Encounters With The Nagual: Part 2 - Chapter 40. The Appointment Is With Dreaming.

Encounters With The Nagual © 2004 by Armando Torres:

Part 2 - Chapter 40. The Appointment Is With Dreaming.

When I told Carlos that I had been visiting certain groups based in the Mexican tradition in search of keys to ancient knowledge, he took it as a joke and started to laugh. Seeing my disconcerted reaction, he asked me not to take his laughing personally. It was just that my investigations reminded him of his own actions when he came to Mexico as a student in search of information.

He explained that, according to Don Juan's teachings and what he himself had been able to discover, there are two kinds of tradition: The formal, and the energetic. The first one does not have anything to do with the other.

"The formal tradition depends on secrets and the preservation of routines. It teaches allegories; and produces shepherds and flocks.

The energetic tradition deals with concrete achievements, like seeing and moving the assemblage point. Its strength is experimentation and renewal; and it produces impeccable warriors.

"An energetic warrior is devoted to his task. He does not waste his energy on following anybody. He does not care about social customs, whether they may be contemporary or represent millennia of tradition. Also, secrecy is not part of his stalking."

I replied that, in my opinion, believing that an ancestral knowledge exists in various traditions on Earth is justified by the fact that techniques of manipulation of awareness can not be imparted by means of books, but only from mouth to ear. The interaction with a teacher of wisdom has to be personal.

Carlos commented, "You read that somewhere, right?"

We both laughed.

He told me that truly useful knowledge is very simple, and can be expressed in very few words.

Carlos explained, "It is not necessary to make so much noise about it, and it does not matter how it is transmitted. If it is done orally, well, great-- but any other means will serve equally well. The important thing is to convince oneself that there is no time for foolishness, because death is at our heels. Beyond that truth, a warrior needs very little, because his sense of urgency will make him save his energy, and his accumulated energy will allow him to discover his totality."

I commented that, according to what I had read, divulging secret knowledge is characteristic of 'black' sorcerers. On the other hand, 'white' sorcerers transmit what they know with restraint, because they are aware that knowledge involves a certain danger to those who are not prepared to receive it.

Carlos shook his head incredulously.

He asked, "What is going on with you? That which destroys us is ignorance, not knowledge! There is nothing in the profundities of knowledge that can put man's authentic interests at risk!

"You started from an erroneous, but very common idea: That there are two kinds of knowledge, an 'outside' one and an 'inside' one. Seers, on the other hand, say that knowledge is one thing; and that which does not bring you to freedom is not worthwhile.

"For seers, the truth is the opposite of what you say: The dark sorcery of the ancients is associated with secrets, while transparency is the characteristic of the new seers."

I responded, saying, "Then, Carlos, do you deny the existence of any initiated knowledge inside the Mexican tradition?"

Instead of answering, Carlos demanded that I define the term 'initiated'. This got me in trouble, since in fact I did not have a very clear idea about this. Making an effort, I explained to him that initiates are people who, thanks to their merits, become recipients of a particular traditional knowledge the rest of their fellow men do not share.

While I spoke, Carlos agreed gravely. When I finished, he commented, saying, "That definition is a portrait of the importance you grant yourself".

He maintained that classifying human beings for what they know is a mere arrangement of the collective inventory of the masses; something like making distinctions among a line of ants because some are slightly darker than others.

Carlos explained, "The ironic thing is that we human beings are in fact divided into two groups: Those who dissipate their energy, and those who conserve it. You can call the last ones whatever you want: sorcerers, Toltecs, initiated; and it is the same whether they have a teacher or not. Their luminous reality is such that they are a step away from freedom.

"What nobody can teach them, warriors obtain by themselves by listening to the silent commands of the spirit.

"To open up to power is a natural process. No man can tell another, 'You are already open!'-- unless he is a charlatan. Nor are there any shortcuts that will automatically bring us to freedom.

"Secrets of initiation are symbols of the arrogance of the old seers: They are keys without a door. They will get you nowhere. You can spend your life pursuing them, and when you finally obtain them, you will discover you have nothing.

"You believe that what differentiates knowledge is the way it is transmitted, whether by books or by oral tradition. It has not occurred to you that both methods are the same, because both belong to our everyday agreements.

"What could be important about the way you receive information? That which matters is that you become convinced to act.

"The method of sorcerers is the systematic saving of energy. They state that what separates men is not what they know, but how much energy they possess.

"Therefore, the true way to transmit knowledge is while in increased states of awareness. The appointment of sorcerers is not with a book or a ceremony, but with dreaming. When a warrior learns how to capture experience through his dreams, it does not matter under which label the teachings are presented. Since a seer's perception is pure, and he can corroborate knowledge with his seeing."