Notes on the Works of Carlos Castaneda

Assembled by Koda
www.kodasplace.com

I personally consider Carlos Castaneda's reportage of his association with the Yaki Indian sorcerer don Juan Matus to be one of the leading metaphysical works of all time. I have read the 9 volumes currently available countless times, and took the following notes to more easily refresh my memory of the material. I am able to post them here solely due to the fact that Belinda Ray, in Vermont, was kind enough to type them up for me. The notes are posted without permission from the publisher, and I can only hope that they will recognize that this free use of the information will encourage more people to purchase the books. Otherwise I will delete this page, in a heartbeat.
I would have provided Seth quotes as well, but half the books would be quoted here.
The numbers to the left indicate the page number where the material is located within each volume, though this will not correspond to all copies due to some being paperback and others first edition hard covers. If you are serious about the philosophy expounded in the Castaneda books, these notes should help you navigate to the information you are looking for.

NOTES FROM
THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN

Page
31 Carlos gets first exercise, looking for his "favorable spot" on the patio floor - "One can feel with the eyes, when the eyes are not looking right into things."
36 "Mescalito" (first time ingesting peyote buttons.)
51 A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war - wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance.
51 An "ally" is the indispensable aid to knowledge (as in "Little Smoke").
52 Mescalito teaches the right way to live.
53 An ally is a power capable of taking a man beyond the boundaries of himself - to give you power.
59 Preparation of devil's weed - root - drink to test compatibility with weed for physical energy after initial long period of sleep (2 days).
83 The four enemies of a man of knowledge: Fear, clarity, power, old age.
107 About a path with a heart - live life deliberately - choose your path without fear or ambition.
185 Famous path with heart quote.

A SEPARATE REALITY

25 The darkness of the day (night) is the best time to "see."
42 Some who appear to be people in the street are not people; they're allies.
47 Worry and think before you make a decision, but once you make it, be on your way free from worries or thoughts. There will be a million other decisions still awaiting you. That's the warrior's way.
47 A warrior thinks of his death when things become unclear.
77 We must first know that our acts are useless and yet we must proceed as if we didn't know it. That's a sorcerer's controlled folly.
78 Controlled folly described simply.
81 Controlled folly described in detail.
85 A man of knowledge lives by actions, not by thinking about acting -- Important stuff on this page.
91 A man of knowledge doesn't think ...
92 First encounter with don Genero.
99 First encounter with Nestor and Pablito.
?99 - Inconsistency in Carlos' story. Two days to hike to don Genero's from where he parked his car - then they just jump in his car to go pick up Nester and Pablito - apparently while at Genero's?
106 Genero's fibers (emanating from his navel area) are so bright they resemble thickness (interesting that they do not HAVE thickness).
107 If Carlos's fibers were agitated they would have interfered with Genero's hundreds of feet away on the waterfall.
112 Only the smoke can give you the speed you need to catch a glimpse of that fleeting world.
116 First encounter with the Guardian of the other world - a knat.
125 Don Juan quit his own training for 5 1/2 years (wasn't it 3 years in a later book?).
138 "Seeing" dispels the illusion of victory, defeat or suffering.
142 What makes us unhappy is to want, yet if we would cut our wants to nothing, the smallest thing we'd get would be a true gift. - to be poor or wanting is only a thought, and so is to hate, or to be hungry, or to be in pain. - Only a warrior can survive. A warrior knows that he is waiting and what he is waiting for, and while he waits he wants nothing and thus whatever little thing he gets is more than he can take.
145 A warrior has only his will and his patience, and with them he builds anything he wants.
146 Will has to do with astonishing feats that defy our common sense.
147 There is a [metaphysical] gap in us [abdominal area] like the soft spot on the head of a child which closes with age, this gap opens as one develops will.
147 Will is the true link between men and the world they perceive. Will is not a 6th sense, rather it is a relation between ourselves and the perceived world.
148 When we perceive the world with our will we know it is not as "out there" or "as real" as we think. Will is not the same as "seeing." Will is a force, a power.
149 If a man "sees" he doesn't have to live like a warrior.
151 Choosing final decisions which are strategically the best means no time for regrets or recriminations - not a quote - When a warrior has acquired patience he is on his way to will. He knows how to wait. His death advises him.
152 ... A warrior notices that he can actually touch anything he wants with a feeling that comes out of his body right above or below the navel. When he can actually grab things with it he has become a sorcerer and has acquired will.
153 Upon learning to "see" a man becomes everything by becoming nothing. A man who "sees" has no longer an active interest in his fellow men. "Seeing" has already detached him from absolutely everything he knew before.
157 Description of don Juan's face - using mushrooms.
159 When you "see" there are no longer familiar features in the world. Everything has never happened before. The world is incredible! - things you "see" become nothing in front of you - yet they are still there.
164 "Seeing" is not a matter of looking and keeping quiet.
183 Left eye - explosions of sparks - outward.
184 Plowed field - first time.
186 Right eye - circles and pool.
190 The eyes of men are not alike - don Juan has eyes of sorcerer.
191 A warrior is never idle and never in a hurry.
194 When we learn to "see" nothing is known; nothing remains as we used to know it when you didn't see.
216 A warrior selects the items of his world - to use as shields.
217 It is the continual choice of a path with heart that makes a warrior different from the average man - he selects items of a path with heart.
218 Stop talking to yourself (in your thoughts - first mention). Use your ears to take the burden off your eyes (to stop internal dialogue) - world stops being so and so when we stop the internal dialogue.
220 Listen rather than look, and don't think (-do this as a regular thing as much as possible, and make it an exercise).
222 A sorcerer can find all kinds of messages inside holes (in sound - silent moments) - sound holes are in the realm of "seeing."
224 - Exercise perhaps - sit outdoors and listen to sounds to find the order and pattern of the silent spaces between them. ("Seeing" may be one of or part of Seth's "inner-senses.") Seeing sound is mentioned on this page.
229 Instructions for finding spirits in the wilderness.
232 There are three types of (ghost like spirit) beings; those that have nothing to give, those that only cause fright, and those that have gifts. (Mention losing and regaining one's shields.)
258 Things can be "handled," though not understood. There is a difference between understanding and having knowledge.)

JOURNEY TO IXLAN

10 "Stopping the world" is the first step to "seeing."
11 The worse thing one can do is confront human beings bluntly. If one wants to stop our fellow man one must be outside the circle that presses them. That way one can always direct the pressure.
32 Erasing personal history frees us from the encumbering thoughts of others.
33 "How can I know who I am when I am all this?" (Everything)
38 Curl fingers gently while walking - more stamina and awareness. Never carry anything in the hands - use a back pack.
Chapter 3 Lose self importance. The world is a mystery, no one or no time better than another, become equal with plants (rocks, etc.?) by talking to them.
55 When you feel impatient turn to your left and ask advice from Death.
61 Take responsibility for every thought and action - have no doubts or remorse.
72 Find the beneficial or enemy spots by crossing the eyes, look in short glances with corners of eyes - Feel with the eyes - Can take years to perfect. Changes take place between the two images (with eyes crossed).
90 - On using the power in the wind.
91 - On being available and unavailable.
94 To be inaccessible means you touch the world around you sparingly.
110 Acts have power when the person knows his acts may be his last battle on earth.
126 Power controls one's acts yet obeys one's command.
127 Things in dreams change shape. When you hold everything in focus there is no difference between what you do asleep or not asleep.
130 The animal with a beak - the burnt branch in the wind.
133 When one encounters a moment of odd reality, the trick is to sustain the sight of it, as in maintaining sight in dreaming - to stop the world.
142 More on lucid dreaming technique.
143 Breath in and out through nose rapidly to enhance ability to smell.
152 There is no plan when it comes to hunting power - hunt what presents itself to you.
153 If you store enough personal power you can become a man of knowledge.
163 Wear a headband, seen in a dream, while sleeping to induce lucid dreams.
164 A hunter of power watches everything and everything tells him some secret.
168 One of the arts or a warrior is to collapse the world for a specific reason then to restore it to keep on living.
180 When one is dealing with power, one must be perfect. (Making the "bed of strings.")
192 What determines the way one does anything is personal power. Personal power is a feeling, like being lucky. Or one may call it a mood. To be convinced means that you can act (apply personal power) by yourself.
193 Defines man of knowledge.
194 A warrior proceeds as if he had a plan - because he trusts his personal power.
195 The secret (of healthy vitality) is not what you do to yourself, but what you don't do.
196 (Don Juan's power using leaves given to others is hypnosis!)
199 Power does not belong to anyone. The key to stored power is that it can only be used to help others store power - at least when it comes by giving it directly to others.
204 A warrior is impeccable when he trusts his personal power whether it is small or enormous.
204 Gate of power explained (method of running in the dark).
212 Encounters "black box" ally for first time.
217? Not-doing described - to not do what you know how to do is the key to power. Not doing is the first step to storing power - look at spaces, not leaves, for example.
221 Well-being is a condition one must groom. One must become aquatinted with well-being in order to seek it. The trick is on what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
226 There is no way to talk about not-doing because it is the body that does it. Doing is what makes a rock a rock; everything is what it is.
227 To look is doing - to see is not-doing.
228 In order to "stop the world," you must stop doing.
231 Rotating hand exercise for pushing things, emotions out of the body - can feel lines of the world with it. Line comes out of hand.
232 A man of knowledge makes the most durable lines from the center of his body, but he can also make lines with his eyes.
233 Important paragraph. Not-doing is not "understood," but mastered. Use not-doing to stop the world, only then can one see. At a certain level of personal power, exercise is not necessary, just do not-doing.
234 Shadows are like the doors of non-doing. You can tell the innermost feelings of men by watching their shadows. Let one shadow be superimposed over the other in clear focus (seeing 2 shadows with eyes crossed).
238 (Lucid) dreaming is the not-doing of dreams. Progress in not-doing creates progress in dreaming. A warrior doesn't need to believe, because as long as he keeps on acting without believing he is not-doing.
(For 8 days lie to yourself about something, knowing you are lying.)
242 An ally heralds its presence with a faint rumble. Power objects can be found where dark spots appear among the lines of the world.
Display of 2nd ring of power, funny clothes with 4 apprentices. We are making this room with a ring of power we have at birth.
252 Our rings of power are spinning this room into being right now. A man of knowledge develops another ring of power - hooked to not-doing. With that ring he can spin another world.
267 When a warrior encounters an opponent that is not a human being, right there he makes his stand. That's what makes him "invincible." The instant one begins to live like a warrior, one is no longer ordinary.
278 From time to time all of us have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops up from time to time. A warrior's life is so tight he has the speed to pluck it.
291 There are no diseases. There is only indulging.
292 What Genero did to Carlos (hiding the car) he did to his body.
296 Carlos stops the world - talking coyote talked to his body.
300 Seeing happens only when one slips between the worlds of men and sorcerers.
302 In order to "see" one must look at the world in some other fashion. The only other world don Juan knows is that of a sorcerer.
307 After tackling the ally, people become like phantoms, apparitions.
315 The art of a warrior is to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man.

TALES OF POWER

4 What matters to a warrior is arriving at the totality of oneself.
7 The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of others and calls that self confidence. A warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness. A warrior acts consistently without reservations.
8 We are surrounded by eternity & can see that eternity if we desire.
9 The body is a boundary. We can get out. We are a feeling incased here.
10 While "dreaming" the ordinary criteria to differentiate a dream from reality becomes inoperative.
10-11 Instruction to "set up dreaming."
12 To set up a topic for "dreaming," hold an image in mind to stop thinking. If one is to succeed at anything, the success must comes gently, with a great deal of effort but no stress or obsession.
13 Stopping the internal dialogue is more than stopping the words. Stop the entire thought process. The passageway to the sorcerer's world opens up after learning to stop the internal dialogue.
19 The humbleness of a warrior - he bows his head to no one, and allows no one to bow to him. You like the humbleness of a beggar. You bow your head to reason.
23 The world conforms to its description, which reflects itself.
24 A sorcerer seeks to act rather than talk, and to this effect gets a new description.
26 A warrior lives in full control and awareness, but without hurry or compulsion.
28 If a warrior accepts the frightening nature of knowledge he cancels out its awesome-ness.
30 Any thought one holds in a state of silence is properly a command, since there are no other thoughts to compete with it.
32 Seers "see" people in other locations as mushroom-like shapes.
33 Whenever the internal dialogue stops, the world collapses and extraordinary facets of ourselves emerge, as though they had been heavily guarded by our words.
41 Introduction of concept of "the double."
46 A fluid warrior can no longer make the world chronological.
47 Our experience of the world is always a recollection. We recollect, recollect, etc.
52 A warrior reacts (to strange situations) as if nothing had ever happened, because he doesn't believe in anything, yet he accepts everything at its face value. He acts as if he were in control, even though he might be shaking in his boots. Cultivate the feeling that a warrior needs nothing.
55 All of us human beings have a (dream) double. All of us!
57 The double, although arrived at through dreaming, is as real as it can be. As far as I know, the double is the awareness of our state as luminous beings.
59 Too gather energy -- Jog on the spot, hands turned skyward, fingers spread, move hands toward horizon - when halfway there clasp hands forcefully together.
61 The double and the dreamed - the double is a dream. (The dreamer may be what Seth would all a probable self.) The dreamer dreams the double - the double dreams the self.
82 The body must be perfection before the will is a functioning unit.
92 The crux of sorcerery is the internal dialogue. When a warrior learns to stop it, everything becomes possible.
94 Everything you have witnessed has been real and of this world. There is no other world.
95 As long as you believe you are a solid body, you can not believe what I'm talking about.
106 A warrior takes everything as a challenge, ordinary men take things as a blessing or a curse.
107 Proceed in one's actions as if one believed. As a choice. A warrior HAS to believe.
114 Death is the indispensable ingredient to having to believe.
116 The condition of a warrior is to be aware at all times - not just when you think you should be.
119 The tonal and nagual - the totality of oneself - the sorcerer's explanation.
(tonal = ego awareness and subconscious processes that assemble the world.)
(nagual = everything else - other worlds, non-physical manifestations.)
122 The tonal is everything we know - it begins at birth and ends at death.
125 There is a personal tonal for every one of us, and a collective "tonal of the times."
136 An observation about "seeing" actually being stopping the internal dialogue and elongating something inside oneself to meet and merge with other bodies.
137 The nagual is accountable for creativity.
138 A warrior should give "tokens" when he meets someone on the right path.
140 No one knows how the nagual works. One simply intends and the effect happens. (This could be how telekinesis is done.)
142 (Rodent with eyeglasses) One of the acts of a warrior is to never let anything affect him.
143 A "proper tonal" has a balance between acting and thinking. They are equally applied. For a proper tonal (warrior) everything is a challenge.
147 (Airline ticket office to market experience.)
153 "Seeing" is direct knowing.
154 A rule of thumb for a warrior is that he makes his decisions so carefully that nothing which happens as a result of them can surprise him or drain his power. To be a warrior means to be humble and alert.
155 The warrior's way is harmony between actions and decisions, then between the tonal and the nagual.
156 Self importance and indulging can only plunge you into boredom.
157 The affairs of the nagual can be witnessed only with the body, not the reason.
160 The tonal has to be convinced with reasons, the nagual with actions, till they prop each other up. The warrior's art is to make the nagual emerge to prop up the tonal. Boosting the tonal is called personal power. (Psychedelic drugs plunge one into the nagual.)
166 Breathing exercise to use in stress or fear situations.
173 The day your tonal lets go of your eyes, the nagual will have won a great battle. The eyes can be windows that peer into boredom or peek into that infinity. When you are in the world of the tonal, no time for irrational crap and vice versa with the nagual - impeccablity - no time for rational crap. - The gate closes completely when you go either way - all reason, or none.
174 The island of the tonal has to be swept clean and maintained clean.
176 A sudden fright always shrinks the tonal.
178 A warrior learns to tune his will, to direct a fiber from the midpoint of the body on any conceivable thing, then he sinks through that fiber into the nagual.
196 A warrior cannot be helpless, bewildered or frightened under any circumstances - because there is only time for impeccability. Anything else drains your power, impeccability replenishes it. Impeccability is to do your best in whatever you're engaged in. There are no survivors on this earth.
208 Turn off your internal dialogue and let something in you flow out and expand. That something is your perception. There is no future. That is only a way of talking. For a sorcerer there is only here and now.
234 (In the beginning of the sorcerer's explanation.) The gaze is placed on the right eye of the other person, and what that does is stop the internal dialogue, then the nagual takes over: thus the danger of that maneuver. The gaze on the right eye is not a stare, but rather a forceful grabbing that one does through the eye of the other person. One grabs something that is behind the eye. One has the actual physical sensation that one is holding something with the will. Something snaps forward from someplace below the stomach and that something has direction and can be focused on anything. It works only when the warrior has learned to focus his will. The secret is in the left eye. As a warrior progresses on the path of knowledge his left eye can grasp anything.
236 Stopping the internal dialogue is the single most important technique an apprentice can learn.
(walking technique to stop internal dialogue.)
237 Act without believing, without expecting rewards.
238 Two techniques that help stop the internal dialogue - erasing personal history and dreaming. There is no way to withstand the path of knowledge without the sturdiness and level-headedness of the warrior's way - otherwise aberation or morbidity occurs.
240 Context disarrangement: take sorcerers out of their environment where they know the ropes and they have to pay attention to what's going on - What is your most natural reaction to stress? Self pity? Wrath? You can bring awareness of your impending death to bear witness to your acts in the same way you use self pity or wrath now, but the results are more sobering. Use death as an advisor. Self pity is nothing in comparison.
243 When one acts impeccably, power opens all necessary avenues. That is the rule.
244 Power plants have one main purpose: stopping the internal dialogue.
248 Not wanting anything is a warrior's finest achievement.
249 The tonal doesn't know that all decisions are made by the nagual. Three techniques that help dreaming - disrupting the routine of life, the gait of power, and not-doing.
250 Dreaming is the ultimate use of the nagual.
252 A description of the bubble (aura) of perception we live in all our lives.
272 The sorcerer's explanation - Human consciousness is a cluster of separate but related awarenesses. All the possible feelings and beings and selves float in the nagual like barges, peaceful, unaltered, forever. The glue of life binds some of them together. Any being can be formed by manipulating the cluster of awareness.
275 The cluster of feelings can be made to assemble anywhere instantly. To be here and there at once.
277 The conviction that there is a real you is a result of the fact that you have rallied everything you've got around your reason. The will can also assemble a self.
277 Your precious reason is only a center of assemblage; a mirror that reflects something outside of it.
287 The backbone of a warrior is to be humble and efficient.
288 A warrior can not avoid pain and grief, but only indulging in them.
289 A warrior's youthfulness comes from having accepted his fate, and from having truthfully assessed what lies ahead of him.
292 Only if one loves this earth with unbending passion, can one release one's sadness. The earth gives shelter to our beings.

THE SECOND RING OF POWER

39 When we are quiet, we realize we are not thinking, but something else tells us things.
40 Description of the four winds.
44 (Contradiction? - 5 Indian youths looking for power objects - only 4 earlier?)
85 The trick is the truthful acceptance of the possibility such resources exist and can be reached.
93 Power comes only after we accept our fate without recriminations.
123 A warrior actually affects the outcome of events by the force of his awareness and his unbending intent.
124 "Paying back the spirit of man." Doing something for strangers.
131 "Completeness" and having children who steal one's edge.
152 One is better off with nothing but one's purpose and freedom.
154 An ally is a formless presence, but very real.
155 The human mold - the human form.
156 Everything in the world is a force, a push, or a pull.
159 It is useless to think or hope that one can change one's habits as long as one holds on to the human form.
160 When we lose our form, nothing has form, yet everything is present.
161 How to make sparks to glue the lines of the world.
173 Everything in a warrior's world depends on personal power and personal power depends on impeccability.
189 Nothing in the world has significance except to each of us personally.
209 A warrior must notice everything. That's his trick, and there lies his advantage.
226 The tonal and nagual are in everything - looking perceives tonal, "seeing" perceives the nagual in everything.
227 You can stalk your own weaknesses. Don't do any small part of a habit and it can be broken instantly.
230 Remove your personal power from an indulgence and place it on a real purpose.
243 It takes all the time and energy we have to conquer the idiocy in us.
264 The second cycle is when a sorcerer is not human anymore.
269 Teach about the nagual by showing it. Claim knowledge as power by doing it.
272 (It may be the case that we have 2 simultaneous perceptions, the tonal and nagual, but only if we remember and recognize the tonal, while also having perceived the nagual.) - verified on p. 273. 274 We can hold the image of a dream in the same way we hold the images of the world - with our attention.
278 "Dreaming" is a pathway to the 2nd attention. The attention of the nagual is placed upon an item in a dream to turn it into a lucid dreaming.
280 We choose only once. We chose to be warriors or to be ordinary men. A second choice does not exist. Not on this earth.
283 Impeccability is freedom and the only way to scare away the human form. The force that rules our destinies is outside ourselves and has nothing to do with our acts or volition (shoelaces - boulder falling).
290 Human beings are frail creatures composed of many layers of luminosity, like an onion.
291 The center of our luminosity is the attention of the nagual. Sorcerers do not die.
293 The tonal/nagual table thing. The 2nd attention is the area under the table.
294 Dreamers have to be gazers before they can trap their second attention. Leaf gazing - see the patterns in dreams first, then in normal awareness the next day.
302 Gazing instructions.

THE EAGLE'S GIFT

24 The luminous body can be reached through dreaming and not-doing.
28 Dreaming is the not-doing of sleep.
29 The energy of the luminous body can be transformed through will into anything, including the "double" or "other," the dreambody.
42 Seeing is a bodily knowledge - (You can perceive with eyes and the body at the same time, and body perception is interpreted as visual as well - two visual images at the same time, just as light and sound can be perceived at the same time.)
46 (Seeing can be made to occur when the mind is awake but the body is sleeping. One might perceive auras first as blobs of light, then egg shaped.)
51 Let go of some control to enter dreaming.
89 A warrior knows he is waiting and while he waits he feasts his eyes on the world.
110 The course of a warrior's destiny in unalterable.
122 I am already given to the power that rules my fate.
I cling to nothing, so I have nothing to defend.
I have no thoughts so I will see.
I fear nothing, so I will remember myself.
Detached and at ease, I will dart past the eagle to be free.
132 There are no steps to anything a warrior does. There is only personal power.
133 Lucid dream entrance stages. Restful vigil - dormant senses, aware of reddish light like eyes closed looking at sun. - Dynamic vigil, red light dissipates, frozen scene appears. - Passive witnessing, watching the scene in motion. - Dynamic initiative, being compelled to participate.
134 Selfishness can be put to use by including others(s) with that selfish concern.
139 The second attention is harnessed through exercises of not-doing. A lucid dreaming prerequisite is the not-doing of thought. Stopping the internal dialogue by walking with eyes held fixed and unfocused just above horizon to emphasize the peripheral view.
140 To enter lucid dreaming, a man concentrates on the sternum (top of the belly) and moves from the will (2'' below navel). A woman does both from womb.
141 Put a cold or heavy weight on womb to learn to focus attention there.
142 Sit with soles of feet together, thighs on floor, lean forward and relax. Late night or early morning are best for lucid dreaming. Focus attention to stay on one item in the dream, then hands, then the item, then hands. Glances only.
143 The 2nd attention is a beckoner, a caller of chances - Attention beckons events, in life as well as dreams - it creates luck.
144 As soon as one learns to do lucid dreaming, any dream that can be remembered is a lucid dream.
145 Attention is what makes the world. Repeat an act done in lucid dreaming to do it in normal life.
146-7 Will happens all at once following a moment of absolute silence. Intent and effect are tied together - will is trying them together.
147 Will isn't like a feeling. It's a very quiet, unnoticeable, part of the other self.
148 Will is such complete control of the second attention, it's called the other self.
152 Intent is present everywhere. We are slaves of intent. It even makes us die.
168+ ( I think don Juan's blows that sent Carlos into "the left side" actually pushed him (his awareness) into dreamland. The dreambody, and the experiences there, are in a state of NOW without reference to time, and have a disconnection from time "past." Dreamtime is happening now, always. We perceive it unconsciously all the time, but can't understand it because experience there is not linear. Perceiving all at once = nothing.)
199 The center for assembling the 2nd attention is one foot out and 40 degrees to the right of the stomach.
218 A warrior is never under siege. He has nothing to defend. A warrior has nothing in the world but his impeccability.
223 The luminous egg shape is a cocoon that houses concentric circles of yellowish luminosity, the color of a candle flame. At the right time the shell must be broken from within - losing the human form is the only way to break the shell. Breaking the shell means remembering the other self (dreaming self?) and arriving at the totality of oneself.
253 Begin dreaming by looking at a red orange light.
254 The second attention belongs to the luminous body, one and a half feet from the midpoint between stomach and navel and 4'' to the right. Massage that point with the fingers like playing a harp until you can feel something as thick as water, then you can feel the luminous shell. The point moves inward, then all awareness centers in it.
257 There is a superb center of attention on the outside of the calves.
258 Stare into the darkness, find the red-orange color, feel the external itch.
259 Connect solar plexus with right calve, sweep floor with feeling in mid-section.
261 Put right calve near mid-section of body after pulling point of 2nd attention in.
264 The first attention is hooked to the emanations of the earth, the 2nd attention to the emanations of the universe.
280 A dreamer's "obsession" serves as a guide to direct experience. Principles of stalking.
1) Warriors choose their battle ground.
2) Discard everything unnecessary.
3) Be willing to make your last stand here and now.
4) Relax. Abandon yourself. Fear nothing.
5) When faced with odds that cannot be dealt with, retreat for a moment.
6) Compress time. Don't waste an instant.
7) A stalker never pushes himself to the front.
Precepts of the rule:
1) Everything is a mystery.
2) We must unravel that mystery, but we cannot, ever.
3) We are a mystery, as is all being-ness.
290 The luminous body constantly projects web-like threads, propelled by emotion of all sorts.
291 The boring repetition of ones self esteem is at the core of all human interaction.
293 Stalkers, 1) never take themselves seriously, 2) have endless patience, 3) have an endless capacity to improvise.
296 Stalkers go to another dimension much like dreamers use dreamland. Stalkers learn to face time as it advances on them.
297 ("Parallel beings" are what Seth calls counterparts.)
310 The eyes beckon intent by looking at the point of assemblage of the second attention on the luminous shell.

THE FIRE FROM WITHIN

xii Wisdom without kindness, and knowledge without sobriety, are useless.
2 Sorcerers can fixate the awareness of others on anything.
12 Self-importance is our greatest enemy - without it we are invulnerable.
15 Impeccability is nothing else but the proper use of energy.
16 Warriors make lists of behavioral patterns and drop those that expend energy unnecessarily, self-importance being the main one - Re-channeling that energy to face the unknown is impeccability.
16 The six attributes of warrior-ship: control, discipline, forbearance, timing, will, and the "petty tyrant," which is outside oneself.
17 The one and only ruler in the universe, the tyrant. There are also "little petty tyrants," who only persecute and inflict misery, and "small fry" petty tyrants, who are annoying to no end.
18 Impeccability is the only thing that counts on the path of knowledge.
29 A warrior maintains total and continuous examination of the self.
33 Truths of the mastery of awareness. There are no objects, only the eagle's emanations.
35 There is the known, the unknown, and the unknowable.
36-7 Awareness comes from outside ourselves; the degrees of an individual's awareness depends on how well one lets the outside emanations carry one.
64 Mature awareness can be more intense, and is called attention.
65 There are three types of attention.
1) Everything one can think about is the first attention.
2) Dreaming awareness is the forerunner to the 2nd attention, or left side awareness.
3) The third attention occurs when one lights up all the luminous fibers inside the egg-like cocoon at once.
75 Reason appears as a dull glow to the seer - reason or self absorption are the two ways individuals develop. Reasonable people quiet the emanations inside the cocoon and for that reason they live longer.
79 Energy is collected by eradicating unnecessary habits, which detaches awareness from self reflection so it can focus on something else.
83 Inorganic beings populate the earth along with organic beings.
84-5 Flames and fluidity can be used to transport bodily to the realm of inorganic life.
86 Using a submerged mirror to open a path to the inorganic world.
108 The assemblage point is a glow on our luminous cocoon that causes perception by aligning emanations inside the cocoon with those outside it. Saving energy allows one to move the assemblage point and increase perception of other emanations besides the usual.
118 Realizing that the world is a description is all that is needed to move the assemblage point. Changing habits changes the position.
119 The techniques of sorcery work only indirectly by causing the first attention to release control of the assemblage point. Self absorption, or reason, keeps the assemblage point rigidly fixed. Ritual behavior, because it is repetitive, loosens the assemblage point.
122 All shifts of the assemblage point are shifts inward.
129 Self importance is the motivating force for every attack of melancholy.
131 The articulation point of everything is stopping the internal dialogue - which keeps the assemblage point fixed in its position. Once silence is attained, everything is possible. Stop the internal dialogue by willing it. Your command becomes the eagle's command.
170 Will is a blind, impersonal, ceaseless burst of energy that makes us behave the way we do.
171 Intent is the purposeful guiding of will: the energy of alignment.
173 The assemblage point shifts naturally when we dream.
174 Dreams cannot be consciously commanded. One can only fix the assemblage point when it lands in a dream.
176 Impeccability leads to a life of sobriety, which in turn moves the assemblage point. An impeccable man needs no one to guide him, only an awareness of what may be possible. All that is required is impeccability and energy. And that begins with a single act that has to be deliberate, precise and sustained. If that act is repeated long enough, one acquires a sense of unbending intent, which can be applied to anything else, leading to a warrior's full potential.
180 Unbending intent leads to internal silence, which leads to the inner strength needed to make the assemblage point move in dreams.
194 The two basic qualities of warriors: sustained effort and unbending intent.
210 A nagual never lets anyone know that he is in charge.
218 Will keeps the assemblage point fixed in position. Intent moves it. Will is an impersonal force. Intent is a personalized force.
219 To see the luminous eggs, relax all muscles, be silent mentally, let the assemblage point drift. Whack oneself on right side between rib and hip.
246 A shift of the assemblage point is accompanied by a change in light - daytime becomes very dark, night becomes twilight.
258 Intent is what makes the assemblage point move. Mastery of awareness is what gives the assemblage point its boost. We are, in essence, an assemblage point fixed at a certain position. The internal dialogue is our enemy and at the same time our friend. Warriors make accurate inventories, then through them away.
260 Your command is the eagle's command. That is the essence of the mastery of intent.
Rolling the eyes (clockwise or counterclockwise) causes the assemblage point to shift momentarily. This should be done whenever one is caught in anger, confusion, despair, etc.
282 No rational assumptions should interfere with the actions of a seer. The new seers do not have an internal dialogue, but a detached manipulation of intent through sober commands. The command is given to oneself, then repeated over and over until lit becomes the eagle's command, and the assemblage point shifts, accordingly, the moment warriors reach inner silence.
The new seers move their assemblage point to a dreaming position called total freedom.

THE POWER OF SILENCE

32 Every act performed by a sorcerer is performed to strengthen their link with intent or is a response to the link itself.
34 "Intuition" is the activation of our link with intent. Direct knowledge is totally accurate and functional. The spirit reveals itself to everyone at every turn.
62 In order to revive the connection link to the spirit, a rigorous, fierce purpose is required - unbending intent.
62 An apprentice must relinquish his individuality.
85 The art of stalking is the be ruthless, cunning, patient, and sweet.
100 One must learn to stalk first, then to intend (move the assemblage point).
101 The deeper the assemblage point moves, the greater the feeling that one has knowledge with no words to express it. The first principles of stalking is that a warrior stalks himself, with ruthlessness, cunning, patience and sweetness.
102 Unusual behavior causes a tremor of movement in the assemblage point. Stalking can be called "stealth" or "the art of controlled folly." It is the basic building block upon which sorcery is built.
123 Intent is not something that one might use or command or move in any way - yet one could use it, command it, or move it as one desires. Understanding this contradiction is the essence of sorcery.
128 Stalking is a secretive, furtive, deceptive behavior designed to deliver a jolt. And, when you stalk yourself, you jolt yourself, using your own behavior in a ruthless, cunning way.
129 Use the idea of death to deliver that stalking jolt - the idea of our impending and unavoidable end is what gives us sobriety.
134 One needs a clear connection with intent, and to get that one needs only to intend it through pure understanding.
138 Ruthlessness is the first principle of sorcery.
140 What we need to do to let magic get a hold of us is to banish doubt from our minds. Once doubts are banished, anything is possible.
143 The only way to think clearly is not to think at all.
144 Intent is beckoned with the eyes.
146 Ruthlessness makes the eyes shine, and the shine beckons intent.
164 Everything sorcerer's did was done as a consequence of movement of their assemblage points, and such movements were ruled by the amount of energy sorcerers' had at their command.
165 Inside every human being is a gigantic, dark lake of silent knowledge which each of us can intuit.
The content of perception depends on the position of the assemblage point.
167 Silent knowledge is something all of us have. It is the older side of man. It has complete mastery, complete knowledge of everything. But it cannot think, therefore, it cannot speak of what it knows. Silent knowledge is intent - the spirit, the abstract.
169 Any movement of the assemblage point is like dying. Everything in us gets disconnected, then reconnected again to a source of much greater energy. That amplification of energy is felt as a killing anxiety.
170 War, for a warrior, is the total struggle against the sense of individual self that has deprived man of his power.
Any movement of the assemblage point is a movement away from self-reflection, and so, from self-importance.
171 Everything sorcerers do is toward the goal of dethroning self-importance. Self-importance is self pity masquerading as something else. Self pity is the real enemy and the source of man's misery. A movement of the assemblage point is a movement away from self pity. Achieving a state of being that could only be called ruthlessness.
174 For a sorcerer, ruthlessness is not cruelty. Ruthlessness is sobriety.
178 Moving the assemblage point depends on increased energy and not on instruction.
181 I have insisted to the point of exhaustion that there are no procedures in sorcery. There are no methods, no steps. And the only thing that matters is the movement of the assemblage point.
(179) When self-importance is curtailed, the increased energy launches the assemblage point - no procedures are involved.
187 Intent is experienced with the eyes, not the reason.
182 Intent, the spirit, the abstract, is something that can not be seen or felt.
191 The mirror of self-reflection is extremely powerful and only lets its victims go after a ferocious struggle.
212 The sorcerer's struggle for assuredness is the most dramatic struggle there is.
214 Sorcerers live exclusively in the twilight of a feeling that can best be described by the words: "And yet ..."
215 Sorcerers never approach anyone.
Silent knowledge is a position of the assemblage point, preceded by "the place of no pity." The place of "reason" is preceeded by the "place of concern." Society was once at the place of silent knowledge.
241 (Details about unbending intent)
A "movement" of the assemblage point perceives new worlds. A "shift" of the assemblage point changes perception of the physical world.
242 Man perceives two points of reference, "here" and "there." Clarity is lessened at both positions, but perception is direct and immediate.
244 Answers have to be verbalized to be of value. Only sorcerers can turn their feelings into intent. Intent is the spirit, so it is the spirit that moves the assemblage point.
247 A warrior goes through four stages in terms of his connection with intent: A rusty link, a clean link, an ability to manipulate that connection, and finally he learns to accept the designs of the abstract.
248 A sorcerer lives an impeccable life, and that seems to beckon the solution. No one knows why.
Impeccability is not morality. Naturally, it calls for frugality, thoughtfulness, simplicity, innocence; and above all, for lack of self-reflection. It resembles a monastic life, but isn't.
249 The only thing that stores energy for us is our impeccability.
258 Words are used by stalkers as keys to open anything that was closed.
261 Only a paragon of reason can be a paragon of silent knowledge. The one way bridge from silent knowledge to reason is called "concern." From reason to silent knowledge is called "pure understanding." Reason is only one island in a sea of islands.
263 The assemblage point, with even the most minute shifting, creates totally isolated islands of perception - going back to the same position one relives the earlier experience.
281 Stalkers create appearance through intent rather than using props.
282 Appearances are asked from the spirit, forcibly called upon, never invented rationally.
283 Call intent by sitting in a small room with a single candle a few inches from the eyes, then voice the word intent slowly, enunciated clearly, as many times as necessary, letting the voice rise and fall naturally.

THE ART OF DREAMING

viii Dreaming is the gateway to infinity.
9 Once we have enough energy, seeing happens all by itself.
13 Displacements of the assemblage point feels like vague sadness followed by euphoria.
14 When the assemblage point moves outside the shell, it stretches the shape without breaking its energy boundaries.
15 In the universe of energy, there are only single individuals (balls) alone, surrounded by the boundless.
21 The first step to power is to set up dreaming, to have a precise and practical command over the general situation in a dream. Begin by looking at your hands. When you dream, be (emotionally) as light and happy as a feather, but with integrity and seriousness.
22 There are seven gates of dreaming, experienced as obstacles.
23 The first gate is a pleasant heaviness that won't let us open our eyes just before deep sleep.
25 At the first gate, the goal is to intend that your energy body becomes aware of falling asleep. Let it do the work. To intend is to wish without wishing - do without doing. Put your silent determination, without a single thought, into convincing yourself you have reached the energy body and that you are a dreamer. Doing this will automatically put you into the position to be aware you are falling asleep.
27 The real issue is to become aware that one is falling asleep, which can be done when one can sustain a constant dream image.
30 Find your hands. Look at as many other items as you can in brief glances, then back to your hands, till you can sustain the whole place.
33 One's particular life situation can be molded to fit one's specifications. Dreamers do that. Through molding the awareness of being alive, we can reach to sustain the energy body and with it mold the direction and consequences of our lives.
33 Becoming aware in dreams is not a process, but an awakening. Something dormant in us becomes functional.
37 The most effective way of "re-deploying energy" so as to have enough energy to become conscious of dreaming, is by losing self importance.
40 You reach the second gate of dreaming when you wake up from a dream into another dream - or - (page 44) change dreams in an orderly fashion.
69 Dreaming is moving the assemblage point - stalking is fixating it on the new position, to acquire cohesion.
66 The dreaming emissary is a voice (some see it as a person) that everyone encounters after passing the 1st and 2nd gate of dreaming. - It is an energy from the realm of inorganic beings.
70 Gaze at something as if you were looking at it in a dream and you can enter a dream consciously.
75 Properly focused awareness is like "a romance with knowledge."
78 We can't talk about benefits. We can only talk about end results.
93 (Dreaming emissary speaking) For perfect dreaming, first shut off the internal dialogue. Place a hard, smooth, thin, 5'' long object between the fingers of each hand and curl fingers to press fingers against them to produce an almost pain. This shuts off the internal dialogue.
94 Falling asleep at a moment of perfect silence guarantees a perfect entrance into dreaming. Weaving a tight fitting gold ring can be used as a bridge to or from dreaming to normal awareness. - A tight belt, headband, or necklace serves as a focus point for dream energy transfer on the skin.
Press the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth while dreaming, and clarity and focus improve dramatically.
141 The 3rd gate of dreaming is reached when you dream you are watching yourself as you sleep - you cross the gate when you then learn to move around, merging your dreaming reality with physical reality.
172 "The mystery of the assemblage point is everything in sorcery." Repeat that phrase endlessly and the mystery will be revealed.
176 The top layer of an (aura) is whitish, the next chartreuse, then amber. The whitish layer is the current position of man's assemblage point.
177 In our dreams we make contact with "scouts" from other worlds.
180 The energy needed to move the assemblage point comes from the realm of inorganic beings.
(193) (Relative to other worlds, this one is a dream resulting from a fixed position of the assemblage point. To leave this world, realize it's "a dream," and intend the assemblage point to move.
(197) - (What world did we come here from, and why? We only think we're stuck here because we can't remember the previous world[s]).
230 (The tenant speaking) Start your dreaming by lying down on your right side with your knees bent a bit. Stay in that position until you fall asleep. Then, in dreaming, dream that you lie down in that position to fall asleep again. The result is a solid fixation of the assemblage point at the second place of falling asleep; total perception. - Can be repeated, or on left side, back and stomach, to produce amazing results.
231 Visualization exercise - Study every detail of an object until you can visualize it perfectly with your eyes closed. Then dream with the object and create a total materialization of the object in the dream. An entire visual world can be created this way.
249 Intending in the second attention is the only way to cross the 4th gate of dreaming.