them ran towards my car, as I was backing up. They were laughing and jumping up and down.
"Carlitos, call me any time!" don Genaro shouted.
2.
The Dreamer And the Dreamed
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