tales of power...

International Love and Awareness Day is

                   April 15, 2012

Be Happy For All Time...

You can start now, right where you are.

 

 

Think On These Things...

"Common sense is a collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

Albert Einstein

Many times in our lives we will have the opportunity to experience genius. It may come from us or it may come from another. Either way, we will know that we have been exposed to something outside our normal way of viewing things. We will be sitting next to someone in a restaurant or standing in line to check out in the market, and we will hear something so brilliant, so obvious. Yet until those words have passed our neighbor's lips, the possibility of the thing will never have crossed our mind.

My husband and I have been to Las Vegas often. For us the appeal is the golf mostly, the shows next and finally the restaurants. Many years ago we were staying at the Rio Hotel. One of their restaurants, at the time, was a gourmet restaurant above a wine tasting establishment. We had not been there before and thought we'd try it. We came down from our room at about 7 p.m. and were seated in a lovely semi-circular booth in the center facing a huge, beautiful, elegant and very organized kitchen. The restaurant was so noisy we could barely hear each other and found ourselves yelling just to be heard. About 30 minutes into our dining experience, everything and everyone became quiet at exactly the same time. Someone across the room said in a very loud voice, "You're either living on the edge or you are taking up too much room." I truly enjoy allowing my mind to analyze things and this gave me quite a bit to think about. For many reasons, I found this good advice. It caused me to stretch to see where the edge might be and then there was the marvel of looking where no one else was. Both gave me a thrill. I have thought much of that over the years and each time I do, I do the exercise I just mentioned.

One of my very favorite authors, ever, is Carlos Castaneda. He wrote a series of books about his experiences as an apprentice to a Yaqui native shaman. Carlos, who has since left this world, was an anthropologist, studying rituals of the native tribes of north America. He met a man he called Juan Matus, whom he later referred to, out of respect, as don Juan. Don in spanish is a term used for a person of great importance. He tells us that Juan Matus is not the real name of this native shaman. But, he will call him that to protect his identity.

One of his books is titled, "Tales of Power", and this truly was as advertised. It opened my eyes in such a way as to rearrange the way I saw reality. Don Juan teaches Carlos about the life of a warrior. He tells him that being a warrior has nothing to do with fighting others through war and conflict, he says that is just 'the folly of men', but what he says it is, is being impeccable (flawless) in our own lives, committed powerfully to something bigger than our petty grievances. It is our making war on the smallness we find within ourselves, so that we can be awake enough to see all the magnificent wonders of the world in which we live. This quote is from one of his books and speaks so eloquently of this state of being a warrior.

“If we don’t learn how to travel along the avenues of awareness, we will come to such a state of frustration and despair that humanity will end up destroying itself. Our options are the way of the warrior, or extinction.” ~ Carlos Castaneda

I have read all of his books numerous times. I don't mean just a couple, I mean more like ten times each. I was so impressed by the teachings of don Juan and in the extraordinary ways that he viewed the world. Carlos says this of him,

"Don Juan was, in my estimate, a being who lived his life professionally, in every aspect of the term, meaning that every one of his acts, no matter how insignificant, counted." "I was surrounded by people who believed that they were immortal beings, who contradicted themselves every step of the way; they were beings whose acts could never be accounted for." "It was an unfair game; the cards were stacked against the people I encountered." "I was accustomed to don Juan's unalterable behavior, to his total lack of self-importance, and to the unfathomable scope of his intellect; very few of the people I knew were even aware that there existed another pattern of behavior that fostered those qualities." "Most of them knew only the behavioral pattern of self-reflection, which renders men weak and contorted."

Don Juan once told Carlos, "...that warrior-travelers should have a romance with knowledge, in whatever form knowledge was presented."

It is at this point where I feel the need to make a distinction between opinions and the truth. Opinion, as defined by Dictionary.com means, "A belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty." So just to be clear, opinions have nothing to do with knowledge, which is defined as, "Acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation." What don Juan was continually demonstrating to Carlos was that to waste time on expressing our opinions was merely a self-indulgence. Opinions are only folly, they make no difference. Whether you like a thing or you don't like a thing makes no difference in the thing, itself. Try this experiment-- look at anything around you right now. Based on your affinity or lack thereof, say aloud to the thing either I like you or I don't like you. Then, look to see if it has changed in any way. Well, I think we know the answer to that inquiry.

So many people I have observed act as if they are going to live forever and feel taking time to express their petty grievances will somehow make things around them change. But, from what I have gathered, none of us is going to live forever. Do you really want to waste your life spouting opinions when there are so many wonders to witness? Do you really want to base the value of your life on what you do and don't like? Or, might it be worth finding something to stand for and using your life as a great expression of this?

"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything."

Malcolm X