Stalking & Dreaming

The most demanding aspect of the teachings of Don Juan Matus, is in regard to the duality of the warrior; how is it possible to reconcile the two halves of our double nature that comprise the whole. Our dual nature is at best both an advantage and something of a burden... it can inhibit our actions and cloud our judgement at times. The balancing of the two sides of our being is the answer to this dilemma. Don Juan ma es it clear that all that remains of the Toltec teachings is in a sense !stal ing" and its counterpart !dreaming". #$tal ers deal with people, with the world of ordinary affairs. $tal ers are the practitioners of controlled folly as the dreamers are the practitioners of dreaming. %ontrolled folly is the basis for stal ing, as dreams are the basis for dreaming. &enerally spea ing, a warrior's greatest accomplishment in the second attention is dreaming, and in the first attention his greatest accomplishment is stal ing. (n the absence of self)importance, a warrior's only way of dealing with the social milieu is in terms of controlled folly.*

STALKING + warrior follows the rule of the stal ers. The ,ule applies to everyone but the stal er ta es it on as the only means of buffering the onslaughts of power that come in the pursuit of nowledge. The rule is that a warrior has essentially given up the concerns of his everyday life in the pursuit of nowledge. -e is only interested in unravelling the mysteries of the universe. -e must come to the understanding that this mystery is infinite, and as such this is a hopeless tas but he must proceed anyway. (n doing so the warrior becomes a part of the mystery themselves . everything within his universe becomes e/ual unimportant and as to nothing. This principle is the ,ule of stal ers. Don Juan lays out the principles for the warrior in regard to stal ing0 1 To choose the battlefield 1 To discard everything which is unnecessary 1 To choose your battles with care 1 To rela2, abandon yourself and to fear nothing 1 3hen faced with odds that cannot be dealt with, warriors retreat for a moment 1 + warrior compresses time . ma ing every moment count, aiming at success and ready to ma e his last stand at any moment 1 + stal er never 4ushes himself to the front . this last principle can only be applied with the implementation of the former si2 principles The application of these principles results in three things0)#The first is that stal ers learn never to ta e themselves seriously; they learn to laugh at themselves. (f they're not afraid of being a fool, they can fool anyone. The second is that stal ers learn to have endless patience. $tal ers are never in a hurry; they never fret. +nd the third is that stal ers learn to have an endless capacity to improvise.* Don Juan also outlined the mood for stal ing this being0),uthlessness,%unning,4atience and $weetness. This is the guiding attitude a warrior needs to adopt to stal effectively. One of the principle tools of stal ing is recapitulation. This comprises the stal ers !sweeping breath", the purpose of which is to free the warrior from the bonds of energetic filaments that become attached to them though energetic e2changes. The breath itself gives the life)giving healing force needed to purge the luminous being. The aim of a stal er is to lose human form. This is can be achieved through a powerful recapitulation followed by implementation of the not)doings of the self such as erasing personal history, losing selfimportance and brea ing of routines. The stal er is the epitome of a warrior in this way is both light and fluid. 5ree of human form the stal er is also unpredictable, deliberate in action, patient, not concerned about being understood nor concerned about the self)reflection of others . but instead this state allows the individual to be lighthearted and jovial and they truly enjoy their lives. DREAMING Dreaming is built on the premise that there is something called the !double" or the !other" and this is a replica of the warrior themselves. The important aspect of this concept is in being able to comprehend such idea. !3ill" is how the dreaming double is accessed and channelled and through !3ill" the dreaming double can become anything. The nowledge of this opens us to the concept that what we are in fact is an energetic configuration of energy fields or indeed as Don Juan called it 6 the luminous

being. The aim of the dreamer is to find themselves in dreaming. -e achieves this with a simple manoeuvre; this is to find the hands in dreaming . which is to loo down at the hands while asleep and to reali7e the dream state. The dreamer also hopes to actually see themselves dreaming. (n this instant it is important to avoid the shoc of e2periencing such a thing. +s with all things in dreaming the dreamer ta es nonchalantly whatever he sees. The way anything is achieved in dreaming is through the volition of the dreamer. Once the dreamer has found their hands they ne2t attempt to find a location within dreaming and with practice this can then be found in the wa ing e2perience. There are as in all things various stages within dreaming. Don Juan sited these as0 #,estful vigil is the preliminary state, a state in which the senses become dormant and yet one is aware.* #The second state is dynamic vigil. (n this state one is left loo ing at a scene, a tableau of sorts, which is static. One sees a three)dimensional picture, a fro7en bit of something ) a landscape, a street, a house, a person, a face, anything.* #The third state is passive witnessing. (n it the dreamer is no longer viewing a fro7en bit of the world but is observing, eye witnessing, an event as it occurs. (t is as if the primacy of the visual and auditory senses ma es this state of dreaming mainly an affair of the eyes and ears.* #The fourth state is the one in which you are drawn to act. (n it one is compelled to enterprise, to ta e steps, to ma e the most of one's time. This state is called dynamic initiative.* 8uote from #The 9ageles &ift* +s with all aspects of Don Juan"s teachings #stopping the internal dialogue* through the process of :ot)doing is a vital component of dreaming. Dreaming re/uires then a /uic ened mind and the energy saved from tal ing to oneself allows one to dream. Don Juan states also0 #The best way to enter into dreaming is to concentrate on the area just at the tip of the sternum, at the top of the belly. The attention needed for dreaming stems from that area. The energy needed in order to move and to see in dreaming stems from the area an inch or two below the belly button. That energy is the will, or the power to select, to assemble. (n a woman both the attention and the energy for dreaming originate from the womb.* 3hat one see s in dreaming is not what one would pay attention to in everyday life. The shift into dreaming is achieved by anchoring the double to the second attention that being the attention of the nagual, The assemblage point ma es a natural shift into this left side of awareness when one sleeps. The tric being to store attention in dreaming 6 this is to become totally immersed in the dream to the e2tent that one is totally detached from the wa ing e2perience. There are seven gates of dreaming that must be crossed for the dreamer to gain mastery over their dreaming. 1 The first gate of dreaming is to gain control of ones attention in dreaming. The easiest way of doing this is through finding the hands in dreaming, this anchors the double in the second attention. 1 The second gate of dreaming is to learn how to wa e up in the dream into yet another dream . enabling the dreamer to change dreaming locations entirely.

1 The third gate of dreaming is reached when you find yourself staring at someone in a dream and that someone turns out to be you. There are two stages to this gate. The first stage, is to arrive at the gate; the second is to cross it. ;y dreaming that you see yourself asleep, you arrive at the third gate. The second phase is to move around once you've seen yourself asleep. 1 The fourth gate of dreaming involves learning to use the energy body as a means of travel. This then be used to travel to #firstly concrete places in this world; two, to travel to concrete places out of this world; and, three, to travel to places that e2ist only in the intent of others.* 1 The 5ifth gate of dreaming is to be able to bring out the dreaming double in everyday life. 1 The si2th is to be able to transport the physical body to another location entirely 1 +nd the seventh is to be able to transcend the world entirely and to step beyond this world with the totality of oneself. (t ta es years to master the arts of stal ing and dreaming ) it re/uires perseverance and only then comes about by practicing the disciplines that Don Juan prescribed. ( have found that remembering direction is a ey element. :ot only in terms of a long perspective but on the basis of moment to moment orientation <in all planes of being simultaneously=. ;alancing ourselves and the forces in our world are also of prime importance. >nderstanding the relativistic and dualistic nature of reality. +nd coming to an understanding that nothing essentially matters e2cept perhaps the rule. Once we set out on this path there really is little alternative ) when one begins to comprehend the nowledge it cannot then be unlearned, only e2panded upon. One may run away but this is not the path with heart and ultimately you will pay. >nderstanding the concepts of control folly and controlled abandonment is important. (n regard to stal ing controlled folly is our shield. %ontrol abandonment Don Juan describes as being something simple and 'there being nothing to it'. ;ut controlled abandonment is in principle the art of sorcery specifically in the application of dreaming ) the ability to ac/uiesce to the situation ) to now how and in what proportion. 3e re/uire both %ontrolled abandonment and controlled folly in both wa ing and dreaming ) being able to give ourselves to the moment and in the same instance able to act to produce the best possible outcome. + life lived li e a warrior is unsurpassed ) one becomes the master of oneself ) the ego being defeated along the way. ;ut as Don Juan says this can only be achieved without either rushing or faltering. The abstract will be achieved in time if one holds firm to the path with heart. ;ut in the end reaching the spirit means there are really no devices one can cling to, no object, and no person. 3e have in the final outcome the say over our lives ) it is our decision. ( am already given to the power that rules my fate. +nd ( cling to nothing, so ( will have nothing to defend. ( have no thoughts, so ( will see. ( fear nothing, so ( will remember myself. Detached and at ease, ( will dart past the 9agle To be free The ancient Toltec seers of Me2ico concerned themselves with irreducible fact derived by seeing the energetic flow that permeates the universe. This configuration of energy they referred to as the 9agle )the defining source of creation. 4erceiving the abstract as they did they also arrived at a concept of cognitive thought they referred to as the 3heel of Time. These two concepts were a means of categori7ing and defining the vast unimaginable reality of everything that e2ists.