stalking

Stalking, Intent and The Dreaming Position – The Fire from Within

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 22 minutes of reading

Don Juan continues his teachings on the mastery of awareness, introducing the three cornerstones of the new seers’ practices: the mastery of stalking, the mastery of intent, and the mastery of dreaming. He explains that stalking, a systematic control of behavior, subtly shifts the assemblage point and was uniquely developed by the new seers to handle people. The mastery of intent involves understanding and purposefully guiding “will,” the energy of alignment that shapes perception. Don Juan then elaborates on dreaming, revealing it as the most effective way to move the assemblage point, starting with its natural shift during sleep. He details the dangers of dreaming, stressing the necessity of sobriety and the warriors’ way to cultivate the inner strength needed to guide the assemblage point. Castaneda witnesses Genaro’s dreaming body in action, a non-human luminous blob, and learns that true mastery allows one to wake up in different “dreaming positions.” The chapter emphasizes that impeccability and unbending intent are key to achieving these shifts and the full potential of a warrior, enabling even collective dreaming among seers.

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The Earth’s Boost – The Fire from Within

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 20 minutes of reading

Don Juan resumes his teachings by revealing the ancient seers’ discovery that the Earth itself is a sentient being with its own luminous cocoon. He explains that the Earth can provide a tremendous boost to warriors, a key impulse for shifting the assemblage point and entering other worlds. Castaneda, with Genaro’s help, experiences such a shift, entering a terrifying “hellish” world through the gait of power and the Earth’s emanations. This experience, driven by internal silence, highlights that the unknown is not merely internal but exists in the vastness of the Earth’s emanations. Don Juan and Genaro, revealed to Castaneda through “seeing” as master stalkers, demonstrate how they manipulate his perception for teaching. Castaneda also witnesses Genaro vanish by fully entering another world, underscoring that the position of the assemblage point defines reality. The chapter emphasizes that only disciplined warriors with complete internal silence can safely utilize the Earth’s boost to assemble and navigate these other worlds, a feat the old seers often misunderstood.

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Silent Knowledge – Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 4 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Castaneda explores the “art of dreaming,” which he defines as the sorcerers’ technique for breaking the parameters of normal perception to travel into the unknown. Don Juan explains that sorcerers’ dreaming (*ensoñar*) is different from ordinary dreaming (*soñar*) and is based on the deliberate displacement of the “assemblage point” from its usual position. This practice originated from the ancient sorcerers’ observation that the assemblage point moves naturally during sleep. The key to this art is the development of “dreaming attention,” a focused awareness that allows the practitioner to control the dream state and enter other real, energy-generating worlds. The art of dreaming is complemented by the “art of stalking,” which is the ability to hold the assemblage point fixed in its new position, allowing for a full exploration of these other realms.

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The Fire from Within – Foreword

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 7 minutes of reading

Carlos Castaneda introduces “The Fire from Within” as an account of his apprenticeship with don Juan Matus, focusing on the “teachings for the left side” – lessons given in states of heightened awareness that were previously difficult to recall. He explains that his earlier writings depicted don Juan as a sorcerer and focused on “teachings for the right side,” but this book reveals that don Juan and his companions are actually “seers” and masters of ancient knowledge: awareness, stalking, and intent. Don Juan, as a “nagual,” is the leader of a party of seers, and Carlos himself is the nominal leader of a “new nagual’s party.” Carlos describes heightened awareness as a state of intense perceptual clarity where one can focus with uncommon force, yet it is not easily remembered in normal awareness. He details the ritualistic way he would enter this state and the profound joy and unsettling sadness it brought. The book specifically delves into the “mastery of awareness,” which don Juan presents as a modern version of the ancient Toltec seers’ tradition, refined by “new seers” who are warriors of total freedom, capable of choosing their departure from the world by being consumed by a “fire from within.”

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The New Seers

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 14 minutes of reading

Carlos recounts his arrival in Oaxaca where he meets don Juan, who immediately shifts him into a state of heightened awareness. Don Juan begins to explain the history of Toltec seers, distinguishing between the ancient Toltec seers—powerful sorcerers obsessed with their “seeing” that ultimately led to their downfall—and the new seers, who are warriors of total freedom. The new seers, having learned from the mistakes of the old, emphasize stalking, dreaming, and intent, and use their heightened awareness to seek freedom rather than control. Don Juan also explains that “seeing” is a profound form of knowing, not merely visual perception, and that the world is composed of “Eagle’s emanations” rather than solid objects. He emphasizes that the new seers have developed a systematic way to understand awareness that was lacking in the ancient Toltecs, who were destroyed by their own pursuits.

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The Requirements of Intent – Intending Appearances

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 34 minutes of reading

In this account, Castaneda describes an extraordinary experience where his reasoning faculties ceased, and he felt a profound physical elation, being propelled through the chaparral without fatigue, a state don Juan later calls entering “silent knowledge” due to a movement of his assemblage point. During this, Castaneda perceives himself “looming over the bushes” and experiences being “here and here,” simultaneously observing the desert floor and the tops of shrubs, and being in two places at once (his standing spot and the jaguar’s location). This state allowed him to witness a real jaguar that he pursued, despite his academic mind trying to rationalize it as a mountain lion due to the unusual fauna. Don Juan explains that this spontaneous shift of Castaneda’s assemblage point was a result of the “spirit” moving it, and that for a sorcerer, intent—which is the spirit—can manipulate this point. He clarifies the difference between a profound “movement” and a smaller “shift” of the assemblage point and introduces the “third point” as freedom of perception, intent, and the spirit, which allows for a tridimensional perception beyond the usual two-dimensional reality. Don Juan emphasizes that while Castaneda’s experience was vital for him to access silent knowledge, the jaguar itself was the true manifestation of the spirit, a source of awe and magic, serving as a vehicle for his realizations. He also highlights the “macabre connection between stupidity and self-reflection” in average men who are blind to the existence and manipulability of the assemblage point and fear the freedom that sorcery offers.

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The Descent of the Spirit – The Somersault of Thought

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 14 minutes of reading

This chapter, “The Somersault of Thought,” explains how sorcerers maintain their clarity and deepen their understanding of intent by stalking themselves, which involves delivering a “jolt” to break fixations and complacency. Don Juan emphasizes the crucial role of the idea of death not as an enemy, but as a “worthy opponent” that inspires courage and sobriety. He reveals that a “somersault of thought into the inconceivable” is synonymous with the descent of the spirit and the breaking of perceptual barriers, a state that can be induced through practices like using poems as “advance runners.” The chapter culminates with the concept of sorcerer storytellers who, by manipulating their connection to intent “under the auspices of the spirit,” can alter “factual” outcomes in their narratives, demonstrating that profound understanding allows the direct manifestation of an intended reality beyond conventional perception.

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The Trickery of the Spirit – The Four Moods of Stalking

Ancient Cycle, Carlos Castaneda, Power of Silence / By / 25 minutes of reading

This chapter, “The Four Moods of Stalking,” details don Juan’s instruction on the fundamental principles of stalking, emphasizing its four core moods: ruthlessness, cunning, patience, and sweetness. Through a vivid recollection triggered by a specific technique, the narrator recalls a pivotal early lesson in heightened awareness with don Juan and his companions, Silvio Manuel and Vicente Medrano. This lesson, which involved a surprising “test” of being tied up like a dog, revealed the narrator’s “indulgence” rather than the desired stalking traits. Don Juan explains that stalking is the art of breaking routine behavior to move the assemblage point, a feat that requires impeccability and goes beyond personal gain, ultimately leading to direct, “silent knowledge” of intent, which can only be truly commanded and utilized, not fully articulated or explained in words.

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