| Introduction | | | | seem to be usually phantom worlds of my own |
| "We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for | | | | making. It was a nice clear day. I seemed to be close |
| ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness, | | | | to the ocean, although I couldn't see it. I saw some |
| which no one can make for us" - Marcel Proust | | | | black men dressed in white garments, wearing little |
| The intent behind Castaneda's Toltec teachings was | | | | white round hats that covered only the crown of |
| to help us become warriors who conquered | | | | their heads. I walked uphill toward the park where |
| themselves; warriors who developed an awareness | | | | they were talking around a long wooden bench sans |
| of their full potential as human beings. Apprentices | | | | a backrest. |
| were grouped as 'dreamers' or 'stalkers' in an effort | | | | As I approached them I surveyed my surroundings |
| to classify them according to their abilities and energy | | | | once more. The park ahead had grass that obviously |
| configuration, but in fact they had to be both; | | | | had been recently mowed. I don't remember any |
| 'stalking' helped 'dreaming' and vice versa. 'Stalking' | | | | trees although I saw long winding walkways through |
| was the art of developing a strategy to deal with | | | | extensive terrain. I looked back to make sure I could |
| the world as a spiritual warrior; 'dreaming' was the art | | | | retrace my steps to the 'truck', as if there was an |
| of controlling your dreams to develop your 'other' self | | | | entrance there to my everyday world. But I didn't |
| or the 'dreaming body'. Stalking also helped in fixing | | | | need an entrance; shortly after I continued walking |
| the new position of the 'assemblage point' while | | | | my "dreaming attention" left me and I found myself |
| "dreaming". | | | | back on my bed. |
| According to Castaneda, dreams occurred due to the | | | | I was baffled. Never before had I entered the |
| movement of the 'assemblage point' or 'the point | | | | dreaming attention in this manner. It was a new, |
| where perception is assembled'. This point | | | | exciting and unexpected development. I figured that |
| (supposedly located behind us at arms length behind | | | | "I" had gone somewhere...Morocco? And it had |
| the shoulder blades) moves naturally while we sleep, | | | | happened while I was awake; "I" had entered that |
| causing our dreams. If we volitionally hold a new | | | | vision, that 'somewhere'...awake! Next morning I |
| position while we sleep we are also stalking that | | | | looked for Morocco in the World Wide Web; and |
| dream and doing "dreaming"-the same thing we | | | | there they were--the long brick buildings! And people |
| unwittingly do with this "dream" called life. Some call | | | | wearing long white garments and little white hats. I |
| this process of controlling a dream "lucid dreaming". In | | | | couldn't be certain, of course, maybe the place I |
| Castaneda's "world" I was a dreamer. And the | | | | 'visited' wasn't Morocco. But that was irrelevant. |
| "dreaming" experience that I am about to relate in | | | | What was relevant as a new development was my |
| the following paragraphs is an example of a 'dreaming' | | | | entrance into that world while fully awake. That |
| technique that I arrived at after years of practice, | | | | meant to me at the time that by merely stilling my |
| please follow me... | | | | mind, I had been able to hold a vision (stalk it) and |
| It was a quiet night in Southern CA; my neighbors | | | | enter Morocco in my "other" self. |
| were away and there was not a sound in their | | | | Hitherto, I had always entered "dreaming" by looking |
| apartment. I could hear the branches overhanging my | | | | at my hands while having a regular dream. According |
| porch rustling in the cool summer breeze. I lay on my | | | | to Castaneda, the volitional act of looking at our |
| back, closed my eyes and, after the usual effort to | | | | hands (or whatever) gives us the control of the |
| overcome the barrage of meaningless, random | | | | dream and from then on it becomes "dreaming", a |
| thoughts, my mind drifted into silence. Keeping my | | | | controlled experience as linear and real as your |
| eyes closed, I looked for the color orange. Soon an | | | | everyday life but without the physical body, so |
| orange circle appeared. It expanded into nothing, | | | | nothing limits your movements. Therefore, the |
| appearing again to expand once more and once more | | | | "dreaming attention" or "second attention" is a door |
| and once more... Suddenly, a scene appeared! In front | | | | to infinity, a door to the inner Self in you that is |
| of me there was a building and a road. I noticed that | | | | connected to Spirit, that is one with that Unmanifest. |
| the building had an architectural style that I had never | | | | According to the Upanishads, "As a great fish swims |
| seen before. I thought that the vision would soon | | | | between the banks of a river as it likes, so does the |
| vanish due to my inability to hold it, as was usually | | | | shinning "Self" moves between the states of |
| the case. But to my surprise the scene stayed. I | | | | dreaming and waking." And also, "If you awake in |
| decided to try to hold it for as long as I could in an | | | | dreamless sleep you awake onto the "Self." In other |
| effort to train (using Castaneda's terminology) my | | | | words that is who you really are, the Mind-Essence. |
| 'dreaming attention'. Soon, it startled me to realize | | | | Or, in Toltec terminology, we are being dreamed! |
| that the building and the dirt road in front of me | | | | That Mind-Essence projects everything! The |
| were staying. I also understood that through that | | | | Upanishads chronicle the inspired teachings of men |
| vision I could enter another world...a world perhaps as | | | | and women for whom the transcendent reality called |
| 'real' as my day-to-day 'reality.' | | | | Spirit was more real than the world perceived |
| As soon as the realization struck me I felt my | | | | through their senses. They are an ancient part of |
| consciousness being pulled into the vision. "I" was no | | | | Hinduism--around five thousand years old. In India |
| longer in my bed or in my physical body, but in the | | | | they still have enlightened teachers, living in ashrams |
| covered back of a two-and-a-half-ton truck. I climbed | | | | along the north shores of the Ganges River. In due |
| down while disentangling my pants that had stuck | | | | course I'll tell you more about what I have found in |
| somewhere--probably a trick of my mind to distract | | | | The Upanishads, and other sources, that is parallel to |
| me since our reason will always feel threatened when | | | | the Toltec teachings. But now, please bear with me |
| unable to explain an event. I looked around. It was | | | | while I continue with my narration. |
| obvious that I was not in the United States; in fact, I | | | | The "dreaming" experience mentioned before was |
| was nowhere that I could recognize. The brick | | | | indeed a new experience for me, and it opened |
| buildings were long and unfamiliar constructions. I | | | | doors that I didn't know existed; it gave me a new |
| walked down the dirt road trying to figure out where | | | | perspective. It took place for the first time a few |
| I was. It seemed hot, maybe tropical. I saw then a | | | | years ago. But since then I have come to understand |
| group of teenagers stripped to the waist, | | | | that "dreaming," or any other psychic powers that |
| tobogganing down the slope of a dirt hill on pieces of | | | | we may develop, are irrelevant and even hindering at |
| cardboard. I approached them. | | | | times. I have come to understand that there is |
| "Where am I." After I asked I realized that the | | | | nothing to accomplish, nothing to become; everything |
| young man I had addressed the question seemed to | | | | is here in front of us, now! This dream is for us to |
| be mentally retarded, or perhaps suffered a speech | | | | enjoy, and the 'path' to inner knowledge seems to be |
| impediment of some sort. His closest companion | | | | a difficult winding road because of the ego. To follow |
| answered: | | | | that 'path' has been compared by ancient sages to |
| "Morocco!" | | | | walking the edge of a razor because of our |
| "Morocco" I thought. | | | | pernicious habit of self-reflection, which clouds our |
| After thanking them I walked on. I wanted to verify | | | | vision and turns our dream into a nightmare, or into |
| that my experience was actually taking place in | | | | sheer hell... In fact, the path and the goal are both |
| Morocco; it is seldom that I am able to verify where | | | | here, now! But let me start from the beginning... |
| I have been when "dreaming"; the places that I visit | | | | |