Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/24

 Events of May 1971, date in which concluded the second Castaneda learning phase.

ERASING PERSONAL HISTORY

To maintain the self-image, at the slightest provocation common men are eager to tell anyone who wants to listen "who he is", or rather, who he assumes to be. Telling our lives over and over to anyone who will listen, in addition to feeding our personal importance (ego) allows to reaffirm ourselves in this world of thoughts. Maintaining the self-image requires an enormous energy consumption, so that a Toltequity apprentice shall gradually "erase" his personal history; this is not to stop speaking about the past, but simply to "use it" in a referential and impersonal manner.

Don Juan says that "personal importance" leads us to keep our personal history. Don Juan argues that through personal history we feed our personal importance and this prevents us from appreciating the world in which we live. Don Juan says he preferred the unlimited freedom obtained by being strangers: if nobody really knows us, we have no need to give explanations and thus nobody is angry or disappointed by our actions. This freedom is needed by the apprentice to walk the path of knowledge.

"—I have no personal history —said after a long pause—. One day I discovered that I no longer needed a personal history and I left it, ''just as I quit drinking." C.''C.

LOSING IMPORTANCE

The western culture is based on the fallacy that "man" is superior to all living beings around him. For the simple reason that he was created by God in his image and likeness. In addition, "has given the world" to men to transform, dominate and exploit it. For this reason, the arrogance and the predatory attitude of the western culture.

For the Anahuac civilization, on the contrary, the world was created by gods sacrifice. Indeed, Nanahuatzín and Tecuzistecatl were sacrificed in Teotihuacán to create the Sun and the moon. Quetzalcoatl went to the underworld for the bones of the fifth sun human beings and as sacrifice, he bled his penis to give life to the bones. For this reason, human beings will be called "macehuales", which in Nahuatl means "deserving" of the gods sacrifice. The macehuales have the duty to love and protect their mother earth (Tonatzin) and help to maintain the universe balance.

Don Juan taught Castaneda that if he wants to follow the "path of knowledge", he will need to change his arrogant attitude and treat the world around him with love and humility, especially the "plants of power".

"—You take yourself too seriously —said slowly—. You give yourself too much importance. This must be changed! You feel as the most important, and that justifies you to be upset by everything. You are so important that you can leave, just like that if things don't go your way. No doubt you think it shows having character. You are arrogant and weak!... —The world around us is a mystery—he said—. And men are no better than anything else." C.C.

DEATH AS A COUNSELOR