Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/32

 it is.

The world is as one think it is, because from our young years we have learned to see it that way; but the world is an enigma, an absolute mystery. To perceive the world as energy and not as objects, is the great challenge and the Toltec legacy, which took thousands of years to develop this perception and through a sophisticated technique, they could transmit it through multiple lineages that were kept hidden in the Anahuac these last five centuries.

"All of us were taught to agree in doing —he gently said—. You have no idea of the power that this agreement entails. But, fortunately, not-doing is as miraculous and powerful... You are a man of that world. And out there, in that world, is your hunting field. There is no way to escape the doing of our world; that is why a warrior turns the world into a hunting  field. As a hunter, the warrior knows that the world is made to be used. So he uses it the most." C.C.

THE RING OF POWER It is precisely the way of perceiving the world, through reason, what Don Juan calls "the first ring of power". Common men, unintentionally, perform a "witchcraft" act which consists of preparing, with reason, a wonderful and complex world of ideas which he interprets as the only reality and call it "the world".

This spell of reason is "the first ring of power"; so, every child born immediately begins "training" to develop reason with the help of excellent teachers and a job for many years. Transforming the energy world around us in a world of "solid objects" and "true ideas" is a huge "witchcraft" act. Common man and the Toltequity apprentices need "that" world to sustain their tonal. "The difference is that common men stays there and do not explore their full potential”; men is not just an energy receiver... he is an energy creator!

The first power ring has to do with the tonal (right side), with what we call "true reality" with reason and the known. Castaneda titled his fifth book "The second ring of power", it has to do with the nagual: the left side, with the "other reality", with the will and the unknown. It is common that some fantasizing book readers, imagine extraordinary worlds in forests and jungles with "shamans and gurus", and dream to become "warriors and knowledge beings", when the battlefield has always been right before their eyes, in the daily life of their lives.

"—This is your world —he said, pointing the tumultuous street behind the window—. You are a man of that world. And out there in that world, it is your hunting field. There is no way to escape the doing of our world; that is why a warrior turns the world into a hunting field. As a hunter, the warrior knows that the world is made to be used. So he uses it the most." C.C.

A WORTHY ADVERSARY

What a teacher actually does to his apprentice is hooking him, set traps and try to make him reduce his personal importance to save energy. The work of a teacher is to take the apprentice to the "door" of the nagual or knowledge; entering a little, there the teacher and apprentice are equal; perhaps the difference would