First of all I should mention that I've been a Castaneda fan for decades. I started reading his books as a teenager and I've read his books back to back many times through my life and I always loved them. At times they frightened me, but mostly they inspired the living shit out of me and I will always love them, even though I've lately become aware of the fallacy of the knowledge contained within them. And it's a valid step in spiritual evolution to take these books seriously for a while (although it can make some people quite crazy too - I've seen it happen, I think these books are not suitable for everyone). I have always found Castaneda's writing deeply refreshing (especially compared to most other writing on this planet, philosophical or otherwise), inspiring, and remarkably humorous at times. I don't think I've ever read any book, fiction or otherwise, where I laughed so hard as with these books because the humor contained within them is genuine, profound and of extraordinary depth. And I believe that even if these books were complete fiction (which I think they're not, for the most part - I believe Castaneda made up some later parts but the first few books I believe are accurate accounts), it would still be one of the greatest things ever written purely due to the style, humor and wisdom contained within. I absolutely adore these works, I hope I made that position clear. I'm not coming from a position of trying to devalue these works, because I absolutely love them. I even keep a collection of Don Juan's quotes nearby at all times because of the depth one can extrapolate from them. My favorite quote is about the path of heart.
I've been on the search for "truth", so to speak, for all my life and Don Juan's wisdom has always served as a major driving force. Not too long ago I've read through the books again and I've been formulating my personal position on them which took me through some potent introspective episodes where I had to reassess my position especially since prior to reading these books again I have investigated all manners of schools of spirituality and metaphysical, scientific and philosophical works. I've had potent psychedelic experiences and potent dreaming experiences, and I've been stuck for a while, pondering on what exactly I am to make of all this Castaneda stuff, especially now that I have a relatively decent metaphysical ground built on certain eastern knowledges, particularly Zen. I did not go into Zen from the traditional point of view, but from what I consider to be direct understanding. I chose Zen specifically because it's the only branch of Buddhism that deals away with cultural cruft, which I strongly believe to be merely a distraction and not necessary at all, unless you willfully adopt a lifestyle of a monk, then it simply gives you something to do which is fair game. However, in manners of Zen, you either get it, or you don't and you have more work to do. It is binary in that sense. When you get it, you get it. No scriptures, no masters, just understanding that comes from deep within and does not care about concepts, theories, ideas or even experience. Yes, even experience is secondary to Zen.
Now hopefully this wall of text I just wrote gives you some vague understanding of where I'm coming from and you won't assume that I'm just posting this for attention because that's not my intention. My intention is not even to argue with you guys, it is simply to write this as a way of getting it off my chest as it's something that's been brewing in me for a while, namely the contrast between what I consider genuine insight into reality through Zen, and partial insight into reality through occult and alchemical practices, which I believe Castaneda is an example of (a highly refined one, at that).
Now to the juicy part, I'm going to make this short and sweet and just get to the core of why I believe Zen is ahead of anything Castaneda ever wrote, to the point where it's not even in the same playing field or the same galaxy. I believe Zen, understood correctly, is the closest you will ever get to understanding reality. Of course you may get there through something you call something different, but it doesn't matter because it's still Zen. It is still silent knowledge that cannot be talked about. So here we go.
1) Don Juan's knowledge, while surely profound and deep on its own level, is really childish and vain compared to Zen. This is because it makes too many assumptions, it gives too many specific details and it talks too much without ever shutting up and letting the universe do the talking. Zen, when understood correctly, tells you absolutely nothing, which is the basis for all of reality. Reality is nothing, or put more accurately, reality is nothing to speak of.
2) Don Juan's knowledge focuses on what is known in the eastern traditions as "siddhis", or magical powers. These are impressive feats for sure and anyone who's ever taken a good dose of magic mushrooms (or has simply had a spontaneous experience) knows first hand what siddhis look like. Most of what Castaneda writes about can be classified as insight into siddhis. However, eastern traditions understand something profound about siddhis, which Don Juan apparently does not, and that is that siddhis are distractions from the path of knowledge. They are blind alleys that lead nowhere - nowhere at all. Getting stuck on them is what is known as a spiritual trap, and following Castaneda's teaching seriously (and without self-reflection) is like being a fly that gets stuck on the sticky fly trap. You will never understand anything through this approach, you will simply frustrate yourself endlessly and you will be akin to a dog chasing his own tail because of how fascinated you can get with getting these powers. In other words it's an ego trip, it's not profound at all and has very little depth.
3) Zen is about direct understanding, and it is simple. It is simplicity itself, really. Reality is simple, believe it or not. It is not complicated. You don't need to actually do anything or learn anything, in fact you need to unlearn and undo everything. You were born into perfection itself and nothing has ever been wrong, except your insistence that something is wrong. When Ramana Maharshi was asked to sum up his knowledge in one word, he simply replied, "attention". This is what it's about. There is profound depth that can be understood if you see everything with the eyes of a small child. Your original state is already the fullness of knowledge. You obscured it by building walls of attachment around it and by running the operating system of the culture. The idea then is simply to stop doing this. In Castaneda's terms, the idea is to stop the world. Then it all becomes clear again. Coincidentally this is what psychedelics actually do, they stop the world and then the world reveals itself to you, and that's why that domain feels like coming home. Because it is home. The egoic dimension that we all uphold with our attachments is the alien one.
4) Castaneda is always going on and on about states, but Zen is not a state, even though it is sometimes presented as one. Zen is what everything fundamentally is. It does not care for being named, described, or reasoned about. As soon as you open your mouth to describe Zen, you already diminished it, and you're already talking nonsense. If you ask a master what Zen is, the appropriate response is a rapid blow on the head by his bamboo stick. The answer to "what is the secret teaching of Buddhism?" is "a dried turd". This is not self-deprecating, it is simply to turn your mind away from conceptual bullshit, which is irrelevant. Mouth noises and states of being are not Zen. Zen is Zen.
5) And the final one, which is by far the most difficult one to understand, especially for an egoic mode of being which is perpetually stuck in symbols, concepts and attachments. But here's the kicker. You're it. In Hinduism, it's said "Tat Tvam Asi". You are _all_ there is, you've always been all there is. All the inorganic beings and the organic beings and this world and the other worlds and the other other worlds and the alien worlds and the aliens and the unknown and the known and the tonal and the nagual and everything else you want to mention, you're all of it. There's no eagle because the eagle is you. There's no past because the past is conjured by you. There's equally no future because the future is conjured by you. And don't think this is solipsism either. Solipsism is just more bullshit, more concepts to fill your mind with. As long (and this is the really important point) as you're stuck on any concept, any concept whatsoever, you're fooling yourself. In the language of Alan Watts, you're the universe playing hide and seek, and you go around the corner and say "Boo!" to yourself and then you jump, and then you feel kinda weird, as if someone tickled you, and then it goes on and on and on. This is why there's fundamentally nothing to be afraid of and nothing to worry about. You're just playing hide and seek with yourself for all eternity and when you figure that out, you piss yourself laughing. To realize this, all you have to do is pay attention to now. This is why all spiritual teachings (at least all spiritual teachings worth anything) converge to one simple point, which is attention to the present moment, also known as "mindfulness", or if you prefer the Eckhart Tolle language, "presence". The whole thing is a play, what's called "lila"in hinduism. There's nothing serious about it whatsoever. The cosmic joke is that you're taking the joke seriously, and you yourself are responsible for it to begin with. All the deepest entheogenic experiences I've ever had boil down to precisely this.
Now I'm sure I'm going to piss some of you off because from what I've been reading on this subreddit, some of you are taking Castaneda's work extremely seriously and if that's the case, I apologize. However I would like to make the point that if I make you angry with this post then you really should go back to basics and address your self-importance. You can disagree with me as well, I have no intention of arguing with anyone here. This post is simply a summary of what I personally found on my own path and if you disagree, so be it. But perhaps I've given you something to chew on at the very least.
Cheers.
P.S. I hope I picked the right flair, LOL.
159 Comments
what an ill half thought out post, wheres the pragmatism and action to anything you put forward and not to mention the misunderstanding of the books and what they actually say. id also like to add your zen master that would hit you on the head for asking questions is very clearly mentally disturbed to resorting violence so quickly, id stay away from him so that he doesnt hit your head too many times
That's a fair position and I have no problems with it. :)
But do know that the master stops hitting you as soon as you stop asking stupid questions such as "what is Zen?".
i couldnt call a zen master a master if they are violent even over stupidity, seems more like they couldnt handle their comfort getting disrupted or any sort of critical thought headed towards them
They would claim it's some kind of brilliant and profound method that is so simple and yet so enlightened that you're just too unenlightened to see the brilliant genius in it.
What's with the attention seeking user name?
By the way, you can't be talking about someone like Joshu Sasaki, the first "Zen Master" I studied with in Los Angeles back in the early 70s, who lived to 104 years old (maybe more).
And turned out to be molesting female monks the whole time.
Of course, we recently discovered that the Dali Lama likes to french kiss little boys.
In public.
And Buddhist monks in Burma are famous for believing that "little boys don't count as sex".
A belief shared in Pakistan, so not unique to Buddhism.
But if you spent any time in Asia, you'd know what an absolute joke Buddhism is there.
The temple near my office in Taipei has little "confessional booths" for hookers to use at night, with part of their take going to the temple.
Little boys are given to the temple to molest, and become servants beating drums in saffron robes, at funeral processions.
Which I never miss when I'm there and hear those drums beating, because half the time if I look out the window, there are super beautiful Chinese teenage girls dancing in bikinis in the back of the truck, with a giant picture of some dead old wealthy Asian man.
The girls arranged by the family of the Asian dead guy, through the temple.
I avoid TV there however, because of the morning con artist Buddhist monks, who are notoriously just as bad as TV preachers are here in the USA.
Not only did you never understand much of anything in the books of Carlos, not only did you misunderstand the true nature of Alan Watts and Eckhart, but you didn't even bother to research what Buddhism is.
And didn't bother to look around, before you decided to seek attention in this subreddit.
"Self-importance is man's greatest enemy. What weakens him is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of his fellow men. Self-importance requires that one spend most of one's life offended by something or someone." -Don Juan
pointing out and explaining flaws and making criticisms is not an act of self importance, and to bring up your first post and how you "might get attacked" and then saying its the person's self importance already puts everything you say in bad faith
Please don't take offense at what I'm about to write, but so far most of the comments I've read strike me as extraordinarily self important and somewhat arrogant, both of which are directly mentioned by Don Juan himself as ultimate hindrances on the path of knowledge. I would prefer to see a little bit of humor instead of so much anger. It comes across as if you don't really understand Castaneda's teachings yourself. What non-self importance looks like is being able to laugh things off and see the humor in things, even (or perhaps especially) when confronted with opposing opinions.
while i do find your comments amusing they are riddled with so many flaws and (i think unintentionally) insidiously bad faith statements that you cant help but to point it out
You should find your own comments amusing primarily, and mine secondarily. Then we can vibe on equal terms. ;)
LOL trying to get me to sit next to you in shit, no thank you im doing something pragmatic with constant objective feedback, to further expand on my very first comment, your path is too vague with no clear action to take, im not and most people here probably are not interested in that
I'm not selling anything, as such you don't need to buy anything. My post was a way of getting my thoughts off my chest for my personal benefit. You can comment on it if you wish, but I remain unimpressed by the retorts so far.
But you're the one reading anger into the comments. For example, I have not the slightest bit of anger.
It makes it seem like it's coming from you.
It's quite clear everyone is annoyed by my post, which I predicted when I wrote it to begin with. The telling thing here is that if I make a post about Castaneda on the Zen subreddit, I think I will get a lot more compassion, humor and general levity. You guys take things too seriously. It makes you stiff and grumpy. My suggestion is you relax and find the humorous side instead.
But I'm not the slightest bit annoyed. Your Point 3 is still completely irrelevant to me.
You say Castaneda is complex, but it really isn't.
It's much more complex than simply seeing the entire universe in a dirty ashtray, which is what Zen is about. Complexity can be fun. But it does not lead to truth. It leads to confusion.
But you don't see the entire universe in a dirty ashtray.
:)
LMAO
I amuse myself :)
You’re just another blob of human parts enslaved by your own beliefs. No one here really care about your opinions or feelings or your elaborate, verbose, baroque prose.
Please return to your ice cave, and watch the ice grow, and zen yourself.
Oh no, we're all so devastated that we didn't impress you. There's literally nothing to make retorts to, so you should blame the lack of substance in your own post for our failure to engage with you in a way you find impressive. All you Zen people are alike. You act above-it-all (but claim not to, or play word games like "I'm both above it all and NOT above it all"...oh wow, so profound...) but then you show your petty attachments to idiotic things by claiming that you only posted here to "get thoughts off your chest for your personal benefit" since you've apparently never heard of a journal, and also since apparently your Zen practice hasn't led you to the sage-like states you aspire to (you can't deny that since you admitted in another post that Buddha was way more advanced than you are.)
Nobody is offended or angry. The things you're saying are just so vapid and old news that one finds oneself compelled to point it out. My heart and mind are light and at ease as I laugh at your pointless posts.
Wow what a surprise that he stops hitting you when you become a good little boy and stop asking why the emperor has no clothes on. Nobody could have predicted that when you shut up and stop asking questions that the cult leader treats you better.
Point 3 is completely irrelevant. What do you think is inner silence besides unlearning and undoing everything?
It's like you barely paid attention to the books, to be honest.
Simplicity itself even :)
Point 3 is about simplicity, which Castaneda's teachings are not. They are extremely convoluted and detailed in fact. Zen is about seeing the truth of the universe in a crack in a wall. That's how simple it is.
You must be missing something from the books. How many of them have you read?
All of them. Many times.
Then how is it possible that you didn't realize it? Go ahead and give me some of the info about inner silence and its importance in this practice?
He's a fan of Eckhart and Watts!!!
Two of the worst con artists around that I can think of off the top of my head.
Ignoring Sadhguru of course.
I almost feel sorry for him.
He's ill equipped to be posting in the Castaneda subreddit.
But maybe he'll wake up, and do something real for a change?
That's always the hope in here.
To free people from obvious slavery.
Seriously!???
You're pulling our leg, aren't you?
We get stalkers. Have for years now.
Some of the worst were Zen pretenders.
But assuming you aren't completely insane, or one of our stalkers...
Did you even bother to look around in this sub? There's 3 private students of Carlos helping in here, and around 40 who can kick the Buddha's butt, hands down. We had to invite those to an advanced version of this subreddit, because stuff from there is harmful to beginners in here.
At any rate, Zen masters just sit with their eyes closed, on a big ego trip, and don't talk openly about experiences.
But when they do, they don't even amount to a beginner's experiences in here.
We literally get to levitate small objects, be in 2 places at once, share dreaming where one person is awake and the other asleep, walk through solid walls, shapeshift for real, travel to other worlds some of which you can live in permanently, leap through outer space in our physical body, make friends with billion year old spirits who are fully visible and can move light solid objects, and best of all for your situation is that we get to see why Buddhism has mistaken alternate timelines for "past lives".
I have a post today on that topic, take a look at it.
Zen people are badly confused, because Buddhism so impotent that they get a single experience and can't repeat it, and then misunderstand what it meant. And use it to promote their sect, until it becomes widely believed that they understood it at all.
Zen is a crappy religion, like Christianity or Islam. No different, except that they teach you can "perfect" yourself. Which makes them very snobby, with nothing to back it up.
Zen people are motivated by getting an endorsement, from another zen person.
Not by any experiences they have, which are pointless at best.
We get to do so many more things than I just listed, and DAILY, that Zen masters will always argue we're lying.
They'll claim we can't do, what we do for hours every single night.
How about you? Do you deny anything in that list of what we do daily?
Here's a map for you, explained to us by Carlos in person, and filled in with pictures of what those experiences are like.
How far down can you get, starting in the upper right?
Can you show me a similar easy to understand map of what Zen people experience?
You can't.
My guess is, you "got slimmed" in the green station and that's all you can do.
Are we lying, when no one in here takes money in any form at all?
Unlike your money hungry Buddhists?
On top of that, "The Buddha" never actually existed.
You can research that on ChatGPT, and if you ask honest questions you'll find:
The Buddha never left northern India. Travel was very difficult and dangerous in his time.
He was just another neighborhood Yogi, out of many at the time.
He had a gimmick it seems. To tell people that the caste system is not divinely inspired, so that if they join up with him, their "rank" is based only on when they joined.
That's why he became popular.
But nothing he taught was ever written down for hundreds of years.
And oral traditions are a joke. They never survive over hundreds of years, without the new leaders adding things to increase donations.
Even the Buddha's "4 noble truths" are ludicrous nonsense, based on a delusional understanding of reality. You should only need to read those once, with good sorcery knowledge, to realize what awfulness they convey.
His "10 teachings", the ones Buddhist monks tattoo using a bone, on the backs of prostitutes they recruit in northern Thailand, are total crap. Designed to keep people prisoner in the social order.
The Chinese came along and claimed to be taking the Buddha's teachings back to China, perhaps 300 years after his death.
After which a whole bunch of new stuff was added by the Chinese to make it fit with the needs of their society, for an organized religion.
The same way they made up Lao Tzu, they made up the Buddha.
Buddhism there in Asian runs cheap prostitution, including child prostitution, corrupts local governments with land deals based on acquiring land from senile old Asian men who are promised to go to heaven, they blackmail government officials using the Temple maidens of Tokyo (underage prostitutes), and generally corrupt vast regions of Asia, with an organized crime syndicate.
A "Zen Master", or even "The Buddha", wouldn't even be a talented beginner in this subreddit.
Look around! It's all there for you to see.
Why this is true is also obvious.
Anything created after money was invented, was only made for stealing money.
Castaneda's sorcery is Olmec. From before written languages, before cities, before money, and even before agriculture. It's Beringian in origin, from 10,000+ years ago.
One of the members of Carlos' group is already 8000 years old.
Before money and cities and writing systems, there was no motivation at all to make up stuff.
It was also practiced and improved over THOUSANDS of years.
Unlike delusional Buddhism which claims a single man created it, from what we all know are worn out, make believe Hindu closed eye meditation techniques which produce dismal results.
There's nothing any Zen person does, that anyone in here would be interested in.
It's too primitive. And their "higher states" of consciousness don't even match those of a mediocre witch in a nice soothing bathtub.
Try actually looking around?
You should be warned: mindfulness is the worst thing you can practice.
It's a prison to keep you sending cash to some evil Buddhist organization.
Siddhis are not impressive in Zen, they are merely distractions for the mind. Just another trip. You're of course free to enjoy any trip for as long as it serves you.
These “siddhis”, as you call them, are merely a byproduct of our practice of forcing silence. However, we do not ignore these “siddhis” and instead use them to deepen our practice and our understanding of how awareness functions as its most base level.
What we practice here is essentially Dream Yoga without all the cultural additives. Do not assume that we are not progressing towards an understanding of the true nature of reality just because we like to have fun while doing it.
In my view you're going in circles at best.
I’m just going to give you a heads up and let you know that you’re going to get eviscerated for this post especially once Dan sees.
I find it hard to believe that you’ve practiced let alone read anything on this subreddit and still have the mind to post something like this. Zen is a heavily watered down version of what we practice. Practice Zen for a year and at the end of the year you’ll be a slightly better person with a calmer mind and sharper focus. Practice Darkroom for a year and you’ll be walking through walls, bilocating, teleporting, reliving memories as if they are currently happening, access the memories of anyone who has ever lived both historically and fictionally, time travel to both the past and future, sharing dreams with other practitioners, exploring the dreams of pretty much any one you wish (friends,family, etc.,) exploring alien worlds and realities, accessing Silent Knowledge, etc.
Basically we get to the end goal of Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen etc. which is Freedom in a much shorter amount of time while also still being able to enjoy all the things in between.
From the position I'm coming from, siddhis are seen as distractions and blind alleys that lead nowhere. You believe that these powers are impressive, and you're fully justified to hold that position, I don't have any issues with that. However, from where I'm standing, these powers you are describing are one of the worst forms of attachment and will block you from growing for as long as you remain fascinated by them. Zen is also not really about practice, even though it is sometimes presented as such. But truly Zen emphasizes what is known as satori, or sudden awakening. In other words time is rendered irrelevant. Some people like Ramana Maharshi get it instantly. For some it takes 50 years. Some never get it.
And that view was implanted by the flyers, just as they implanted their view of god into the masses, It will keep you traped in your current stage of development for the rest of your life.
You are right that attachments should be minimized (Buddhist never actually manage to do so) but our entire purpose is to explore, our
consciousness develops with exploration of totally new realms, with exposure to life and death situations,
Buddhist react with fear to anything that dose not match with the world of daily life, and they never explore beyond this world.
And this "satori" sounds like a drop into the green zone, it's the first step on the path here and not something to be particularly proud of, the same thing could be achieved with a micro dose of dmt and it would last about as long as it dose for most Buddhist saints.
Or, here's an alternative explanation which you will absolutely hate. Your ego likes a certain type of game called experience hunting. Castaneda's model of the universe and the relating practices are the perfect playground for your ego. DMT is the ego destroyer. But once you get back the ego quickly builds its defenses back up, and claims whatever it claims. And so the game goes on.
The utter irony of this comment.
Compare humanity to animals, do you really think that humanity is in anyway more in-tune with nature than they are? Do you see any of them practicing anything even remotely related to zen, or are they out exploring a hostile universe were they could die at any moment.
Do you think humanity is better than them? I would laugh at that assertion.
Castaneda's books clearly states animals are our equals, and if you truly look at the state of humanity it's clear that we are absolutely not better than them.
Animals are more in touch with reality than we are, for the most part. That is because they don't have an overactive mind driving them crazy which we possess. However, they also don't have the same level of potential. It's our free will which gives us the edge. But to reach our potential we also have to discipline our minds. It's all part of some sort of divine interplay and I have no doubt that it's supposed to be like this.
Buddhist assholes are the biggest assholes. God, I've met so many of them.
Yeah buddhists are the worst people on earth
I've always held that buddhism might be somewhat interesting if it weren't for the goddamned buddhists. The proof's in the pudding .
Isn't it convenient that the very people who claim that siddhis, are a "distraction from the path," are the very ones who don't have any.
I consider myself quite a well-traveled psychonaut. I'm fully aware how enticing and marvelous these powers are. Yet I maintain they are distractions and ultimately extremely potent attachments. It's one thing to get attached to something you can hold in your hand. It's another thing to get attached to a power that slips from your hand as soon as you try to grab it. You end up in a position of chasing your own tail and never realizing you've fallen for it.
That's the critical flaw with using psychoactives to move the assemblage point. You didn't get there under "your own sails," and thus can't repeat it.
There is a HUGE difference between that and working nightly /daily for years with these practices.
Your Zen outlook is the fallout from this. Sorcery as a learning curve that is too daunting for you to apprehend, so you settle for what you laid out in your post.
A man moved near a river and, wanting to find a way to travel across the water, spent 30 years training a type of levitation that would allow him to float across it.
Buddha, who was preaching in town, was confronted by this man, who said, “Look master, look what I have achieved! I can walk across the water!”
Buddha looked at the man and remained unimpressed as he said, "yeah, but the ferry only costs a nickel".
This is ultimately your position. You believe that training to move into other modes of consciousness is impressive. Well, I only need some fresh fungi of the right type and have the same exact experience. The difference is it takes me 5 minutes to get there and it takes you 15 years. And my method is still more reliable than yours.
That said I don't really believe psychedelics should be abused. I'm in alignment with Alan Watts who said "once you get the message, hang up the phone". I got the message, no need to stay glued to the phone.
No. You didn't get anywhere but to the red-zone on the J-Curve. The only place that psychedelics can take you. And a tiny fraction of what is actually out there. And it's Buddhism that takes 15 years to get to the green zone on the J-Curve (perceptual continuum) regularly. Not sorcery 😂.
That's something an addict would way. Why work hard and deal with your issues, when you can just take some drugs.
And if you believe a few psychedelic experiences are enough to claim, whatever superiority you're claiming here, then you're even farther gone than we assume.
Where does Salvia take you in your model?
Get off the drug train of inquiry.
If you actually pursue sorcery, as it has been presented to us, tenaciously...you progress much more quickly. On the order of weeks/months.
Then we deal with the issues that those experiences reveal, to be capable enough to go further. And that takes time (years). But what else do you think we are here for? What else could be more worthwhile!
You simply want to paint me as some sort of an addict. I've never known anyone who got addicted to psychedelics. They're too powerful to get addicted to. In fact I can almost guarantee you that if you smoke 80x Salvia you will never touch it again.
And you didn't answer my question.
Sigh. A picture is worth a thousand words. Usually.
One and done. And those people think that's enough.
It's like looking through a keyhole, as opposed to walking through the door.
Another reason to never rely on psychedelics for one's "revelations." Makes people terminally lazy.
I'm not sure but "Salvia" is known for the feeling of shape-shifting is it not? Stranded red-zone experience.
It's not mappable to any experience we know as humans. These are all just metaphors, and no concept will work here. The best concept I have is that it moves your assemblage point outside of what is normally perceivable by humans. It is the weirdest fucking thing you can experience. DMT is an ego killer but Salvia isn't fucking normal. She can easily make you live a 1000 lifetimes in a dimension that is so alien that no human concept can even encapsulate what's going on, before you return to your body. I recommend nobody does it. I did it but I don't think I'll ever do it again. It is fucking crazy.
Yes, time and everything you can think at your current position of the assemblage point stops to exist as you reach the red-zone and below, you are assembling a reality that has zero relation to this one and can only be barley described, this is made clear in Castaneda books.
Yes, time and everything you can think at your current position of the assemblage point stops to exist as you reach the red-zone and below, and drugs make things weirder by moving your assemblage point deep into the left/right.
You are assembling a reality that has zero relation to this one and can only barley be described, this is made clear in Castaneda books.
Many sorcerers have taken these drugs before, they have had the experiences you describe, they know they are movements of the assemblage point, they learned to repute them.
Danl and many in here do this under their own power daily, sorcerers have done it for thousands of years and by doing so have gained a far greater understanding of reality, in these realms you are like a baby, you have merely begun to experience them so your understanding is incomplete.
Yes, time and everything you can think at your current position of the assemblage point stops to exist as you reach the red-zone and below, and drugs make things weirder by moving your assemblage point deep into the left/right.
You are assembling a reality that has zero relation to this one and can only barley be described, this is made clear in Castaneda books.
Many sorcerers have taken these drugs before, they have had the experiences you describe, they know they are movements of the assemblage point, they learned to repeat them, that's how sorcery came to be.
Danl and many in here do this under their own power daily, sorcerers have done it for thousands of years and by doing so have gained a far greater understanding of reality, in these realms you are like a baby without guidance, you have merely begun to experience them and you have no intent to push you towards what others have already learned.
They haven't learned shit.
I've never experienced this myself but if you take dmt together with a maoi like Syrian rue there is a descant chance you will see the "mold of man" and you will be thrown from your Buddhist view and utterly believe the Christian one with a "all-powerful" humanoid creator, or you could look up some trip reports to confirm what i'm saying.
The experiences you have in these states are too tainted by what we know in this reality so you interpolate them like something you already know, if you spend a longer time their you would figure out the true nature of things, in this instance you would find out that "god" is mealy a powerless stamp.
Understanding can only be gained the same way we gained understanding of this realm, by spending years "growing up" in it, expect that sorcerers "grow up" in a thousand positions of the assemblage point, so they never stop growing, this is how consciousness devolves.
You haven't even gotten the first syllable of the first word of the message.
Disagreed. I got the complete message. You're the one who thinks the message is complicated. I'm the one telling you it is profoundly simple and a 3 year old child understands it, while you don't, with all your concepts. The more concepts, the further away you are in fact.
No, I'm saying I understand it but that it's just a single thing or a starting point or something. You realize you're going to die, right? What's going to happen to your consciousness when you die?
Same thing that happens to actors when the show is over. They go back in the green room and have a lovely discussion about whether the show was worth the candle or not.
That reply indicates that you're living in an immature fantasy world. You have no actual reason to believe that is the case, other than mindless belief. The sorcery discussed here is verifiable, whereas such superstitious beliefs such as you've just shared are based on faith and comfort.
You keep repeating the same things over and over again, don't you see you are full of the zen belief system?
You have dropped Castaneda for the Zen description of the world, they told you "the world is so and so", "you need no attachment to anything" etc.. and you believed it! You fell for it,
So this became your new "map of the world", your new world where magic is useless and only being happy with a sharp mind is enough..
You need to understand that zen and sorcery have two different Intent, the only thing zen are after is to be "enlightened", to realise oneself. But when it happens to you you'll realise that shit is boring!
Nothing cool to do about it except being called "Enlightened master" by others and sitting on a little throne.. Eventually getting some money out of it but yeah, that's boring.
Sorcery in another hand, or more precisely Castaneda is an application of this knowledge : "the active side of Infinity".
Putting the knowledge from "enlightenment" into real application, becoming the "formless" in Buddhist terms (losing the human form in here) and making unconcievable things happen.
If only you read Castaneda with the eyes of an elightened man, you would have recognised the truth in there
The difference is I saw what Zen is directly, and it made Castaneda's teachings, as profound and deep as they are, look like child's play.
Buddha claimed (even in the original Therevadan suttas) to have traveled to all the realms, including the ghost realms and the god realms. The sorcery here will get you to the point where you can actually do that. Zen doesn't get you anywhere near such feats. Of course you'll say you don't care about such things, or that it's a distraction, or an attachment, or whatever, yet it was part of the supposed Buddha's path to explore such powers. I guess you think Zen is somehow a shortcut.
All I can say is, have fun wasting your life. I have spent significant time in Japanese Zen monasteries and it was the biggest waste of time I have ever experienced. You're pretending to yourself that the mundane boring medium of Zen "enlightenment" is amazing, because you secretly always wanted real magic (or you wouldn't have done psychedelics) buy now you've convinced yourself that the empty dryness of Zen is wonderful and amazing because you no longer believe in real magic.
Why wasting so much time and energy, why not just delete this trolling post and move on?
It's useful from time to time, as it brings things to the surface. And this happened pretty quickly.
But you're right most of the time it's better to delete these, if you catch them before they get enough activity to warrant preserving them as a record.
So the best time for people to get attention is 4 pm?
Getting 74 comments in 3 hours in a post on this subreddit, is highly irregular.
And we don't retain more than two or three such SPOILER posts per month. Max.
When I say they can be useful I'm referring to the chance it gives people to clarify their own thoughts as an argument against whatever counter-intent a bad player drags in.
A little dirt can prompt you to clean the house. But a huge amount of it might make you want to burn it down!
Yeah, I haven't seen anything interesting in what he's saying personally :)
Maybe he can explain what inner silence is about and compare it to zen? :)
I'd rather you explain what the ultimate reality is according to Castaneda. Don Juan merely said it's an endless mystery. How does that explain states of samadhi where pure and absolute (unable to be doubted) understanding of nature of reality becomes freely available? Perhaps you simply did not have the experience of this level. You imply Zen is immature but perhaps you are the immature one for failing to understand what most people who try 5meo-dmt understand within 5 seconds, namely that *you* are God.
Don Juan never described God, or the source of reality adequately. The Eagle and its emanations is certainly a profound metaphor but it does not map to what I experienced in highest levels of expanded consciousness. What I experienced was that *I* myself created everything. And creating it was delightful, as if molding a universe out of clay or playdough. I was God, just like You are God. I made you, you made me. We made this whole place, we just like to pretend we didn't because we also made the ego which shields us from the memory that we're God. This is ultimately my point of divergence from Castaneda's teachings. Had I not had this experience, I would consider your point of view gladly. But as it stands now, I view Castaneda as a profound stepping stone, but not an adequate or complete description of ultimate reality. Radical nonduality and Zen come significantly closer to what I actually experienced.
Not to mention how much simpler radical nonduality and Zen are. Do you really think whatever created this place made it with complexity in mind? Simplicity breeds complexity, not the other way around. The fundamental reality is expressed beautifully in the saying Tat tvam asi. "You are that."
You mean, you had an experience with a shifted position of the assemblage point on drugs?
No. That's simply based on your view of reality adopted from Castaneda's conceptual model. My experience had no conceptual content whatsoever, it was free of all boundaries. It was in fact shown to me that every single concept is wrong, no matter how intricate. It was direct realization of who and what I am. And what I am (and what You are as well) is God itself.
Sounds boring to me... I want to lose the human form and part of losing the human form is losing God as the highest ideal.
So as far as I am concerned, your concepts are unhelpful to me.
In other words, it sounds boring to the ego. :) And while you're right that what I'm presenting also sounds like concepts, the experience I'm describing is non-conceptual by its very nature. I can model a Salvia trip somewhat by saying it's a movement of the assemblage point. I cannot model a samadhi experience by saying it's a movement of the assemblage point, because to claim so would be to fall into another concept and another model. And I even call samadhi an experience even though it's not one. The boundary between experience and non-experience goes as well with all the other boundaries. This is why it's difficult to talk about it or discuss it, because our ego necessitates polarities. We cannot talk in terms of unity because to talk at all we require at least two reference points. But there are no reference points in those states of consciousness. There is just you, as God. And you're right that samadhi is disappointing for the ego, because the ego seeks thrills. But it's your ultimate reality whether you like that or not.
No it isn't? Losing the human form is covered in the books as an important part of being a seer. Another thing you missed, huh?
Let me know which part of the books mention absolute knowledge of yourself as God.
God is the Mold of Man
Call it omnipotent Love then, if you find the word God has too much baggage. It doesn't matter what you call it. You're still it.
From my subjective point of view, I saw that light for an immeasurable length of time. The splendor of the sight was beyond anything I can say, and yet I could not figure out what it was that made it so beautiful. Then the idea came to me that its beauty grew out of a sense of harmony, a sense of peace and rest, of having arrived, of being safe at long last. I felt myself inhaling and exhaling in quietude and relief. What a gorgeous sense of plenitude! I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that I had come face to face with God, the source of everything. And I knew that God loved me. God was love and forgiveness. The light bathed me, and I felt clean, delivered. I wept uncontrollably, mainly for myself. The sight of that resplendent light made me feel unworthy, villainous.
Like this?
No. There is no separation. Samadhi is perfect unity. A oneness where you realize, or rather remember, your divine and infinite self. It never actually left, it's here right this moment, but it's obscured by the dividing power of the ego. But once the ego is destroyed the illusion goes away too, and you remember your absolute and divine nature. The name of the divine is "I am". Perfection and love are the closest words we have to describe it. But all descriptions are bullshit. And all concepts are simply a way of farting in the wind.
This really doesn't sound like much at all. What do you think is happening to me when, out of nowhere, I spend 3-4x as long in the darkroom with no conscious memory of it. I didn't fall asleep, because I would have hurt myself falling over. I was watching stars form in the darkroom and then I got lost in the beauty of them.
You still don't understand that you are it. All of it. Your model of reality does not allow for unity and implicitly decides that things are separate from one another.
Does it? Aren't we all part of the emanations at large?
What we are is Love. :) And we're not separate at all. We never were.
<3
In this predatory universe?
This is another thing Castaneda got wrong. This is not a predatory universe. It is a deeply personal, loving universe.
No, it's another thing that you got wrong. You really did get slimed in the green zone, just like Dan said. I am also in a state of near-perpetual bliss, but I am working past it.
I don't accept your conceptual model at all. It's a game you play on yourself, and you're willing to infect others with that game. And when someone tells you it's a game and a trip, you get irritated. Do you know why? Because you invested a lot of time in this game. This is why ego death is so devastating. Because everything goes.
I'll do you a favor and stop posting though. I wish you the best on your journey.
Actually, now I'm good to go again, you did manage to touch my self-importance near the end there.
So you don't accept my conceptual model at all, then what are you doing still talking to me?
You make all of these funny little claims but now you've reached the end. You can go off and explore "perfection".
Hahaha, I just realized it. Jesus freaks and one Zen freak, you're here preaching just like any of them. You don't accept my conceptual model, because my conceptual model actually shatters yours. Your desire for love and perfection is just a desire to go back in your mom's womb, the ultimate in stagnation.
As long as you keep thinking in terms of concepts, you will never understand. When you're thirsty, does the word water quench your thirst? No. Only water quenches your thirst. It's the same with love. You have to be thirsty for truth, and then you find it. But it's not truth that you can write down. It's truth that fills your heart.
Yeah, except, now I know, when I shifted my assemblage point a bit to relieve my annoyance, this dropped into my mind.
If you are experiencing this world you are only talking about concepts,
the world itself is a concept you create by thinking if you stop thinking the world will cease to be in it's entirety.
*Tag out* I'm going to bed :)
You are dead certain of your perspective (that you received on drugs), and it will definitely cost you. You don't offer anything worthwhile, so you should probably just leave.
What if I told you my highest experiences come from meditation and not drugs?
Then you reached the end of Zen, congratulations! Nothing further for you to do but wait for the show to end!
Except the show never ends. Look around you. That's what eternity looks like.
Well enjoy it.
You just want to be like your daddy :)
This is technically true, a very egotistical view of what's really going on.
Your formulated this world from the position of your assemblage point, if you had absolute control over you assemblage point you could formulate any reality you could think of and many many more that you can't think of, you don't really create it, it was already there but the same goes for everything you could imagine, it all already exist and can be formulated into a true reality.
You are however still chained to this reality, except in extreme circumstances where you get traped elsewhere and your body get's pulled along with you [you are still traped within your body], you will always return here because your physical body is a real thing that exist here.
"true freedom" is among many thing a break of this link, the ability to explore anything without limits and without attachment to anything that came before.
No, I don't believe you understand, or rather, you're using concepts where no concepts will fit. You created this whole reality, including me. And I created this whole reality, including you. There is nothing outside of you. But this sounds idiotic when laid out in the symbolic processing machinery we use for communication. The only way to know is to expand your mind and see for yourself who you are, because you are everything that exists. Nothing can ever exist outside of you. And you cannot understand this conceptually. At best you'll wonder into some sort of solipsistic mindset, which is again more concepts. Still your mind. There it is.
We both formulated this reality, time doesn't really exist out side of here so it's better to say we always formulated this reality in this state/at this time, so we are connected via the emanations we assemble and we were always like that,
We could both assemble and "create" different realities as if we where god if we had a perfect link to intent and no physical body to come back to, the same goes for every animal in existence.
No, we are not. :) That is the whole point. We are one. Separation is the illusion the ego creates. If you find yourself in an ego death, then it is perfectly obvious that we are one. And the cosmic joke is revealed in its full glory. But if we're in ego-mode, as we are right now, then it looks like we're separate. But the ego is just an illusion. Unity is not.
This is the ultimate ego trip, it's what forms when Buddist like you reach the green/red zone temporally.
Hello, have you ever climbed up a waterfall with your will?
I've moved a mason jar around with it for a few hours.
alright, close up shop boys. he got us xD
Lol. :D
I read all of it, and you could have wasted less time by claiming Zen gives more insight into Absolute reality while Castaneda gives more insight into relative reality.
But that isn't true at all.
Zen calling any siddhis "illusion" is really stupid because it's not any more illusory than staring at a wall for nine years like Bodhidharma did.
The absolute nature of reality is consciousness as it is, not zen koans.
And if zen is not an experience or does not have an experiential effect then there is no value from it.
If everything is already perfect, then that's just a starting point, and going deeper down that "path" forever is disadvantageous.
Amazing summary. That is more or less exactly my position.
That was his trip. In Zen time does not matter. Ramana Maharshi got it immediately. Buddha got it after he almost starved to death. Most never get it because they're simply not ready. Maybe next time.
Agreed. Koans are not statements of fact but have a nature similar to the nature of jokes. If you have to explain a joke, it's not funny. If you have explain a koan, you didn't get it. It's a device, it doesn't always work, but sometimes it does.
Zen is not experience. Zen is essentially "what is". It is the same thing as Tao. Experience is of course also what is, so it's also Zen. But paradoxically it's not experience because experience is attachment, and Zen is piercing through attachment. This sort of paradox is exactly why the less said of Zen the better.
Precisely. Reality is not imperfection moving towards perfection, it is perfection moving towards perfection. Not a stone and not a thought is out of place. Zen is, for lack of a better description, the natural state of a 3 year old child. Which is simply infinite novelty and unity with everything, perfect understanding, but not intellectual understanding but rather understanding that has no bottom, it's depth is infinite in nature. However, words don't do it justice. Again, the less said of Zen the better. This is why a master doesn't bother giving these colorful descriptions, he just blows you over the head with a bamboo stick. And there's your answer as to what Zen is.
Alright, I don't really have a problem with that. I just don't see how it's the most superior or the most ultimate thing that could ever be, when there could infinite ultimates or infinite different lines of development one could imagine.
For example, if you have aliens living on another planet somewhere and they naturally have advanced siddhis that lets them see the nature of reality you wouldn't need to proselytize zen to them to save them from complexity or something.
Like, staring at a simple object or having a simple experience is more zen-compatible than using a complex object or complex experience? If not, then the non-experience that is zen is compatible with siddhi experiences.
My view would be like you can have Absolute reality, but then besides that you improve relative reality as much as possible.
Zen is not in the business of superiority, it's in the business of cutting through bullshit. And the ego loves bullshit, which is why it gets caught in it so readily.
As for the rest of your comment, you're just describing trips. Have as many trips as you want. Have a ball! You want this trip? That trip? No problem! Have a ball with all of them! And when you get tired of them, Zen is what's waiting for you, patiently, with all the depth of understanding you can possibly have. That's what it's all about.
I have a nice little koan for ya. Truth is neither zen nor non-zen.
I don't think you've spent much time around 3 year old children if you think they embody Zen.
In other words, you're advocating for stagnation.
So religiously typical.
His salvia point was interesting though. I think it's probably a really random assemblage point position with very high abstract content, but it's probably not very useful or relevant to anything.
If normal psychedelics shift your assemblage point, then Salvia moves it. Far away. Probably further than anything else. Not for the faint of heart. The reason you won't do it again is because it will terrify the living shit out of you.
u/danl999 has tried it.
So have I.
So you can tell the difference between that incomphrensible useless nightmare and Silent Knowledge, which is access to anything nonlinearly from space and time.
It's not incomprehensible nor useless. It's simply alien. It doesn't map to anything us humans know.
And it lasts forever. That's the terrifying part. Can you wrap your mind around that one? ;)
And yet it's still illusion compared to samadhi because even in the depths of the Sally realm, you still don't know you're God. But in samadhi you do.
Everything lasts forever.
Unless you're classic Theravada and you say everything doesn't last forever.
The problem zen has is that the experience of zen is inferior to the siddhis experience. And the non-experience of zen is present in all experiences.
But of course inferiority could be subjective You could have an entity that prefers one and entity that's structurally more compatible with another one
You're all of it. There's no "other". There's no "experiencer having an experience" either. You are all of it. This is radical nonduality. It's impossible to understand, but it can be known, but it's not the kind of knowledge we normally understand to be knowledge. It goes beyond all the cruft, including every esoteric teaching you've ever read about or any experience you've ever had. This is ultimately what Zen points to. Shiva destroys everything with his dance. All illusions melt. And what's left is you, because you're it.
Right, that's the non-experience that's compatible with all experiences, even siddhi experiences.
I've literally experienced personally everything you described in so far. Exactly 8 years ago. In a party.
Everything you describe as the ultimate goal.
Beings,out of nowhere, came and taught me how to heal a person that was super drugged on the spot. I totally made him sobered up, like he didn't take drugs , in only 20 mins. I didn't know I could do this thing until then.
After, they made me get out of the party and sit alone on the balcony of that small house. They looked like famous gods I'm not going to name. Only I, could perceive them. There were 2 beings.
Yes I experienced and realised that IAM one with the whole and that "I am a god being" and all that Is described as samandhi. And no, I was not intenting that at all.
I was an infant in my process of learning about spirituality. So you can say I got super duper lucky that "gods" gave it to me like that.
After the experience,I literally disappeared from the eye of the ordinary human. But I was seeing like I was there, searching for my 2 people. These 2 people that can confirm that. They were sober and the house was small and not crowded so you couldn't lose someone. And yet they were searching for me, and I for them, but I wasn't "there". When i gave up and sat in the balcony very confused that I was like a ghost that people couldn't perceive they finally "saw" me.
Why im telling you all that? Because even if I experienced the ultimate of what Buddhism describes, it was just an experience like doing drugs. It happened once, It hasn't happen again and is not attainable.
And I repeat I've experienced what is to be "one of with the whole", what is to" realise and experience" that Im a god. Just like the being that is a god and was initiating me into it. That "I am all that is". I was breathing, seeing him crystal clear and I was repeating with him "i am god, so you are, you are god so am I".
It didn't lead anywhere and It didnt last. I know from personal experience. Nothing lasts if you aren't constantly moving to the next step. It just gave me some extra ability to do some serious progress in my current journey.
You can believe the Zen or Buddhistic philosophy but unless you experience what they say you just theorising. I've experienced enlightenment, samandhi or whatever you name it.
In the end of it , it's not what they make it seem to be. I made supernatural things happen,spoke with gods and i realised that I'm one with what is and them. Yet, nothing really changed for me.
What they say about enlightenment is not realistic. And I have experience to prove that.
I wish you find out for yourself,that you experience samandhi and you see if for yourself.
Untill them, leave and don't come back.
Doesn't sound like a samadhi experience. Sounds like a siddhi experience, which is still squarely illusionary. You don't disappear in samadhi and have your friends look for you. The universe disappears in samadhi. You come into contact with your divine, absolute self, which has no form whatsoever.
This is just typical meaningless "enlightened" word salad, meant to sound profound. It doesn't describe an actual real experience. Zen is the ultimate Emperor's New Clothes.
Of course you'll retort with something like "Zen is beyond experience" or "experience is an illusion." Whatever. Been there, done that.
Looks like Zen guy ran away.
That's a good sign for him.
He could get a less attention seeking user name, and come back.
No one would be the wiser.
Insinuating that everything's already perfect, so there's nothing to explore...is essentially what the actors told Jim Carrey's character in The Truman Show to keep him in their fictional bubble universe.
You can explore perfection. You can even pretend perfection is imperfect. What else do you think we're doing as egos on this Earth? :)
Then what is even your point in posting here, other than the ego thril of imagining your screed had any wisdom or value in it? Zen is so boring. I'm sure you'll admit that in some "enlightened" sounding boring way.
The only way you would be able to overcome your “cognitive” approach would be for you to actually practice the methods that are shown here, and to do so for a while. NOTHING can really replace that, no psychedelics and certainly no “studying” / reading. I even believe that you will not really understand the books without some actual practice. No post here will ever be able to “convince” you of anything; just do some work and you will be able to have some “first-hand insights” yourself. The techniques are no joke. They are not some random “siddhis”, they can take you as far as you let them, and beyond that. My personal suggestion is; explore the actual practices more. No matter what path you walk in the end; you will NEVER forget the experiences below the green zone. Do not let your brain spoil these possibilities.
I've had experiences of perfect understanding. There is nothing in Castaneda's writing that comes close to what i would call a samadhi experience (and technically it's not an experience, because it's merging with the divine itself). It is absolute and infinite. It's only once your ego resurfaces that the relative comes back and you find yourself amidst the illusion once again. Don Juan himself said that he only seeks freedom. Well, this is freedom. However, lasting samadhi is something only powerful sages like the Buddha achieve, most of us who have that experience come back and the ego takes hold again and off we go again, stuck in delusion. But we've tasted it and we know. The memory of this taste stays with you.
The reason there's nothing in his writing that comes close to a "samadhi" experience is because this path goes beyond that and sees it for what it is. No point even writing about it.
If Zen accepts everything as it is, and finds perfection therein, why are you so opposed to embracing our natural human curiosity and urge to explore? Castaneda's sorcery is all about inner silence. Why do you fear or disdain inner silence? From inner silence this sorcery arises.
Ah, now the truth comes out. Buddha was a "great sage" whom you can never, as a "normal" human, hope to match in his achievements of samhadi retention. Same as every other religion. Only the gurus get to have the true magic.
Did your practices ever lead to depression?
I learned how to meditate from an early age, and if you know how to meditate, you will never be depressed.
Then you never realized the foreign awareness in order to be able to get rid of it.
There is no foreign awareness and there's nothing to get rid of. Depression is a feedback loop of thought and emotion caused by an overactive mind. The only real cure is to still your mind, perhaps gradually at first. It's a terrible state to be in for sure.
And this way you've debunked yourself.
This entire subreddit is all about stilling the mind, do you even understand the first thing about what we're doing here?
That's the stupidest thing you've said in this entire thread so far. I've known plenty of meditators who suffered from depression. Of course you'll say they didn't know how to it right or somesuch idiocy. Pretty easy way to never be wrong.
humans don't get to understand reality just like dogs don't get to understand general relativity. give up. i think i just had a Satori moment.
You're just God pretending to be a human.
maybe. "i" wouldn't know. God is so powerful He created a stone so heavy He couldn't lift.
You are a being capable of preserving and existing in any world that you wish but where taped in a human body by your own choices and the nature of the universe and forced to view this world and then gain it's delusions by the flyers who feast on you.
This type of meaningless new age statement makes me wonder if you've even actually studied Zen. Zen doesn't believe in "God", and doesn't posit the type of "oneness" you seem to think it does. And if you have some word game retort to act like it does, save your breath. We all know how Zen practitioners like to appear profound and wise by saying nothing of any actual substance or use.
yeah he's borrowing from the Hindu concept of Brahman.
Ok, I'm gonna trust you on this.
Non-traditional approach to Zen, ok.
Ok, I hope we can be friends
The humor had extraordinary depth?
Don't tell me you didn't know that's a meme here. You did didn't you cheeky
Ok
Oh, ok
Ok, I'm ready to receive the message from the universe
Well, at least the humor was profound. Hope you can clarify better..
Thank you, that image really clarified it for me.
Ok tell me
Oh yes, mushroom heads are known for their impressive feats, one flew over my house, go on
I assume you arrived at this conclusion as part of some "feat"
Ok, ready to work.
Oooh, I got it, I don't actually need to do anything. Zen.
Wait, what path?
Stop hitting me the bamboo stick, I haven't done anything!
Ok
Not reading this. There is no such thing as a "superior teaching". The difference between zen and Castaneda is that Castaneda teaches you real sorcery and zen teaches you to be useless, and to give some money to a guy sitting in a lotus position, not saying anything. Zen is the river of shit idea of what "spirituality" is. It exists as a hoax for people who fall prey to scammers and egomaniacs trying to prove their superiority by being lazy and sitting in a temple all day.
I have read Carlos since the 70s. A few years ago, I met and had a friendship with a man who had lived in California, and went to the same college, at the same time, ( did Talia and Florida also attend as is reported, and after reading Talia’s book, the history seems a bit different than the “reports”, but never the less) so “Byrd” had unusual qualities. He was dyslexic, severely so, and he couldn’t have read much of Carlo’s books.
But, he had very unusual qualities, and I would go over his house just to talk and talk to him. He told me, he didn’t know Carlos,but, there were groups of students, being taught simultaneously, in Mexico, and he told me some of the things he learned. I didn’t believe him.
One day I visited, and he always left the door open so I could come in, but I hadn’t called. When I got to his house, I was looking in my car for a present I’d bought him at a yard sale, and I heard him say, “what are you doing?” I saw him out of the periphery of my eyes, kept looking, said I’d be in a moment.
I went to the door, and it was locked, he was sleeping. He laughed when I told him, I’d just talked to him. He’d been telling me about exercises to free the double, all this time.
He’d told me about so many things, where he was shocked out of his body.
I’ve learned, there is purity in these practices, and yes, there are disciplines that lead to the knowledge, and we have the right to explore as many of these paths, because we all want to be free. Free of being swallowed by the eagle.
Of being brainwashed to think that life is all there is,
Do we live on after ordinary death?
Are we reincarnated?
Did we participate in creation?
Every teacher has devotees, and all of the practitioners here, see the results. But no, don’t tell me that there are no other paths to freedom. Don’t tell me that Carlos was the only man who discovered the way out.
I can promise that at least in my case, there wasn't scorn. I was confused on his premise about the fact that Castaneda is "complex", it made zero sense to me. Then he was discounting what I had as worthless (he literally typed out that my knowledge is less than what someone on DMT has), so I can admit that I did get annoyed, but I did some gazing, and felt the usual peace from it take over.
Regarding your questions, I can tell you from my, extremely limited, experience of gazing, that I feel that reality is a touch fluid, and that all of these things can be explained under that to one degree or another.
For example, one time I did gazing for about 6 hours and then the entire world started vibrating in my eyes (it almost made me vomit). I really do think that things can change, exactly like the Mandela Effect, but I don't feel like it's a worry for me. Basically, if we are dreaming this world, then sometimes the dream changes, and it doesn't necessarily mean that anything bad has happened.
Regarding the other two, I haven't had them, but explanations for them have been given on the subreddit, and they make some sense to me.
I can promise that at least in my case, there wasn't scorn. I was confused on his premise about the fact that Castaneda is "complex", it made zero sense to me. Then he was discounting what I had as worthless (he literally typed out that my knowledge is less than what someone on DMT has), so I can admit that I did get annoyed, but I did some gazing, and felt the usual peace from it take over.
Regarding your questions, I can tell you from my, extremely limited, experience of gazing, that I feel that reality is a touch fluid, and that all of these things can be explained under that to one degree or another.
For example, one time I did gazing for about 6 hours and then the entire world started vibrating in my eyes (it almost made me vomit). I really do think that things can change, exactly like the Mandela Effect, but I don't feel like it's a worry for me. Basically, if we are dreaming this world, then sometimes the dream changes, and it doesn't necessarily mean that anything bad has happened.
Regarding the other two, I haven't had them, but explanations for them have been given on the subreddit, and they make some sense to me.