Technawakening

Some quotes from Carlos Casteneda’s teacher don Juan:

“To tune the spirit when someone is trampling on you is called control.”

Control is beneficial to us as warriors when we enact it. We have a choice to react to the outside reality, or simply to allow. We have a choice to tell ourselves we are a victim, or to enable the full power of our will within. This is impeccability with our word because we refuse to take the outside world personally and conserve vital energy.

“To gather all this information while they are beating you up is called discipline,” don Juan said.

Just as discipline happens upon the floor in silent meditation as you observe your breath, in and out – this form of discipline is about making the commitment to observe what is going on around you, to learn from your surroundings, and allow life bring wisdom to you. If you have a story in your head about how this injustice should not be happening to you, you will block the inspiration and wisdom from entering your consciousness. No resistance.

“Forbearance is to wait patiently?no rush, no anxiety?a simple, joyful holding back of what is due.”

“Forbearance means holding back with the spirit something that the warrior knows is rightfully due.”

Forbearance is about for the command of Spirit to inspire and guide your actions. You may believe you need to act according a frantic story in your head such as “Oh my god, I need to DO something before it’s too late!” Forbearance stops, allows what is to be, and waits. At the right time, you will take action based upon your inner spirit to take what the Buddha called, right action.

“Don Juan said that timing is the quality that governs the release of all that is held back. Control, discipline, and forbearance are like a dam behind which everything is pooled. Timing is the gate in the dam.”

Whereas forebearance supports the warrior by holding back uninspired action, timing is the force that snaps open the gate within and pushes you to take right action. Timing is the push, while forebearance is the pull. Through timing, we align ourselves with the divine with no resistance, no story, no complaining – but with full joy.

We often hear about the importance of fully listening to someone as they are speaking to us in a conversation. Giving our full attention to that person while they are sharing and opening to us is an incredible gift to them. This is  a difficult gift to give however because our attention is already occupied by our own thoughts so often that to divert our attention from the “voice” in our head and actually listen to the voice of someone else  takes a lot of concentration and a lot of energy.

Let’s take this to the next level though. Have you ever tried to listen to someone who was not saying anything? What does this even mean and how is it possible?

Try this: observe yourself the next time you make eye contact with someone. Perhaps it’s a coworker that you’re nodding to through the hallways. Perhaps it’s a friend of yours or a perfect stranger on the street. No words are spoken, but there is a connection happening. In this very quick instance, listen to what happens the moment you connect with your eyes – often what you will hear is your own inner dialogue startup.

You may hear:

“Hey, you’re looking at him/her too long, this is going to be akward, look away!”

“Is he glaring at me? He doesn’t look happy to see me, maybe he doesn’t like me”

“They look like a very important person – I wonder what they do for a living”

. . . blah blah blah

If you stop to listen, you may find that you hear a lot going on inside – it probably won’t be as clearly “spoken” as the way I’ve written above – it might be more like a simple cloudy thought or feeling. Either way, the thoughts are hooking your attention – meaning that instead of actually paying attention to the person you’re making eye contact with, you’re actually paying attention to your mind’s monologue about the person you’re looking at. These are 2 very different things.

So when I say listen to the person who you are making eye contact with, I mean to simply relax and see if you can direct your attention to the person you are looking at directly, without all the talk in your head getting in the way. Like anything this is a practice, but what you might find is that you begin to hear something you’ve never heard before. If you’d like to know what, give it a try.