Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/52

 the tonal. The tonal is where the unified organization exists. A being enters the tonal once life force has joined the needed feelings. Once I told you that the tonal begins at birth and ends at death; I said it because I know that, as soon as the life-force leaves the body, all these isolated pieces or that form the cluster disintegrate and return to the site of origin: the nagual. What a warrior does when traveling into the unknown resembles death, except that his cluster of isolated feelings does not disintegrates, but it expands a little without losing the union. In death, however, they all sink deep down and move on their own, as if they never had been a unity...

The witches explanation says that each of us has a center from which we can witness the nagual: the will. Thus, a warrior can venture into the nagual and allow the cluster to organize and reorganize in all possible forms...

I have called this cluster the perception bubble. I have also said that it is sealed, tightly closed, and that it never opens until the moment we die. However, you can open it. Obviously the witches have learned the secret, and although not all reach self-totality, they know the possibility of reaching it..." C.C.

THE WARRIORS PREDILECTION

This is one of the most intense and emotional moments, and where the first part of the education ends. Carlos Castaneda will have to enter the nagual and to do so, he and his companions are at an imposing and wonderful site, full of strength and power. It is a hill that the Toltec worked shaping it into a pyramid; this place is located east of the towns where the other apprentices lived and which are divided by a deep ravine; trying to reach the top of the Hill is almost like climbing a wall. The Hill has a Zapotec name that relates to internal fire and is located in the Juarez Sierra of Oaxaca.

It is one of the decisive parts in the Toltec knowledge path. The apprentice will pass alone, for the first time to the nagual world and here says goodbye to his teacher and benefactor; the apprentice will follow the path, and will do it without their valuable company; will have to only rely on knowledge "saved" on his left side and therefore will have to “remember” all he earned on the part of the "increased" consciousness and "assemble" all knowledge into a single unit.

Don Juan warns Castaneda that he will have to enter the nagual with the force of his personal power and two things can happen at the encounter: that never returns, or he return to accomplish a task assigned by the power. Once the task is accomplished, regardless of its outcome, will achieve control of his totality.

Don Juan tells him a story to illustrate how he should live while expecting the fulfillment of his task and tells him that for such waiting and task the only thing the warrior has is his humility, his impeccability and sobriety. That he should direct all his personal power to efficiently accomplish the power designated task. Only having that internal strength, the warrior can defeat the "shooters of the unknown".

In this task the warrior cannot avoid pain because he is a human being, but what he can avoid is surrender to it. For this task is alone, this is our real condition. But to die alone, is dying in desolation, says Don Juan. A warrior who enters the unknown maintains a sense of humility, impeccability and efficiency that strengthen and prepares his spirit. Don Juan advises Castaneda that, when he returns to his task, loves earth because it is a living being that feels and understands, and that it will teach him what