"You have to have an unbending intent in order to become a man of knowledge."
DON JUAN MATUS, A Separate Reality
Seeing
In time, the warrior apprentice might achieve a state known as 'Seeing' (second sight or "foresight" (Second Sight, implying visions. Foresight, inferring the ability to see the future before it happens. Though neither definition is completely accurate.)). 'Seeing' is the ability to see past the ordinary affairs of the world, to intuit (intuition, see "Intuition and spirituality") the core of life's realities and its unknown realities as well. Three cognitive states are recognized by Nagualists, the known, those things that we have learned or experienced, the unknown those things within the grasp of human understanding and the unknowable, those things that come from outside human understanding, the Nagual. "Seers" can perceive all three states. The highest order of 'Seeing" is the ability to 'See' the Eagle (the Nagual), followed by the "lines of the world" and luminous beings. It is also possible for "Seers" to perceive inorganic beings called 'entities' and "allies"."Seeing must be direct, for a warrior can't use his time to unravel what he himself is seeing . Seeing is seeing because it cuts through all that nonsense. In the beginning seeing is confusing and it's easy to get lost in it. As the warrior gets tighter, however, his seeing becomes what it should be, a direct knowing. A warrior asks a question, and through his seeing he gets an answer, but the answer is simple."
DON JUAN MATUS, Tales of Power
Dreaming
Dreaming, a technique employed by Warriors to achieve a "dreaming body" or "Double". The technique requires the apprentice to see his hands in sleep dreaming. Once the hands are envisioned the dreaming process has begun. The "Double" or dreaming body is a metaphysical manifestation of the self that can be employed by the dreamer to do any number of tasks. Individuals within the realm of the Tonal (day-to-day conscience) would see the "Other" (also known as the "Double") as ordinary persons or as other metaphysical (see philosophy) beings. Seers, would see them as very bright luminous beings, brighter then their human luminous counterparts. As such the dreamer and the dreamed become one but not in the same place or time. Dreaming might be compared with experiences such as lucid dreaming. Through the art of "Dreaming" Naguals theoretically can shape shift into numerous forms including but not exclusively the following: coyotes, crows, and non animals.Gazing is another form of "dreaming" and is a waking meditative state.
"I am going to teach you right here the first step to power. I am going to teach you how to set up dreaming. To set up dreaming means to have a concise and pragmatic control over the general situation of a dream, comparable to the control one has over any choice in the desert for instance, such as climbing up a hill or remaining in the shade of a water canyon. You must start by doing something very simple. Tonight in your dreams you must look at your hands. Don't think it's a joke. Dreaming is as serious as seeing or dying or any other thing in this awesome, mysterious world."
DON JUAN MATUS, Journey to Ixtlan
Impeccability
The literal translation, perfect execution of a task or tasks. Impeccable, flawless."It doesn't matter what anybody says or does. You must be an impeccable man yourself. The fight is right here in this chest. It takes all the time and all the energy we have to conquer the idiocy in us. And that's what matters. The rest is of no importance. To be an impeccable warrior will give you vigor and youth and power."
DON JUAN MATUS, The Second Ring of Power
Death as an Adviser
The apprentice is encouraged to take on his death as an adviser. When considering any decision the apprentices Death should be consulted. Death the ever present watcher is never far from us, always at arms length, ready to take the individual at any moment. This reality should be a conscious functioning aspect of the Warriors reality at all times. This realization stifles the natural human inclination to be petty."How can anyone feel so important when we know that death is stalking us. The thing to do when you're impatient is to turn to your left and ask advice from your death. An immense amount of pettiness is dropped if your death makes a gesture to you, or if you catch a glimpse of it, or if you just have the feeling that your companion is there watching you"
DON JUAN MATUS, Journey to Ixtlan
Not Doing
'Inner silence" or "stopping the internal dialogue" (Introspection) or the internal conversation we maintain within ourselves throughout normal human awareness and cognition. Not unlike Buddhist meditation or Yoga meditation. To smash, to break the grip of the known reality is a difficult task, numerous methods within Nagualism are undertaken to bring about this result, referred to as 'stopping the world' . "Not doing" is one of them. "Not doing" consists of stopping the internal dialogue, changing one routines and habits , at times in seemingly bizarre and extreme ways. 'Erasing personal history" , includes creating a veil of secrecy around one's self and can extend to removing one's self from one's family and all current conditions, if practised to its extremes. "Losing self-importance" promotes the loss of ones self centeredness or ego in an attempt to become "formless" and including the use of two techniques called the 'petty tyrant' and the "worthy opponent" ."Little by little you must create a fog around yourself; you must erase everything around you until nothing can be taken for granted, until nothing is any longer for sure, or real. Your problem now is that you're too real. Your endeavors are too real; your moods are too real. Don't take things so for granted. You must begin to erase yourself."
DON JUAN MATUS, Journey to Ixtlan
Stalking
Stalking is utilized in three ways. To stalk "Power" through the acquisition of spiritual knowledge. The second, stalking one's self to eliminate one's weaknesses and third to stalk individuals, usually to acquire apprentices. [It should be made clear at this point that Nagualism, though not entirely devoid or ethical or moral concerns in a philosophical context, neither does it advocate moral or ethical practises as a rule, yet the individual moral character of its practitioners does play a major role in the utilization of this technique and the others mentioned here.] Stalkers begin as "Hunters" which might literally mean hunting game animals or becoming a plant hunters or using methods used by either. 'Reaffirmation from the world" around us are used by both Hunters and Stalkers. "Erasing personal history" is also used in conjunction with "Stalking"'. Becoming "accessible" and "inaccessible" to power are also utilized within the confines of the teachings."What is the art of stalking ? A hunter just hunts, a stalker stalks anything, including himself. An impeccable stalker can turn anything into prey. We can even stalk our own weaknesses. You do it in the same way you stalk prey. You figure out your routines until you know all the doing of your weaknesses and then you come upon them and pick them up like rabbits inside a cage."
DON JUAN MATUS, The Second Ring of Power
Luminous Beings (Cocoon or Egg)
In the writings of Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan Matus explained several energetic facts perceived by directly seeing energy in the universe. He explained that seers perceive a conglomerate of luminous fibers enclosed in a luminous egg, which in this reality (the Tonal) would be a human being. This said, these luminous fibers are conscious of themselves and never touch each other when they are not encased in luminous eggs. There are an incalculable number of fibers in the void. There is a spot in the luminous egg that in a human body is at arms length in the direction towards the back of the left shoulder blade. It is at the "Assemblage point" where reality is constructed. The conglomerate of luminous fibers match the fibers outside of it a new reality comes into existence. Don Juan instructed Carlos that there are millions of realities around us all we needed to do was to move our assemblage point to perceive them. It is through the manipulation of this assemblage point and other lines of force that Naguals might do extraordinary feats, like flying."We are luminous beings. We are perceivers. We are an awareness; we are not objects; we have no solidity. We are boundless. The world of objects and solidity is a way of making our passage on earth convenient. It is only a description that was created to help us. We, or rather our reason, forget that the description is only a description and thus we entrap the totality of ourselves in a vicious circle from which we rarely emerge in our lifetime."
DON JUAN MATUS, Tales of Power
Recapitulation
Recapitulation is a painstaking review of ones past to glean from one's history energy caches left within memorable events. A technique used to create a facsimile of the self for the Eagle and cleanse the appretise. An appropriate breathing practice is essential to the technique. This method is important to stalking and acts in conjunction with it."Florinda said that her benefactor directed her to write down a list of the events to be relived.
He told her that the procedure starts with an initial breath."
CARLOS CASTANEDA, The Eagles Gift
Adapted from the Wikipedia article Nagualism (Carlos Castaneda), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
