Yoga of Juan Matus and Other Indian Chiefs

We know about the highest methods of spiritual work used among Native Americans thanks to the remarkable books of Carlos Castaneda. These books are valuable because they contain conversations of Castaneda with Mexican Indian Nagual — Juan Matus, or don Juan as Castaneda called Him.

Castaneda’s books known to us were published in the period from 1966 to 1987. There is also the book by D.C.Noel Seeing Castaneda, which contains interviews with him.*

It must be noted right away that in his books Castaneda describes the period of his relationship with don Juan that lasted for about three decades. Over this period, it was not only Castaneda who advanced in his development but also don Juan. Reading Castaneda’s books, one can see both the early and the later personal spiritual quest of don Juan, which was not free from mistakes. This is why the spiritual concept of this School must be evaluated not based on what don Juan spoke and did over these decades, but on what He attained by the end of His earthly life.

We discussed this subject in more detail in the book Classics of Spiritual Philosophy and the Present.

And now let us talk about the worldview concept of this School.

… The universe consists of two “parallel” worlds; the first of them is called the tonal (that is, the world of material things), and the second — the nagual (the non-material world).

We communicate with the world of matter through the so-called first attention, i.e. the attention carried out through the organs of sense of the physical body.

To become able of cognizing the nagual, one has to develop the second attention, that is, clairvoyance.

There is also the third attention, by means of which one perceives the Creator and His Manifestation, which don Juan referred to as the Fire.

A person resolved to achieve Immortality, first has to become a “hunter”. Not a hunter who kills game, but that for knowledge, who walks the path of heart — caring, loving both the Earth and beings that live on it.

Having mastered the stage of spiritual “hunter”, one can become a spiritual “warrior” — that is the one who “traces” Power (which means God in the language of that Indian School), striving to “stalk” It and to cognize It.

Don Juan often taught Castaneda and His other disciples when they walked in the desert and in the mountains — in most natural conditions of direct contact with the world that surrounds us.

… After the disciples had mastered the basics of ethics and wisdom, don Juan would proceed to teaching them psychoenergetical methods.

When the work with hara was completed, the next stage followed: the division of the cocoon into two parts: the upper and the lower bubbles of perception. It is from these bubbles that one perceives the tonal and the nagual, respectively.

Division of the cocoon into two bubbles of perception was regarded as an important intermediate step toward further stages of psychoenergetical self-perfection. One had to master concentration of the consciousness in both “poles” of the cocoon divided in such a way.

Then, further work was performed in order to develop the lower bubble of perception. But it was started only after the consciousness had been properly refined, or, as it was called in the don Juan’s School, after cleansing the luminosity of the cocoon.

That is, as in all other advanced spiritual Schools, the techniques aimed at the refinement of the consciousness preceded the large-scale process of its crystallization.

Thanks to the refinement of the consciousness and the work with the lower bubble of perception, including mastering the state of Nirodhi, the disciples attained the state of Nirvana (though, they did not know this Sanskrit term). First, they mastered the static variation of Nirvana in Brahman, and after this — the dynamic one, when the crystallized consciousness acts in subtle eons. In this state, one can easily touch with the consciousness any being within the Earth or near it, provided one has information about this being.

The state of Nirodhi, known in all developed Schools of buddhi yoga, was described by don Juan also in endemic terms specific to this School. The disciples were taught that there exist energy waves, which constantly roll on all living creatures and from which we are shielded by our cocoons. And that one can use the power of these waves for transferring oneself with their help into unknown worlds. (These unknown worlds are other spatial dimensions). To make it happen, one has to allow the rolling force to flood the cocoon. Then one turns into “nothing”; one’s “I” dies.

It is only after attaining the state of disappearance in Brahman that it becomes possible to cognize Ishvara — and to disappear in Him forever, having conquered death, that is to merge into universal God-Power.

* * *

And now, let us consider in more detail the specific methods of work in the School of Juan Matus, which have been described by Castaneda and which we can apply to ourselves.

They can be divided into two groups: preliminary and basic ones.

The first of the preliminary methods is recapitulation. In essence, this is the same as repentance, which is present in all major religions. The disciples had to recall — mainly in seclusion which lasted for several days — all the mistakes they had made in their lives, and to re-live those situations anew, this time correctly. To make the disciples more “interested” in this very hard work, they were told that during recapitulation they would regain the energy wasted as a result of their incorrect emotional reactions. The quality of the penitential work did not deteriorate because of this trick, since its major goal — to learn to react in the ethically correct way and to avoid sinning — was achieved, provided that the disciples made due efforts.

They also had to destroy the feeling of self-importance and self-pity — since these qualities result in a tremendous waste of one’s personal energy. Indeed, if one views oneself very important and someone else encroaches on this importance with their disrespectful attitude, one reacts with emotional outburst of resentment, anger, and so forth. In this process, the energy of the organism is intensively wasted.

Here is an interesting fact of the Castaneda’s biography: when his study in don Juan’s School came to an end, he and his closest companion, la Gorda — though Castaneda became a millionaire thanks to his books and could live a life free from material concerns — in spite of this, he and la Gorda got hired under different names as servants to a rich man and suffered humiliations from rudeness and treachery of other servants. They resorted to this in order to destroy completely the feeling of self-importance, to erase from their memories their own personal history — so as to attain humility. Since everything that happens to the warrior on the physical plane, as Castaneda put it, DOES NOT MATTER; the only thing that matters is the STATE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS.

And it is of no importance indeed, compared to the Supreme Goal! That which is of principal importance is the ability to be naught, the ability not to defend yourself when someone is unjust to you but to be protected — so taught don Juan. And the state of being protected comes only when “there is no myself”, when there is only God.

One of the most essential preparatory elements of the work in the School of Juan Matus was sweeping of the tonal, which is called observance of aparigraha in the ethics of Hindu yoga.

We have already mentioned wise don Juan’s ability to explain the most complicated philosophical matters in an easy-to-understand manner using natural examples from everyday life. He did it, for example, when explaining this principle to the disciples.

Once don Juan assembled the disciples, took a sack and put into it a radio, a tape recorder, and several other things found in the house of one of the disciples. Then don Juan gave this sack to one disciple to carry, gave a table to another disciple to carry, and took them to the mountains. In the middle of a valley, He told them to put the table down and emptied the contents of the sack onto it. Then He took the disciples at some distance from the table and asked them what they saw.

They said that they saw a radio… and so on and so forth…

Then don Juan came to the table and whisked everything off it. “Take another look and tell me what do you see now?”, He said. Only then the disciples understood don Juan: He wanted them to see not only the things on the table, but the table itself and more — the space around the table. But the things on the table prevented the disciples from seeing the world around by drawing their attention to themselves.

In this way don Juan demonstrated to the disciples that in order to cognize the nagual, and then — God, one has to cleanse the tonal around oneself.

Perhaps, it is appropriate to recall the example of observance of the same principle in the history of Christianity: monks had in their cells, besides icons and a few books, a coffin in which they slept — so as to remember constantly of the inevitable death, which urges those who remember about it to intensify their spiritual efforts.

Also, don Juan taught the disciples to destroy stereotypes of material life, as for instance, strict observance of one’s routines. For what purpose? In order to attain freedom. The destruction of unreasonable patterns of behavior, thinking, and reacting, instilled in us in the process of our upbringing, must result in the “loss of the human form”, that is, in attaining the state when we learn to act not according to our reflexes or because it is customary to act so, but in accordance with advisability.

The “loss of the human form” is not a short-term mechanic action, as some disciples of don Juan fantasized, but a prolonged process, accompanying the man’s gradual approach to God. This process comes to an end when the seeker learns to look at all situations with the eyes of the Creator.

But attaining the “loss of the human form” does not mean that man starts to behave “unlike everyone else” in the society, because, first, inevitable conflicts with other people would prevent him from fulfilling his main duty. Second, the conduct, which is “defiant” by form, in many cases turns out to be a breach of the basic law of objective ethics — making no harm to other living beings. This is why the disciples were suggested to observe conventional norms of behavior, sometimes secretly laughing at them and resorting to the so-called “controlled folly”.

To illustrate this, don Juan once astounded Castaneda by taking off His usual Indian garments and putting on an immaculate modern suit for his trip to the town!

In connection with this, don Juan also taught the disciples to talk to people in the language that they could understand. For example, once He and Castaneda were sitting on a bench near a church and saw how two not very old ladies came out from a church and hesitated about descending several steps. Then don Juan came and helped them to go down, and advised them that if they fell, they should not move until doctor arrived. The ladies were sincerely grateful to him for this advice.

The next very important methodical technique is remembering about one’s own death.

The majority of people today are accustomed to banishing the thought of their death. And even when we come across the facts of other people passing away, we never try to imagine ourselves in their place. We assure ourselves that even if this is going to happen to us, it is a very long time ahead.

If each of us asks oneself now: “When will I die?” — the dates will be very distant, though theoretically everyone knows that people die at any age.

So, don Juan suggested that we imagine that personified death is always with us. And if one quickly looks back over the left shoulder, then it is possible to catch a glimpse of the death. “At this moment, death is sitting next to you on the same mat, waiting for your mistake”, he said to Castaneda. And no one is aware of the moment when he or she is going to die; this is why we should not have any unfinished works.

Let me cite these remarkable words of don Juan, for it is one of His best theoretical developments:

“How can anyone feel so important when we know that death is stalking us?

“The thing to do when you are impatient is to turn to your left and ask advice from your death. An immense amount of pettiness is dropped if your death makes a gesture to you, or if you catch a glimpse of it, or if you just have the feeling that your companion is there watching you.

“Death is a wise adviser that we have… One… has to ask death’s advice and drop the cursed pettiness that belongs to men that live their lives as if death will never tap them!

“If you do not think of your death, all your life will be just personal chaos!

“(The spiritual warrior) knows his death is stalking him and won’t give him time to cling to anything… And thus with an awareness of his death,… and with the power of his decisions a warrior sets his life in a strategic manner… and what he chooses is always strategically the best; and so he performs everything he has to with gusto and lusty efficiency!

“Life for a warrior is an exercise in strategy.

“Without the awareness of death everything is ordinary, trivial. It is only because death is stalking us that the world is an unfathomable mystery!

“You have little time and no time for crap. A wonderful state! The best of us always comes out when we are against the wall, when we feel the sword dangling overhead. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Another important aspect of working with disciples was mastering the mental pause or, in other words, stoppage of inner dialogue (the first term is preferable because besides inner dialogues there are also inner monologues).

This is an absolutely necessary prerequisite for mastering the nagual, because the nagual is mastered by means of meditation, and meditation, as Rajneesh put it nicely, is the state of non-mind. That is, to learn to immerse the consciousness into the nagual, one has to learn to stop, to switch off the mind.

For the purpose of attaining the mental pause, don Juan used psychedelics. It should be noted, however, that don Juan used this method only in the very beginning of their joint work, and later on gave it up. Second, Castaneda complained afterwards that though he was immensely grateful to don Juan for everything that He had done for him, but nonetheless his (Castaneda’s) liver was still marked with scars. Hence, it is absolutely unadvisable to follow their example as to using psychedelics (drugs). All the more, there are other, far more effective and harmless means of mastering the mental pause at our disposal.

Another unique technique developed in this School by don Juan’s predecessors is intentional interaction with people-tyrants. The technique was employed for attainment of impeccability of the warrior, that is the ability to follow ethical principles and adhere to strategy of objectively valid behavior in situations of urgency. Some time in the past don Juan Himself was sent by His teacher to a fierce foreman-tyrant for such training. In Mexico such people were considered very rare, and to find one was regarded a big luck by spiritual warriors.

… Now let us list the methods of psychoenergetical work used in the don Juan’s School:

1. Cleansing of the inner luminosity (i.e. the refinement of the consciousness).

2. Use of places of power — energetically significant zones favorable for mastering particular meditations.

3. Dreaming, which was given much attention in the work of the School. What is it? Many people, having read Castaneda’s books, try to use their night sleep for this purpose without success. No, this is not the way it must be done. Dreaming is a synonym of the word meditation. Due to being unfamiliar with the terms commonly accepted in other countries, Central American Indians had to find their own words to denote techniques, phenomena, and objects of spiritual practice. This is how the term dreaming was born, since meditative images sometimes are similar to the images one sees in dreams.

Special training in dreaming allowed the disciples, in the state of being detached from the body, to run on the walls, to climb along energy beams (the lines of the world), and so on.

4. Learning to act in extreme magical situations, intentionally created by the preceptor. For this purpose, ethical vices of the disciples were used. For example, if a disciple had an inclination to attack selfishly other people, he was suggested to take part in a magical fight that he would lose for sure. And it turned out beneficial for all the participants.

5. The technique of shifting the assemblage point as a result of energetic impact of the preceptor (this was called Nagual’s blow; the term Nagual had another meaning in this case: a leader who mastered the nagual and is capable of acting in it and from it).

6. Practice of meditative leveling-off of the energy emanations inside the cocoon in accordance with the outer emanations of the highest spatial dimensions.

7. Work with hara aimed at the development of the power aspect.

8. Use of allies (that is, spirits). This was done in two ways.

The first one — “taming” of spirits who had to, according to the plan, become assistants and protectors of the sorcerer. Both don Juan and His friend Genaro had such allies in the beginning of Their spiritual quest.

But everyone must be warned that this is an erroneous and dangerous practice, which we in no way should try imitating. By the way, both don Juan and Genaro gave up this practice later on.

The other way of working with allies consisted in hunting them. No wonder such a tendency appeared among Indians who lived in constant contact with wildlife.

So, the disciples were told that at some moment they were sure to come across some ally in male human form who would challenge them to a fight. One can lose in this combat, giving way to fear, or one can win. In the latter case, one acquires the power of that spirit.

And the disciples prepared themselves for such a fight, which could take place any moment, by developing alertness (readiness) and other necessary qualities of warriors.

On the basis of this educational game, the disciples performed, in particular, the work on the development of the lower bubble of perception.

* * *

To sum up the above said, let us consider the basic aspects of these Teachings, which are extremely rich of most valuable theoretical and practical elements.

Don Juan pointed out three directions in the Teachings: a) the art of stalking, b) the art of intent, and c) the art of consciousness.

In the history of this Indian spiritual tradition, the art of stalking initially consisted in the ability to sneak, to stalk unnoticed among people who do not understand you (that is, people of lower stages of psychogenesis) — and to achieve your Goal.

But later on, owing in particular to personal contribution of don Juan, this trend was significantly expanded and included also the stalking of one’s own vices. We have discussed this already. Let me just quote one brilliant formula, given by don Juan: God (in don Juan’s parlance, Power) provides according to our impeccability. That is, God gives us an opportunity to approach Him, to immerse into increasing happiness of Mergence with Him — as we perfect ourselves ethically.

The second direction is the art of intent. Intent, in this context, is the same as aspiration to the Supreme Goal. A true warrior, in don Juan’s meaning of this word, is a person with the correctly developed intent.

The third direction is the art of consciousness — it is what buddhi yoga is: a very large higher stage of the spiritual Path.

… So, we could see once again, that God leads all people, who have attained a certain level of maturity in their psychogenesis, irrespective of the country and religious culture they live in, using the common methodological pattern.

* * *

For many years we were lucky to be personal disciples of don Juan, Genaro, Silvio Manuel, and Representatives of other Indian spiritual Schools — Juanito and Eagle. (By the way, Eagle is well known in America and Europe by one of His recent Incarnations when He was called White Eagle).

Now let me give some excerpts from conversations with Them:

From conversations with don Juan:

“Many people on the Earth, who became involved in religion superficially, believe that their ‘religious duty’ is to weep.

“Yet, a spiritual warrior neither weeps, nor complains, nor pities himself. He sees his defects and — without stopping to fight — gets rid of them once and for all!

“When we are concerned only with seeking our defects and grieving about our imperfections — we miss the opportunity to perform a really serious work on helping people and developing ourselves.

“We have to be capable of taking our attention off the personal ‘I’ — and looking at the One Whom we love! We have to learn to live and to act by His example and follow His precepts!

“We have to ask Him to help us to understand our mistakes and to reform — yet, we should keep in mind that the success depends, first of all, on our own efforts.

“And the main thing — we have to change our attitude toward events which look unfavorable to us. We have to learn to regard them from His standpoint, i.e. from the standpoint of the Evolution of the Universal Consciousness and spiritual growth of individual consciousnesses on the Path to Him.

“… Do you know, for example, how to master the art of perfect control over matter? It is very simple! One has to learn to laugh!

“I like to laugh! Do you want Me to tell you about the laugh of Nagual?

“A spiritual warrior from the very beginning must learn the laugh of Nagual: he laughs at his own vices and thus makes them burst like soap-bubbles — they burst together with the inflated feeling of self-importance!

“Many people believe that it is weapons that make man strong. This is wrong! It is laugh that makes man strong! The laugh of Nagual turns the envelope of the ‘I’ into nothing. The only thing one has to add is calm and love — and then… There is only infinite, flowing, free consciousness…

“Search for personal power is just a hook, a trick which the One Power* uses for ‘catching’ and teaching them who do not hear when they are told about Love… or Tenderness…

“If they do not learn this from the Power, they are not going to progress …

“There is the following law: the Power does not belong to anyone, only you can belong to the Power.

“The Power just is, and It is the Power of Love! (Let me remind you that by the word Power, they meant God).

“When you gain Freedom, you just merge with It into One… Your desires and the desire of the Power become the same; your choice and the choice of the Power become identical…

“They who try… to ‘command’ the Power fall into Its trip. The Power catches them by this desire, and they become Its tool, even without knowing about this. They live as the blind, stricken by the feeling of self-importance, and may never become sighted.

“And the process of growing coarse power can become irreversible like a cancer process…

“… On the other hand, the ability of laughing at one’s own vices, making fun of them is the first step to the real mergence with the Power!

“They who have learned to laugh so that their vices, which they laugh at, cease to exist — they are about to perform great deeds!

“A spiritual warrior can laugh only at himself; he never makes fun of other people!

“From the Truth, which lives in him, he looks at that which is imperfect in him — and he laughs! And when in him there remains nothing of that which he laughs at, — he becomes Everything, he becomes a true Nagual; his laugh unites with the joy of Beingness, with the Freedom and Power!

“Then He gains the ability of affecting the particles of the Great Whole, removing that which prevents the joy of beingness, prevents the Radiant Light of the Power from manifesting in others whom He feels in Himself — those who entrusted to Him, to the Nagual, the leadership over them on the Path to the Freedom.

“See how beautiful the laugh of Nagual is: it heals souls, ridding them of burden and pain, it makes them capable of flying into the unknown…

“Do you understand now the basics of the art of perfect control over matter?

“When you have mastered this, I will tell you further… And do not forget to put on My hat: this can help. (This concerns one of the most important meditations of buddhi yoga taught to us by don Juan and Juanito. I will demonstrate it later.)

“… Impeccable acting of a spiritual warrior in interaction with the Power fills his life with special acuteness and silent passion.

“And the life of Nagual becomes a manifestation of the action of the Power.

“One can learn wisdom in universities — and this is good. Yet, one can and should learn the higher Wisdom interacting with the Power. When you seek solutions for the Nagual’s party, when you find methods for teaching the students — you gain Wisdom.

“Genaro and I are Those Who live and act, and not just speak about this. We have always lived and live now a life filled to the brim with the state of impeccable Love and Power.

“Feel this state of Nagual’s life in the moment of ‘now’, feel that the Power of God fills every moment, everything:

“… This burning campfire…

“… The quietness of the forest…

“… Earth under your body…

“… This place of power, which allows one to cognize the living consciousness of the Earth… and further, deeper… more deeper…, where there is only Great Love and Power of the Creator!

“… This cannot be conveyed to others by means of words. This has to be ‘tasted’: as one bites off, chews, and swallows a piece of bread — only then you can know it.

“Such is the spiritual Path: if you have chosen it — walk it! Then every moment of life in interaction with the Power becomes an invaluable experience for the soul.

“In the life of a true spiritual warrior there are no holes, he never feels bored, he cannot be depressed by past failures or worries about the future. He has only life which he lives to the end with maximal efficiency, with full awareness of the Goal, with full responsibility for his decisions! And then the Power fills this life to the brim…

“You can be the Hands of God if you do not separate yourselves from the Ocean of the Creator. It is the Ocean of Love-Power that pervades your bodies and cocoons and manifests Itself through them. We called it — kindling of all emanations of the cocoon, aligning their energies to the subtlety of the Primordial Plane.”

From conversations with Genaro:

“You love Me — and merge with Me. But I also love you — and merge with you! Mergence can be only mutual and voluntary. Any deviation from this rule is violence!

“In order to achieve absolute fullness of Mergence you have to become like-minded to Me…

“It is very hard to cleanse and enlighten the mind. In order to become like-minded to Me, one has to begin with throwing out from the head all habitual, old stereotypes, which are easy to use, — the stereotypes of thinking and behaving. A spiritual warrior has to make his mind open for receiving new.

“One needs also courage, power, and knowledge.

“You begin to live really only when you stop interacting with the outer world through your ‘masks’ and stereotypes. They are offered to you by your mind — the creator of your lower self…

“One has to learn to perceive the outer world with the ‘naked consciousness’, cleansed from the traces of the lower self — to accept the world as it is in reality and not in the mind!

“… There is a trick of awareness which gives you a key to the Freedom! It is the ability of being aware of oneself not as a body. This ability brings one to the freedom from the body — from this dense material container of the soul.

“First, one has to know that he or she is not the physical body. Gaining practical experience of this kind means the first encounter with the world of nagual

.

“For many people, however, this stage becomes the last one: one needs courage to choose to go further on the Path of Freedom and Knowledge, of Love and Power! There is no place for vain curiosity on this Path. Cowards and ditherers, sluggards and egotists cannot withstand the Freedom: the Freedom destroys them, wipes them out, rips them! It is like a rocket engine, which should not be attached to a child’s bicycle.

“The Freedom sets down its condition which don Juan called impeccability of a warrior. Every non-impeccable step on this Path can become a complete failure; one has to keep this in mind.

“One has to know an important point: after a certain stage, a spiritual warrior cannot return to the ordinary life. He can live only as a warrior. After a certain moment, there is no way back for him; there is only the way forward!

“But the freedom from the body is only a fragment; it is only a part of the Freedom of Spirit.

“… The freedom from the body cannot be achieved at once.

“There are methods — and you know many of them — for moving the self-awareness within the body and then outside it…

“One has to become absolutely free from the physical body! This freedom cannot be taken away in prison; it does not disappear when death comes…

“The Freedom is a possibility to move — at your will — to the world which you choose. It is also the freedom to stay there if you want it!

“Let the world which you choose become ‘assembled completely’! Let the Primordial One become more real than the world of material bodies! In the same way as you had to master the strata of the Absolute, to learn to assemble in every one of them the entire world of that particular eon — in the same way this deep stratum of the universal Beingness — the Beingness of the Creator! — has to become not just a reality which you know, but you have to learn to live in it!

“The farther from the body you move — the easier it is for you to perform.

“And then — there — you have to grow!

“You have to become so large in the Abode of the Creator that you cannot be contained in the body and in the other strata of the Absolute!

“For example, you cannot now put onto yourself a baby suit which you wore in childhood. Even if you try — you cannot do this! The same happens if you have grown yourself there and habituated yourself to living in the Primordial Consciousness! Then comes the moment when the old perception of the world does not fit you, however hard you try to ‘put it on’!

“And then you have to do a little: just to treat the energies of the physical body… The body has to become completely identical — by the quality of the energies — to the world where you want to go. This allows you to disappear entirely from this world and to ‘assemble’ completely the other one!

“A perfect Nagual has the freedom to move to any world which He chooses. This is omnipresence, the freedom to be where you want. This is the freedom to be Everything and to move the concentration of Yourself inside Yourself — Universal, Boundless! At that, the center of Yourself has to remain in the Home: in the Home of the Primordial One. One should never forget about this rule!

“… The feeling of self-importance disappears when the mystical death happens: when you die completely to the worldly. How can it be achieved? Only through self-control, unceasing control over one’s own indriyas. It is the indriyas that bind man to the worldly.

“Disappearance of the feeling of self-importance leads one to the loss of the human form.

“Yet, it should be noted that the feeling of self-importance has positive aspects.

“In the beginning of the life path, this feeling is necessary; one cannot develop without it!

“It is due to ambitions that people try to become better, cleverer, stronger. And it is out of the desire to be loved and respected that they perfect themselves. This is the first positive point.

“The second point is that you cannot train a person who is devoid of the feeling of self-importance. An absence of this feeling gives one psychological invulnerability. How can you guide, correct such a person if there is nothing in him to ‘press on’, to ‘strike to’, to ‘fillip on’?

“… I was always of an ‘easy’ temper; others have an ‘ill’ temper. But the feeling of self-importance is present virtually in everyone; it is just its outer forms that are multifarious.

“Once My Teacher told Me that I would be a powerful sorcerer when I would rid Myself of the feeling of self-importance. I believed Him and devised a plan how to fool this quality in Myself and become free from its control. I tried — and did not allow it to act. In particular, I devised the following tactics: to not exult at My success and to not become despondent about failures.

“For example, when I succeeded in something and was about to inflate out of pride, I had to look at the situation from such a far distance that nothing could be seen.*

“In other words, when the Power ‘rolled over’ Me creating certain situations and I was about to inflate with pride or anger, I had to move immediately outside of the cocoon, outside of Myself and merge with the rolling Power into one.

“But do not think that ridding oneself of the feeling of self-importance is the acme of perfection. No: it is only the beginning of the next part of the Path…”

From conversations with Juanito:

“I was the chief of a small tribe in Mexico. It was a tribe of explorers of the nagual. And it was the tribe’s way of life — to expel unworthy people and to invite worthy ones from everywhere, from all other tribes. This was the kind of a ‘tribal’ spiritual School we had! In the history of this tribe, there were always about 100-200 students.

“And now I am with you, with every one of you!

“Here — every clear day, I admire the rising and setting of the sun!

“And I dream that any person from any corner of the planet could come here and develop spiritually!”

… We ask Juanito what, in His opinion, is the most important for us now.

He shows the meditation the Hat of Juanito (which is identical to the Hat of don Juan) and says, laughing:

“Look at the Freedom! You have to look forward: at the Freedom!

“Also, realize: I remain always That What I am, independent of the conditions occurring on the material plane. You, too, have to master this: to be Me independent of what happens around.

“One of the aspects of the spiritual warrior’s art of action is that he, if happened to be in adverse conditions, never merges with them but always remains true to himself. It is not places of power on the Earth’s surface that have to dictate you who you are, but rather you have to remain that which you decided to be — independent of the energies of the surroundings and other influences!”

We asked:

“Juanito! Tell us please about Your Path to the Creator, about Your tribe, which imparted from generation to generation the knowledge about spiritual methods leading to the cognition of God! How did You learn, how did You help others?”

“Every member of the tribe learned to be ‘invisible’. It was accomplished through gradual mastering of the methods of total reciprocity. (Of course, we called it by a different term). In order to become ‘invisible’, one has to learn merging with the surroundings in deep calm. Of course, one could not master this when ‘living in the head’: dissolving and merging is possible only from the lower bubble of perception.

“For hours the student could be mastering the ability of becoming one with stones and rocks — and then the steadfastness and stillness of cliffs became such an experience of the consciousness that to spot the body of such a person, looking at it from a distance, was almost impossible…

“Then — trees, forest… Embracing the space with the consciousness, the student would disappear; the student’s body would merge with the surroundings and not stand out against the background.

“Staying in calm-mergence taught students love. We had no special techniques for opening the spiritual heart, but we knew that man’s spirit abides in the center: where the source of breathing and the heart’s rhythm are.

“Then one had to learn moving in this calm. We chose animals whose movements were the most soft and graceful. And the student learned the ability of looking like one or several animals: to move softly, to see and hear the surrounding space with the consciousness, to give with the consciousness signs to others and to receive signs from them… If one stays with the consciousness in the lower bubble of perception and tries to see something which only an eagle can see from such a distance, then gradually one gains the ability to see with the consciousness that which cannot be seen by the physical eyes.

“Then, worthy students were initiated into young chiefs. Becoming a tutor for beginners, a young chief could learn to feel the students as clear as himself, could learn love-care. At the same time, he could gain the ability to perceive the Higher Chiefs and the Supreme Chief — the Great guiding Power, the Supreme Will.

“Young chiefs mastered also the ability to see and hear in the space of the Spirit. Seeing, i.e. perceiving with the consciousness, leads to knowledge, to understanding the essence of what you see and hear.

“In this way, gradually, students came to the direct perception of God. And then it was simple — as in your case: the methods of the final stages are not much different between different spiritual Schools; only their names differ in different languages. And the ability to dissolve and be that which you merge with — provided remarkable results: the transfer of the self-awareness into the world of the Spirit, the world of the Power could be accomplished very easily.

“In this way, we helped consciousnesses to move to the worlds of the Holy Spirit and then — to the Abode of the Creator. And every One Who achieved the Freedom became a Guide leading others to It…”

From conversations with Silvio Manuel:

“I, Silvio Manuel, tell you: only a daring person can walk confidently the Path of knowledge! One has to have a venturous heart to travel to the Unknown!

“I, too, followed such a Path. Set out on a sorcerer’s journey to the unknown worlds, I never thought about returning to the ‘earthly’. I strove only toward new unexplored expanses awaiting Me on this Path. A life filled with sorcery and new worlds — drove Me forward!

“But as I advanced, I gained Wisdom. And I turned from a ‘restless’ sorcerer-traveler striving for the unknown worlds — into a Calm, which embraces everything.

“Gradually I gained understanding of the true Goal of the Path, granted to Me by the Power.

“And one day I moved from the state of a separate self — into the state of the Higher Self and became the entire boundless Light-Power.

“It was the only purpose of life for everyone of Us. Seeing unbelievable prospects open to Us, We discarded from Our lives all the rest, let go of everything that We ‘clung to’ before.

“In relation to this, let Me tell you about detachment — an essential attribute of the warrior’s life.

“Detachment implies two things: a system of values revealed to the warrior by the Spirit and resolute adherence to this system.

“To have detachment means to walk through your life not as if through a bazaar, idly looking here and there, but to move forward taking every step in accordance to this system.

“Don Juan said about the same when He explained to Castaneda that a spiritual warrior plans his actions asking advice from his death.

“And one more thing: sad is the future of those who do not seek companions, do not take others on the journey! A spiritual warrior weakens, faints if he has no one to fight for!

“First, he fights for himself, then — for others, and he grows thanks to this. If he has no one to fight for, he weakens and soon dies a natural physical and spiritual death.

“Therefore, one must fight!

“I invite you to My Depths!

“But do not try to entice people into Me!

“The Freedom which lives in My Depth is the highest reward only for those who truly strive for it and are ready to pull themselves out of the commonness and limitedness.

“Do not entice anyone into Me! I receive in Me only those who desire to live with Me, in Me — and not for a moment, but to unite their lives with Me!

“As a water current flows around all obstacles and runs to the depths, so you — pursue your course and do not turn back!”

From conversations with Eagle:

“Mountains speak the language of silence. Through their greatness they express their essence!

“With the flight of freedom speaks the wind to those who have spread their wings!

“The ocean manifests its surface layer with powerful waves and currents. Yet the Primordial Ocean does not let into Its Depths anyone uninvited, because it is dangerous for small creatures from the surface!

“With souls ready for Higher Initiations, God can communicate without words. It speaks to them with His Touches! And when such a soul partakes of the Unity, it begins to aspire to the permanent Mergence.

“The words are needed not more than the murmuring of streams, than the whisper of the surf or rustle of the wind through the leaves.

“When God speaks to a soul walking the Path, He speaks the language whose words are but a reflection of the Great Love between the soul and God!

“… One can submerge a mature soul into the Abode of the Creator with the help of your methods in one month or a little more…

“But to smelt, to remake, and to grow souls who are young, to teach them to be one with Me, shedding the clothes of egocentrism, overcoming the human form — this requires years of arduous efforts. It can be likened to carving a sculpture out of a block of marble: one has to chop off everything unnecessary — and then there remains only the clear Atmic Essence — the Higher Self.”

… We ask:

“Eagle, tell us please how did You perceive Yourself when You were incarnated among American Indians.”

“My body was filled with the Power. To Me, there were no insuperable obstacles. I regarded all obstacles just as something to overcome!

“In My incarnations, I was never absorbed in the problems of ‘earthly’ life. I never ‘reduced’ Myself, as many people do by getting bogged down completely, i.e. with the whole consciousness, in a situation of an ‘earthly’ problem and thus ‘jailing’ themselves in this situation.

“The expanse was My ‘home’ — from the state of expanse and totality I performed My deeds.

“I never fell into the trap of illusion that the ‘earthly’ plane was the only world where I lived. For Me, this world existed only on the surface of the boundless Ocean of Beingness. The Life of the Ocean was My true Life. From there I acted.”

“But how did You manage to live in a body and to retain, at that, the awareness of Divinity?”

“I never reduced Myself from being the Ocean — to the ‘earthly’ life alone, never deluded Myself by making various ‘earthly’ situations My only ‘space of existence’.

“You switch your awareness from Me to the ‘earthly’ life when a particular situation or problem becomes to you more important than life in Me. Then this situation seizes your attention, and you get drawn into it with the consciousness.

“If you want to take the consciousness off the problem, just direct the look of the consciousness from your anahata backward — to My Infinity — and submerge into It.

“Interacting with the material plane, do not regard yourself the person you were formerly: a small man involved in the worldly affairs! Strive to retain the awareness of My Beingness! I gave to you the expanses of nature not to make you feel small amidst it but to help you feel how large you are!

“When I perform My deeds on the Earth, they reflect My Unlimitedness rather than ‘floundering’ in the sea of worries.

“… Every anahata developed to the Divine level is a hole leading into the Depths of Me, i.e. to the ‘bottom’ of the depth of the multidimensional space. In principle, through every such a ‘hole’, one can enter My Depths and cognize Me. It is also important to know how to expand, having passed through such ‘holes’. This is the basis of everything, as every one of you knows.

“… Also understand: I am not dependent on any outer conditions, whatever they are. Everything lives and develops inside Me!

“Behold My controlling Hand in every event and accept My Will, without leaving the state of Mergence with Me! This is the way to cognizing the Oneness of everything existing in the universe.*

“… And one more thing: you have to create new ‘nests’ where My nestlings can grow and then become Eagles! This is your task!”

… We ask Eagle to tell how He worked with Indians.

“Indians are an ancient civilization, and their worldview in those old times was quite different from the modern one. I taught them to perceive the world as One Whole Organism. I taught people to respect every life, taught them to live and to act on the Earth impeccably, without disturbing the harmony, balance, and beauty of the environment. From childhood, an Indian learned to listen and understand the world around — the sun, the stars, the wind, the forest, the rivers, the lakes, the animals… Indians learned to follow the laws of nature in their life; they understood that by violating these laws one causes unnecessary pain to the living.

“Teaching Indians was easy! They, in contrast to the modern Europeans, did not ‘imprison’ themselves in stone houses, were not ‘shackled’ by dogmas about the structure of the world. Indians felt themselves an integral part of nature; their home was the boundless forest, rocky mountains, blue lakes, waterfalls. The state of mergence with nature was very natural for them!

“Crossing a river on a pirogue, walking forest trails, Indians felt themselves one with the wind, water, mountains, birds… Since young age, they knew that the body is but a small fragment in the world of matter, that it is not more important than pines swaying in the wind, than clouds floating in the sky, than squirrels frolicking in trees or fishes swimming in waters.

“How did I teach them? In the same way as I teach you now. I taught them to fly! Also I taught them not to follow only one’s own power, but first of all — love and wisdom.

“Gradually, as disciples matured, I showed them that the world of matter is not everything that exists, that the picture of One Whole World is much richer. And if there were those who walked steadfastly the Path of Love and learned to create beauty and harmony with every act, I took them with Me into the flight to the World of Spirit — by taking them out of their bodies.

“And they began to see that everything around is pervaded with Light; they learned feeling themselves one with this Light. It took years to master this; for some disciples — lives.

“Not everyone but only the brave ones who were ready to go further to the Unknown could come to the next step — ‘a jump into the abyss’. I did not have to seek places of power for this: I could create such a place by My power of the Consciousness.

“And at a certain moment, I opened wide the ground in front of those brave — and rose from the Fiery abyss as a shining Fiery Divine Eagle. In this way, I opened with Myself an entrance into the Abode of the Highest Spirit, into the world of the Divine Fire!

“Only those with a pure heart, who were not afraid of the Fire of the Creator, jumped There.

“And they who jumped never came back as they were before; they returned from this Fire renewed — returned to gather their strength — and to jump again.

“And some day, impeccable disciples made their last jump and became consumed completely by the Fiery Consciousness of the Creator. Thus, from age to age, new Sons of God were born in the Indian land.

“… I came to the Earth many times — because otherwise people would lose the Path to the Freedom, the Path to Me! I dressed My Spirit with a material body and came here. I explained by this that I am real, that I am cognizable!

“All the Infinite Power that I can manifest with Myself — is God! When you lose your confidence in Me, you lose the connectedness with this Power; but My Power is always ready to be merged with you!

“You must submit yourself fully to the Will of God and have absolute confidence in His Power, which is present in you as well. If you do not believe in My Power, which can be manifested through you, you cannot perform anything great, you cannot help seriously anyone!

“… Give to people the sun! Give them the rising of the sun over the earth!

“Give them also the Fire!

“There is the fire of a home hearth; there is a campfire; their flame warms bodies…

“But you should give them the Fire brought by God to the Earth — the Fire of God’s Love, the Fire of the Heart!

“Give them the sky and Heaven! Give them the boundless blue of the sky and the clouds illuminated by the rising sun, resembling a trace of My Wings!

“Give them My Depths!

“Give them the Mountains! The Mountains whose tops reach for the sky and whose bases rest in the Depths of the universal Divine Ocean!

“Give them the Freedom! Give them, at least, the knowledge that there is the Freedom, that it is possible!

“Give them the Wings and the aspiration to flying with Me, to Me!

“Give them My Love!

“I can teach you an unbending will and unswerving intent of the Warrior of Spirit, whose main goal is to attain the highest Freedom: the Freedom to cognize God, the Freedom to stretch the Wings of Love, the Freedom to dissolve oneself in the Ocean of My Beingness!

“I offer My help to you every day and every hour of your lives! Call Me when outer difficulties become too hard — and I will come to you with all the infinite power of My Love!

“Be aware of the Flight of Freedom! If you have become a Heart soaring in the Ocean of God, growing and living in interaction with Me — then the Path of growing into Me becomes open for you!

“… By the way, White Eagle is not a myth. It was God Who once again came to the Earth in order to bring the Fire of the Heart to people and to open for them the way to Heaven — the Way of Freedom! This is a Gift of the Heavenly Father to people!

“Everyone can accept this Great Gift! Everyone can possess it! — but… only if one gives it to others!

“… The Freedom is near! I open the Shining Path to it — the Path of impeccable Love!

“… I will rise over the earth together with the sun… Come to Me! I appoint the meeting at the dawn. I will teach you the kindling the Heavenly Fire — the Fire of Love! I will rise with the sun as many times as necessary; I will do this always!

“I will wait for you on the way to Home!

“I will walk nearby showing you the Path!

“And when you arrive There where there is only I, the Sun of God will obtain one more ray.

“Then You, too, will be able to rise together with the sun — You will become a Young Divine Chief, and I will add another feather to My headdress…

“I am waiting for you!…”

* * *

… So we have discussed the main stages of work in the Schools of buddhi yoga of Juan Matus and other Divine Chiefs Who worked and developed in Indian spiritual traditions.

We can see once again that the principles of mastering the spiritual Path are common for all Schools of the buddhi yoga level, independent of where these Schools are located, whether they are related with each other or not, and what languages and terms are used in these Schools.

It happens so because One God guides people who have devoted their lives to Him according to the same laws of spiritual development.

(See demonstration of meditative methods in the film).

Vladimir Antonov, Ph.D. (in biology)
(chapter from the book
Forest Lectures on the Highest Yoga)

Translated from Russian
by Mikhail Nikolenko