Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/151

 All the shamanism faculties, possibilities and achievements, from the simplest to the most astonishing, are found in the human body itself.

A warrior is never besieged. Being besieged implies that one has personal possessions to defend. A warrior does not have anything in the world except for his impeccability, and impeccability may not be threatened.

The first stalking art principle is that warriors choose their battlefield. A warrior never enters a battle without first knowing the surroundings.

Remove all unnecessary is the second stalking art principle. A warrior does not complicates things. Searches for simplicity. Applies all his concentration to decide whether he enters a battle, because his life is at stake in every battle. This is the third principle of the stalking art. A warrior must be willing and prepared to make his last stop here and now. But not without order or concert.

A warrior relaxes and lets go; he does not fear anything. Only then the powers that guide human beings open the way for the warrior and help him. Only then. This is the fourth stalking art principle.

When faced with a superior force that cannot be fought, the warriors withdraw for a moment. Let his thoughts run freely. Deal with other things. Anything can serve. This is the fifth stalking art principle.

Warriors compress time; This is the sixth stalking art principle. Even a single instant count. In a battle for their life, a second is an eternity, eternity which can decide victory. The warriors pursue success; therefore, compress time. Warriors do not waste even an instant.

To apply the seventh stalking art principle one has to apply the other six: a stalker is never at the front. He is always watching from behind the scene.

Applying these principles produces three results. The first is that stalkers learn not to take themselves seriously: they learn to laugh at themselves. If they are not afraid of ridicule, they can ridicule anyone. The second is that stalkers learn to have inexhaustible patience. Stalkers are never in a hurry, never are concerned. And the third is that stalkers learn to have an inexhaustible capacity for improvisation.

COMMENTARY

This recapitulation by Castaneda, sprouts with tremendous force the importance of the "warrior path". Castaneda and many of his readers, are lost between "the pseudo indian talk " that Castaneda wanted to hear, the inaccuracies on the nagual area and the lack of energy. When the work is reviewed again and again, it is clear that the techniques to "sweep the tonal island", are the "critical path" to start feeling the Toltec teaching.

The first thing that is required is "fixing the bad tonal state", we generally have, from our personal importance, behavior social patterns and "matter inertia" itself.

For a sensible and intelligent reader, the only thing that really could slightly be available to him, is trying to practice the techniques from the book