Insights part 3

In an unusual morning, my mind came up with many interesting tidbits.

Almost 40 years ago I began to read Carlos Castaneda. He was an anthropologist who studied shamans in Mexico. According to the books, he was actually brought in as an apprentice who unwittingly learned the ways of his master. NOw, the first three books cover his time with his teacher Don Juan as a basic narrative. that's because Castaneda really didn't understand all that was going on. The remaining books were his attempts to break down, understand, remember, and reconstruct the teachings of his master, many of which were learned in altered states of Consciousness.

The main idea of all of this was explained in a book called "The Eagle's Gift". In it, he explains that the purpose of his practice was to "trick" the eagle. DOn Juan explained that when we die, A great Eagle eats our consciousnesses. His teachers, however, had discovered a way to, as Don Juan put it, sneak past the eagle so that we wold not lose our consciousness at death.

Don Juan's practices are very difficult and were never fully described in his books. Since Carlos was the last teacher, there is a real possibility that the knowledge has been lost forever.

That said, I suddenly realized something. In a book called "Awakening the Buddha within", by Lama Surya Das (see link), The lama explains that the real purpose that Buddhists struggle to remain awake in the moment is so that at the moment of death, they understand they are dying. At that point, they can use their wills to project their consciousness into the next dimension of space and break the reincarnation cycle.

If we don't do this, we remain trapped in a neither world for a while and then reincarnate-we retain some of our old consciousness, but obviously, we do not retain all of it.

What I realized was that Don Juan and Lama Surya Das were describing the same thing! In different ways people from totally different cultures had discovered a way to move on while retaining who we are and what we know.!

Carlos suggested that they had learned how to move bodies into the next realm, but I am no longer sure that that is completely true. Nevertheless, the important thing is that in both cases the consciousness was transferred intact. And that is the goal.

The trap of being sure of oneself

Sarah Palin is a shining example of what happens to us when we become too sure of ourselves and are not aware beings. Aware beings are never too sure of themselves because they are aware.

Palin, like many others makes decisions based on a number of things that affect her. She sees herself as a victim of the media, yet she revels in the media attention. She sees herself as a fighter, yet can't wait to get out of her job. She sees herself as family oriented but uses her family for her own personal gain.

Palin is a very public example, but countless others – mired in obscurity –follow the same pattern. They live their lives in a tempest bouncing from one problem to another, seeking attention and then complaining because it is not what they were really looking for.

The problem is that they are too sure of themselves, which leads to making major mistakes, which causes them to condemn all around them without realizing that they are the cause of their difficulties in the first place.

Lao tzu says this about that– from verse 9:

9. The Danger of Overweening Success
Stretch (a bow) to the very full,
And you will wish you had stopped in time.
Temper a (sword-edge) to its very sharpest,
And the edge will not last long.
When gold and jade fill your hall,
You will not be able to keep them safe.
To be proud with wealth and honor
Is to sow seeds of one's own downfall.
Retire when your work is done,
Such is Heaven's way.

Overdoing anything can only cause problems– but note that he is talking about overdoing things that ordinarily are not mistakes. Tempering a knife edge is important–but overdoing it leads to problems. You get the idea.

Many people following a path to enlightenment fall into the same trap. Take meditation. Now, meditation is a very useful tool. zIt can be used to remove blocks, to get centered, to silence the voices of ego that too often push us into going too far. However, meditation is not being in the world. It is a way f escaping from the world. As such, it limits our ability to be aware beings. Believe it or not.

Being aware means being aware of everything around you at all times. This is not easy until one wakes up. No matter how heard one tries, one cannot "wake up" in meditation. They can only wake up when the complete meditation.

The next time you are in deep meditation have your guide tell you that when you wake up you will be fully awake and aware of the world around you.

Have him or her tell you to be aware of the expression on your face. Waking up that way may pull you into a state of enlightenment.

And that is the goal.

Mr. T