How I Strayed off the Path

[joang]

Before resuming the discussion about whether or not one CAN stray off the Path, I decided to write this down for three reasons:
1. To clarify with specificity, rather than generalization.
2. To end speculation about the nature of my great mistake.
3. To (possibly) serve as a warning to others.

I should begin by describing what my relationship with the I Ching was like in the early years, but it is difficult to find the words. It was magical, astounding, instructive, enlightening, encouraging, humorous, and much more.

Then one day, something happened to change all that. Three times that day, I experienced long waits in waiting rooms. As I sat and waited in the third one, I mused, ?waiting, waiting, waiting... five, five, five.? I thought no more about it until that evening when the daily lottery number was announced: 555. Wow! I thought, ?it? wants me to win! The 555 was fate, which I had no control over, but how I interpreted that event, and how I acted upon it thereafter was my own doing, and my undoing.

I began to look for clues everywhere I went, believing that if ?it? had tried to help me once, ?it? would do so again; therefore, all I had to do was be aware and alert so that I could act upon them immediately. As you can imagine, my head was soon swimming in numbers. Numbers are everywhere. I spent my days deciding what numbers to play; and when they didn?t come out, I spent my nights trying to figure out what clues I had missed, and what I could do to get it right next time.

I did not ask the Oracle to give me winning lottery numbers (at least not until almost the end of that stage), because I knew that would be inappropriate and irreverent. What I did was worse. I would ask questions about other matters, and then I would go out and play the numbers of the hexagrams. It very quickly got to the point where I was thinking more about the numbers than about the message. Try as I might, I just could not empty my mind of numbers in order to be receptive to what the Oracle was trying to tell me. Thoughts of numbers kept pushing their way in, contaminating the consultation. It was a difficult struggle indeed, and it went on for years.

Finally, I did manage to banish the demon. I stopped thinking about numbers, stopped playing the lottery, even stopped caring or looking to see what numbers came out. But unfortunately, the damage was done. My communications with the Oracle were not the same as they once were. The magic was gone. Or so it felt. My consultations slowed to a trickle, sometimes as few as once or twice a year, when some particularly vital issue arose. The Oracle answered those questions. It did not chase me away, or punish me by not answering. Rather, I think perhaps I was punishing myself by staying away so long. I don?t know. I really can?t explain it.

Anyway, that is all behind me. I am back and I am a little bit wiser now. Yes Martin, I did learn something from that experience. I learned firsthand what the I Ching means when it says:

?The inferior thing seems so harmless and inviting that a man delights in it; it looks
so small and weak that he imagines he may dally with it and come to no harm.
The inferior man rises only because the superior man does not regard him as dangerous and so lends him power. If he were resisted from the first, he could never gain influence.?

Angelfish (Joan)

[louise]

Hi Angelfish, my personal reaction to your story is that you are being way way too hard on yourself
and you feel alot of guilt - but truly I don't think you really did anything 'wrong'.

Sounds like when you got obsessed by the numbers thing - thats what it was, an obsession. We can all be a little neurotic at times, and I don't mean that in an offensive way - at times when I've been stressed in my life I've done neurotic things like checking the door is locked, not once but 5 times before going to bed ! People do get 'hooked' onto all sorts of things and I think its a sign that their mind is quite troubled at that time - and they sublimate that distress by maybe carrying out all sorts of rituals. Maybe at the time of the numbers obsession you were quite worried inside and didn't acknowledge how bad you felt to yourself - the numbers almost being a distraction.

What I see in your post is that you yourself feel guilty and 'punished' by losing the 'magic' of the oracle. My perception is that this is with you - you believe you did wrong. I can't see you did anything wrong - just prone to human daftness like everyone else on the planet - and life can be hard, so we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves.

I don't think you ever went off the PATH - thats just my perception of your post, maybe I'm way off, but thats how it seems to me.

[louise]

So you got addicted (at least it wasn't drugs)..maybe its part of your path to experience addiction. Perhaps rather than beat yourself up over it, give yourself a little compassion - ask yourself how you got to that point, what was your mind really looking for ? It was looking for happiness as all minds do, just looking in the wrong place thats all- no sin, no crime, just part of being human...

[davidl]

Hi Joan,

When I first became aware of my spirit master through the I Ching some 10 years into my relationship with the Yi, I would ask 'testing' type questions to see if he was 'real'. Sometimes I would ask about minor future events. The accuracy was incredible. Any way one day in a state of naughtiness I asked if we should go to the casino and play roulette. He agreed and soon I had my chips in my hand standing over the table. The first no. was given to me (no. 33) , I placed my bet, the no. that came up was 32. Next bet 7. The no. came up 6. Next bet no. 16, the no. came up 15. And so on. We never went back to the casino, I never asked those type of questions again.

[martin]

Dear Angelfish,

You are a hard nut to crack!
I would say that you have strayed ... a little bit to the left side of your Path.
But that was probably part of your curriculum. You needed that kind of experience. No?

Crack?

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/biggrin.gif
Martin

[lenardthefast]

Gee, David, seems to me you missed out on a very valuable lesson. Your Master was simply teaching you arithmetic. Like on the third time when he said 16 it was obvious from the first two times that you were supposed to place the bet on the number 'preceding' the given one. You don't happen to have his address and phone number available, do you?

Namaste,
Leonardhttp://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/biggrin.gif

[joang]

Wow! What great responses, you guys!

Louise, you struck a chord when you suggested, "ask yourself how you got to that point, what was your mind really looking for ?

Hope. That's what my heart was looking for. For a few hours a day, winning a jackpot was something to hope for. Obviously, I was going through a depression.

[joang]

David, at least you caught on quicker than I did. I used to get the numbers in reverse, or 2 right out of a four digit number, and so forth, but that just encouraged me to keep trying. heh heh.

[joang]

Martin, I still feel I paid far too high a price for that lesson. And I don't mean the money.

[joang]

Leonard, if David had bet one number lower, I bet [oops, there I go again] the Master would have switched to one number higher.

[joang]

Postscript. I am not beating myself up anymore. It is behind me now. I have forgiven myself, and I felt forgiven when I read the Image in Deliverance: "Thus the superior man [Yi] pardons mistakes and forgives misdeeds"

[joang]

Hilary, thanks for suggesting I look deeper into the meaning of #29. I realized there had indeed been a "Repitition of danger." I got hooked on hope a second time; this time involving investments. It wasn't as bad as the lottery obsession, but it did take up far too much of my time. I ended that pre-occupation just before I consulted the Oracle.

[hilary]

Thank heaven I went through my prize draws and competitions phase before I met the Yi. I spent quite enough hours crafting irresistible tie-breakers, scheduling the perfect timing of entries and cutting interesting textures into the edges of postcards. (OK, OK, so I was at a low ebb!! http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/paperbag.gif) I reacted to the words 'win' or 'prize' on leaflets as if to my own name. Imagine what kinds of mess I could have got into if I'd combined that with divination... the mind boggles...

Thanks, Joan, for 'coming out' first! http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/biggrin.gif

[mathman]

martin, as a maths student I'm interested in the statistics of your roulette experience. Can you remember how many consecutive numbers came up 'one out'?

Ricky x

[dharma]

Here's part of an article that I thought fitting to the topic of discussion here. The link to the whole article is included at the end.
<CENTER>~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~*^*~</CENTER>

The Importance of a Path
by Gregory Ellison

...It is said that all paths lead to the same mountain top. This may be true, but no path will lead anywhere unless it is followed. Which spiritual path you choose to follow is less important than that you have a path and that you follow it.

Jumping from path to path in search of the the latest, greatest spiritual revelation or the fanciest meditation technique is the biggest ?trap? to keep us firmly locked into a limited state of awareness.

Whether you choose to follow a traditional spiritual path such as religious contemplation, meditation on astrology or Kabbalah, a body/mind discipline like T'ai Chi or yoga or your own eclectic blend of spiritual practices that resonate with your own unique perspective, every viable path has certain elements in common. These include:

An integrative model - a way to conceive of humanity as an expression of One. Although it is important to remember that a model is a set of concepts about reality rather than the ?Truth? in itself, we must have a consistent way of thinking about transcendence in order to aim for it.

A meditative component - a part of the practice specifically devoted to withdrawing attention from the ?external? world and focusing it inwardly It is only through such internal exploration that we can directly experience ourselves as expressions of a greater whole.

An ethical ideal - here I am going to run the risk of sounding dogmatic by asserting that there is only one valid ethical ideal on which to build a spiritual foundation. Although known by different names in different traditions, it is most commonly known as the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

A ?critical distance? from worldly life - it is not necessary to retire from the world in a cave or a monastery; the world is our teacher. But it is necessary to develop the ability to stand back from our immersion in the push and pull of physical life enough to objectively observe ourselves as we go about our daily business. Without this critical distance we remain enmeshed in a stimulus-response relation to the material world, believing ourselves to be acting and choosing freely but actually ?programmed? by conditioned reflexes we have learned from our environment and upbringing. This is a subtle form of waking sleep or illusion (?maya?) to which we are ALL subject in the physical world. Objectively observing ourselves in relation to the world is an essential step in transcending it.

Beyond these few common elements, your own intuition and interests are the best guides to a spiritual path that is right for you, and that is the most important thing. As Carlos Castaneda said, you must find a path with heart. If the path does not have heart, it is useless.

(continues)


http://consciousevolution.com/metamorphosis/0308/practicing0308.htm

[martin]

Hi mathematical man http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif,

You asked me but I didn't play roulette, it was Davidl ...
Your question is interesting, though, because probabilities are often misleading. For example, calculation may reveal that an event that seems to be highly improbable to common sense reasoning is in fact not that improbable at all.

Martin

[joang]

Dharma, thank you for the Gregory Ellison link. What he says in the article has a familiar ring to me, as I too have read Casteneda's books, in which "a path with heart" is often discussed. It is quite likely that my use of the term "the path" in this thread was colored by that association, even though I had almost forgotten about it. How perceptive of you to have intuited the Castaneda connection.

[dharma]

Joan,

Having read the whole of Castaneda's series myself, I too, no doubt make unconscious associations to Carlos' meaningful concept "a path with a heart". That the article happened to make mention of him was for me a refreshing 'coincidence'http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif.

Nice to run into yet another person who has acquainted themselves with the teachings of don Juan and has vicariously journeyed along one man's most unusual chosen "path" (hmmm... or did it choose him??) too. His exotic experiences were, as seen through my mind's eye, incredibly mind-expanding trips http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/spin.gif...and the possibilities, endlessly mind-boggling!

Dharma

[joang]

Dharma,
I think the way it all began leaves no doubt that the path (or the Spirit) chose Carlos; but there were several times along the way when he almost gave it up. Each time, he chose to continue. So it's also true to say that he chose the path, imo.

I loved don Juan Matus. I have heard it rumored that he was not real, that he never existed, but I find that hard to believe. I prefer to think that he was impeccably thorough in erasing his history.

I attended some of Castaneda's Tensegrity lectures at UCLA. He certainly spoke of DJ then as if he were a real person. But during one of the question and answer sessions, after being asked to explain the meaning of this or that passage in the books, he shocked us all by saying, "Those are old books. What don Juan said is irrelevant now, except for his wisdom and sobriety... The door is closed... I am as new to the new era as all of you are... the human race is coming to an end... it's up to the women to evolve or we're finished." [Source: my handwritten notes.]

He spoke a lot about the need for us to evolve, and that what was needed to bring this about was a "critical mass" of practitioners. That theme also is echoed in the Gregory Ellison article you posted the link to. [Pardon my dangling participle. :-)]

[dharma]

Hi Joan,

Fictious or not, he had an undeniable impact on everyone who's read the books. The need to cast an air of unreality about him reveals perhaps the over-riding fear of moving beyond the limitations of the familiar world that our assemblage-point focuses on. For those who believe, I think it may be because his character essence has an undeniable realism that teaches and reaches the reader with the certainty of someone very much alive and present. Despite the tremendous wisdom imparted though, I personally derived the most value from his constant and unfailing sobriety than from any of his teachings per se. Attaining and maintaining similar levels of detachment for myself has been a great life lesson and he was the original role model.

Sincere thanks for sharing your ideas and your encounter with Carlos Castaneda himself. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif Dharma

[joang]

Dharma,
I was going to allow the Castaneda subject to end there, but that would leave the door open to possible misconceptions.

I did not attend any more of his seminars after that one. It was because of his books that I flew 3000 miles to see and hear him speak in person. The experience turned out to be nothing like what I hoped it would be. I neither saw nor felt any ?magical? prowess emanating from him or his female warriors. The Carlos who spoke to us didn?t even sound to me like the Carlos who wrote those astounding fascinating books. I was stunned when he said, ?The books are irrelevant now.? Perhaps he said that because he was annoyed that the audience?s questions were focused more on the books than on Tensegrity, which was what he brought us there to promote.

I was not that interested in Tensegrity. If the books were irrelevant, there was no good reason for me to be there. I dropped that path completely soon afterward ? ? not that I was ever really on it completely. There were parts of Don Juan?s teachings that didn?t sit well with me and I could not accept, particularly the ruthlessness and severing all ties with one?s past, including family. That was not a path I wanted to follow. The Ching is. I feel at home here. It?s where I belong.

Nevertheless, there are many parts of Don Juan?s teachings that I consider precious gems of wisdom that I carry with me to this day, the most important of which is, the power of ?Intent?.

[dharma]

Joan,

Interested in reading the book review for "The Active Side of Infinity"?

http://www.doyletics.com/arj/activesi.htm

The writer talks about his understanding of 'intent' as well as the reasons behind the necessity for severing ties with one's past.

As far as the 'ruthlessness' issue goes, I guess it all depends on what you believe that that means and how it affects your personal sense of security to behave in this way when appropriate.

It is my experience that there are times and circumstances that require us to cut through to the gist of the matter in an abrupt way, to avoid pandering and molly-coddling (whether ourselves or others) that enable a given situation to continue on when the time has come to cut to the chase.

No doubt, the path of don Juan Matus in its totality is a hard one to follow but/and certainly one with a heart, if it is your calling. Otherwise, we take what we need and continue along the path that feels right for us.

Dharma

[dharma]

For anyone interesting in knowing more about "Tensegrity", as mentioned above by Joan, you can go to:

http://www.castaneda.com/

[lenardthefast]

This is just an aside regarding the Castenada/Don Juan Mateus discussion.

I read all the books in the series and was quite fascinated with the concepts therein. I believe it was in the third or fourth book (forgive me for not having the title(s) handy as my memory isn't what it was), but anyway, I DO remember that it was in the book that related 'don Juan's' visit to Los Angeles. There is a passage in that book that firmly convinced me from that time forward that 'don Juan' was a construct solely of Castenada's imagination. The exact details are admittedly fuzzy, but in a supposed conversation between the two, 'don Juan' made statements about Los Angeles and the city environs where his comments were totally out of character to his own admitted experience of that location. The comments WERE totally 'in character' for Castenada. This impression was so strong, that from that moment on, I never considered 'him' to be a 'real' person, but merely the spokesman for Castenada's philosophy.

This realization did not impinge whatsoever on my enjoyment of the series, however, it did remove, for me anyway, the validating component that the don Juan character had contributed up to that point.

Should anyone (Dharma, Angelfish?), care to jog my rusty memory as to the title of the book, (the one where 'he' travels to LA), I would be glad to reread it and quote the exact circumstances to which I am referring. I would love to hear your comments concerning my observation, once I can quote it in it's entirety.http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/blush.gif

Namaste,
Leonardhttp://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/hex04.gif

[malka]

I've never read any of Carlos Castanedda's books, but I did hear him speak at a conference about five years ago. I must say, I found him very sexy (for what that's worth!) I guess my brain is in the gutter today. Break-up blues. ;)

[dharma]

Hi Malka,

You know, now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever actually seen a picture of Carlos... I haven't a clue WHat he looks like at all. He tended to describe himself in unflattering ways throughout the books and so it never occured to me to consider him attractive.

Thanks for providing me with a more desireable point-of-view of Mr Castaneda. And for what it's worth, a broken heart doesn't put you in the gutter - you merely changed ->>direction... and fortunately, on THIS path you're on, men are STill (woohoo!) sexy!! ...all magic flourishes where hope springs eternal...

Dharma http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/wink.gif

[dharma]

Hi Leonard,

I will go through the books when I have a chance and let you know, unless Joan knows off-hand. I would like to re-read this passage you are refering to and see if it "strikes" me differently after all these years because I know it didn't when I originally read it.

Dharma

[dharma]

Sorry Leonard, I cannot figure out which book it is you're talking about. It's probably the one book that I don't actually own. Perhaps Joan will know. In the meantime here is a short little bio (for those who are not familiar with C.C.) and the link to the website where I found it. Leonard, maybe something on this site will help trigger your memory.

"Sustained Action" is devoted to analysis and discussion of evidence and controversy about Carlos Casta&ntilde;eda http://www.sustainedaction.org

.....

In 1960, Carlos Casta&ntilde;eda met the Yaqui shaman Don Juan Matus, and learning from him, he wrote the partly autobiographical works for which he is known.

Notable works include:

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968)
A Separate Reality (1971)
Journey to Ixtlan (1972)
Tales of Power (1975)
The Second Ring of Power (1977)
The Eagle's Gift (1981)
The Fire from Within (1984)
The Power of Silence (1987)
The Art of Dreaming (1993)
Magical Passes (1999)
The Active Side of Infinity (1999)
The Wheel of Time (2000)

Although they started out with the premise of anthropology, his works became a mixture of story, religion and philosophy. His works contain descriptions of paranormal experiences, several psychological techniques (such as neurolinguistic programming), Toltec magic rituals, shamanism and experiences with psychoactive drugs (e.g. peyote).

Since Castaneda?s books first appeared, many critics have doubted their authenticity. Books and articles have been published over the years attacking Castaneda?s claims from a variety of standpoints (e.g., passages that have remarkable similarities to descriptions by other anthropologists; descriptions of flora and fauna unlikely to be found in the Sonoran desert; the unlikelihood that Castaneda?s purported teacher, a relatively unschooled Yaqui shaman, would be conversant with sophisticated philosophies that sound remarkably similar to those of Nietzsche and Gurdjieff, among others; and basic internal inconsistencies in dates and events among the books).

Such criticism became so vociferous by the late seventies and early eighties, and Castaneda so steadfastly avoided responding to his various critics, that the climate was ripe for what was to become a pervasive myth about Castaneda: that he himself had recanted the extraordinary tale described in the books. In fact, Castaneda never admitted during his lifetime that the books were anything but his best attempt to describe his training by don Juan and his party to learn to perceive other worlds and "energy, as it flows in the universe."

Another way to read the books is as a sort of game, almost like a detective novel. Some of the material is likely to be true, some is likely to be fictional, and some of the events described probably appeared to be real at the time, but were actually hallucinations; it is up to the reader to decide which is which.

[joang]

Dharma,
thank you for the link. After reading that review, of course I will now have to read the book, The Active Side of Infinity. The last Castaneda book I read was The Art of Dreaming.

As for ruthlessness, I do believe one has to be ruthless with oneself in order to eliminate the obstacles of self-importance and self-pity. I don't have any problem with that kind of ruthlessness, as I think you can tell from my first post on this thread. :-)

[joang]

Leonard, I?m sorry but I don?t remember in which book the trip to L A took place. I have often wished someone would transcribe the books into electronic form and put them on a set of CDs, which would make it easy for us to quickly search and find any particular passage we were looking for. I have done that in fact with book one of the Wilhelm/Baines version of the I Ching.

I am not sure that I would be so quick to assume that such an apparent contradiction proves that Don Juan was a figment of Castaneda?s imagination. Don Juan did not always tell Carlos the truth; he had a Nagual?s reason for deceiving him at times.

Namaste. I used to know what that meant. I considered it a lovely expression. Tell me again please?

[joang]

Dharma,
the Castaneda I saw at the seminars did not look anything like I expected. I thought he would have a stocky build, remembering that Don Juan had once called him fat. Maybe frail isn?t the word, but he was very slender, not very tall, and gray-haired.

[lenardthefast]

Joang,

This was not a cursory decision on my part, more like a flash of intuition. Overwhelming in it's force. I will do a little research and find the part I am speaking of and perhaps you and Dharma will contribute feedback. I have some other evidence which I will also research and post at a later date.

With regards to 'namaste', it more or less means, "I honor the divine within you."

Namaste,
Leonardhttp://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/hex04.gif

[joang]

Leonard,

Namaste, ah yes, now that you have jogged my memory, I remember it more like, "The Spirit within me honors the Spirit within you."

Namaste,
Joan

[malka]

Dharma et al,

Now you have me wondering about the person I heard speak that I've been remembering as Carlos Castenada for years. Hmm...

The man I heard speak was a psychiatrist and a writer. He was about 45-55 years old and this was about 5 years ago. He spoke about DQ, he had an accent, but was tall and with a beard. Reddish/brown. I've looked on the internet for a pic of Carlos and haven't found one yet, but the age doesn't and other descriptions don't seem to match. So...now I'm unsure who the sexy dude was! I did, however, enjoy his presentation very much.

Malka

[martin]

Malka, I found a few pictures of Carlos:

http://www.nagual.net/ixtlan/carlos.html

Hope it's him, I mean, you never know with those guys, don't you?

Martin

[dharma]

Malka, the person you encountered at that conference was not likely Carlos Castaneda. Since yesterday, I've done a bit of research and discovered that he passed away in April of '98 and that he was somewhere between 67 and 72 years of age. Doesn't sound like it could have been the gentleman you met. Somehow I even managed to locate an obscure photo of him yesterday (before Martin located a bevy of them for us today - thanks!), though it was taken from a bit of a distance by someone secretly tailing him, so what I can say for certain is that he was definitely a small statured man and very slender as Joan pointed out.

Joan (or do you prefer Angelfish? Joang?), I also recall imagining Carlos as being somewhat bigger and heavier, too, so I am surprised to see how small he actually was towards the end of his life. It seems he WAS heavier when the journey began and he lost weight over the years but that doesn't explain why I thought he was big, in the sense of tall, unless don Juan was even tinier than he was by comparison to him.

So... while you catch up with "The Active Side of Infinity" at this time, I have decided to take the journey through the books again, only this time I will be traveling through the ideas and teachings with my oldest son who, since I started recounting this discussion we are having amongst ourselves here, has taken a keen interest in reading the books himself. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif I'm excited, to say the least.

[dharma]

Leonard,

I can't imagine there being anything in the books that would change my mind about don Juan's existence however I do look forward to reading over the passages that seem questionable and dubious to you and to consider your point-of-view. All in all, despite any momentary lapses on Carlos' part in piecing together his accounts, there's a strong authentic 'intuitive feel' to the existence of don Juan that I personally find very hard to overlook.

The following passage had a major impact on my overall understanding of don Juan's teachings and of the ultimate reality of his existence. It points out quite clearly (at least it does to me) that no matter what we learn or get out of life, if it doesn't gibe with the rest of our present world view we will automatically (and often naturally, unconsciously) "rectify" it, by conveniently forgetting about it, so that that inconsistency doesn't disturb our sense of order and sanity.

from "The Fire Within" page 266:

"After recounting to don Juan what I had remembered, I asked him about something that had just struck me as being terribly odd. To see the mold of man, I had obviously gone through a shift of my assemblage point. The recollection of the feelings and realizations I had had then was so vivid that it gave me a sense of utter futility. Everything I had done and felt at that time I was feeling now. I asked him how it was possible that having had such a clear comprehension, I could have forgotten it so completely. It was if nothing of what had happened to me had mattered, for I always had to start from point one regardless of how much I might have advanced in the past."

[snip]

"Don Juan explained that he had always regarded himself as being very slow to understand. He had never had any chance of testing his belief, because he did not have a point of reference. When I came along he became a teacher, which was something totally new to him, he realized that there is no way to speed up understanding and that to dislodge the assemblage point is not enough. He had thought that it would be sufficent. Soon he became aware that since the assemblage point normally shifts during dreams, sometimes to extraordinarily distant positions, whenever we undergo an induced shift we are all experts at immediately compensating for it. We rebalance ourselves constantly and activity goes on as it nothing has happened to us."


here's a tiny part of an interview with C.C. from "New Age Journal", April 1994:

Interviewer: Did you ever contemplate downplaying the eccentricity of our teacher and presenting him as a more conventional character, to make him as a better vehicle for his teachings?

C.C.: I never considered such an approach. Smoothing rough edges to advance an agreeable plot is the luxury of the novelist. I'm not unfamiliar with the spoken and unspoken canon of science: "Be objective." Sometimes don Juan spoke in goofy slang --the equivalent of "By golly!" and "Don't lose your marbles!" are two of his favorites. On other occasions he showed a superb command of Spanish, which permitted me to obtain detailed explanations of the intricate meanings of his system of beliefs and its underlying logic. To deliberately alter don Juan in my books so he would appear consistent and meet the expectations of this or that audience would bring "subjectivity" to my work, a demon that, according to my best critics, has no place in ethnographic writing.

on his field notes:

C.C.: There were times when requests to see my field notes seemed unencumbered by hidden ideological agendas... I gladly sent [Dr. Gordon Wasson] several pages of field notes relevant to his area of interest, and met him twice. Subsequently, he referred to me as an "honest and serious young man," or words to that effect.

Even so, some critics proceeded to assert that any field notes produced by Castaneda must be assumed to be forgeries created after the fact. At that point I realized there was no way I could satisfy people whose minds were made up without recourse to whatever documentation I might provide. Actually, it was liberating to abandon the enterprise of public relations --intrinsically a violation of my nature-- and return to my fieldwork with don Juan.

[malka]

Well, no that's not who I heard speak at all! Now I'm going to need to track down the brochure (if I can) from the Humanistic Psychology conference I attended those several years ago to see what sexy man spoke about Don Juan, is also a writer and healer, etc. Thanks at least for helping to learn what Carlos Castenada DOES look like!

[joang]

Malka,
CC was an anthropologist not a psychiatrist, and you are correct, the rest doesn?t fit either.
By the way, who is ?DQ? supposed to be? Don Quixote? [Grin]

[joang]

Martin,
thank you for the photo link. I can?t say yes or no for sure as to the younger pictures, but the gray-haired man standing in the doorway with several other people looks like the man I remember. Also, the partially erased sketch and the similar rendition on the cover of Time definitely got the nose right. The slouched posture and bloated abdomen in the later picture, sadly confirms the ravages of the liver cancer that killed him in 98. I saw him in and around 1993, and although he was spry and stood erectly then, his slenderness may have been an indication that the liver cancer was already at work.

[joang]

Dharma and all,
may as well just call me Joan, and save yourselves the extra keystrokes. :-)

I have a lot of reading ahead of me. Besides ?The Active Side of Infinity? I am also ordering several versions of the I Ching that have been recommended here. Although I have occasionally looked at other translations, I have always used the Wilhelm/Baines book for divination. But I am finding that I don?t always understand what folks here are talking about, since they are obviously referring to other translations. So, with some trepidation (based on fear of confusion), I am about to embark on a new journey. Once the books arrive in the mail and I start reading, I probably won?t have much time to keep up with the threads here for a while (can't even do that now). But I will whenever I can.

[portakal]

"How I Strayed off the Path"

a) I am not inclined into accepting Confucian ethics, admittedly i have grown a resistance to "common" ethics through my days of my life.

My given ethical facts no:1 Single "good" is life, and serving, keeping, growing, developing etc. it. The farther you stray the closer you are to "bad". I have a simple mind..
no:2, there is no no:2.

b) I asked for the winning numbers in the first meeting days, 4 out of 6 turned out to be true. I was promised lotta money... several pounds i got, humor ? Maybe.

Then, i harassed, after several harsh answers, i was directed to notice how hard a neck can be, a threat ? Hope not.

c) For the time being "be a small guy and enjoy the taming power of the small" was a direct abd strong suggestion, "future, you will be transformed"

d) By time i believe i shall come to believe i am talking to the myself in "myself".

e) Id ? Unconscious me ? Genetic dumps awakening ? A Spirit master ?

f) Anyhow, the text is the best "game" i have ever played.

Life.

[jte]

Hi, Joan and others -

I had some interesting experiences asking the Yi for advice on stock investments.

I drew out a list of about 20 stocks from Money magazine and was about to go down the list asking about them. I was intending to repeat this process with large numbers of stocks to figure out which ones would be good investments. *Fortunately* before doing this, I asked if this approach was acceptable to the Yi: 42.6.

Well, I thought to myself, that isn't good. So I asked the Yi, can I ask you about one stock a day? It's anwer: 57.4.

So I asked about stocks for a while, and eventually hit upon some that it liked (and by liked I mean I threw 42.2 or a similar highly favorable line on the stock). I asked about short-term (less than 1 year) medium term (1-4 years) and long term (5-7) investments.

Interestingly, it never liked any short term investments. I have a feeling that the reason for this isn't that I couldn't have made money on some short term stocks that I asked about - more like it wanted me to adopt the correct attitude towards investing (that is, investing carefully for financial security rather than risking money trying to make a quick buck).

As I continued to develop a relationship with the Yi, it just gradually stopped feeling right to ask it investing questions anymore. For quite some time now I've felt like the most important things I'm getting/learning from the Yi just aren't in the financial arena. In fact, I never ended up investing in the stocks I asked it about.

Just thought I'd share these experiences with ya...

- Jeff