Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/80

 "—Long before the Spaniards arrival in Mexico —he said— there were extraordinary Toltec seers, men capable of unthinkable acts. They were the last link in a knowledge chain that stretched over thousands of years... 

''-Don Juan then explained that his use of the "Toltec" term did not correspond to how I used it. For me it meant a culture, the Toltec empire. For him, the term "Toltec" meant "man of knowledge".''

He said that the epoch he referred, centuries or perhaps even millennia before the Spanish conquest, all those knowledge men lived inside a vast geographical area, north and south of the Mexico Valley...

''—After the first Toltec world was destroyed, surviving seers confined themselves and reviewed their practices. The first thing they did was establishing the stalking, the reverie and the intent as key procedures, then they dropped the use of plants of power; perhaps that gives us some idea of what really happened to them with the plants of power.''

"The new cycle just began establishing when the spanish conquistadors destroyed it all...

—And how are things today?

''—There are a few. As you will understand, are scattered all over.''

—Do, you know them, don Juan?

''—Such a simple question is the most difficult to answer —responded—. There are some whom we know very well. But they are not exactly as us, because they have concentrated on other specific knowledge aspects, such as dance, healing, witchcraft, talk, rather than what new viewers recommend: stalking, reverie and intent. Those who are exactly like us would not cross our path. Such was established by seers that lived during colonial times to avoid being exterminated by the Spanish. Each of these seers founded a lineage. And not all of them had descendants, so there are very few...''

''He explained that all lineages initiated at the same time and in the same manner. Towards the late sixteenth century each nagual confined themselves and isolated their group to prevent any open contact with other viewers. The result of this drastic segregation was the formation of individual lineages. He said that our lineage was composed of fourteen naguales and one hundred twenty-six seers. Some of these fourteen naguales only had seven seers with them, others had eleven and some up to fifteen...''

Don Juan assured me that our lineage was quite exceptional, because it suffered a drastic change in the year 1723...

''—Who taught them all that? —I asked—.''

''—They learned everything on their own, they were seers, they could see -he said-. Most of what we know of our lineage was made by them. The new seers corrected the ancient seers errors, but the foundation of what we know and do is lost in the Toltecs time..." C.C.	  ''

THE PETTY TYRANTS

Personal importance is what consumes the most energy; supporting ourselves image in this world of energy fields, requires a huge consumption.

As a result, getting rid of personal importance is essential to enter Toltequity and this requires a strategy masterpiece; for this purpose the new seers developed a complex technique. First, should make a "strategic inventory" of all activities with the highest energy consumption, and within them, we know that personal importance ranks first. The vehicle for energy saving is the impeccability of our actions and feelings; energy rechanneling is what allows saving and, with it, the use of this energy in the teaching world.