I don’t normally speak completely within the Toltec tradition, for both personal and strategic reasons. But here I will do so, due to recent events.
There are paths that go into the bush, and paths that go through the bush. Those immortal words of don Juan say it all. Write it and paste it on your door, and especially on your computer screen if you belong to the world of on-line seekers of freedom, of any spiritual tradition.
Don Juan spoke of the old Toltecs. You probably know, Toltec is the name of one of the seven races of our species - the Red Race. They were brilliant! Never before or since has a race surpassed the genetic talent of the Toltecs. What happened to them? The answer serves as a warning to all who value talent.
Don Juan curiously gives two answers, which is very insightful. The first is the commonly known consequence: they became so obsessed in their vast knowledge of the Second Attention, that they not only disintegrated from within, but were overrun and destroyed by warriors of the First Attention - basically brutal thugs who periodically wage rampant war all over the world.
His second answer, at another time, is significant. When speaking of the way the old Toltecs indulged and obsessed with the unbelievable scope and detail of their discoveries in the Second World - the dream world - carving and inscribing their endless fascinations, a wave of warriors of a different persuasion came through and destroyed the lot. They didn’t seek redemption or re-education; they wiped out every trace possible of the fixation of the old Toltec sorcerers. Who were this new wave? Warriors of the Third Attention.
Like all don Juan’s stories, this holds deeper meaning. He was stating a clear warning to Castaneda’s deaf ears, and to our alert ears: the Second Attention is a trap - a path into the bush. Only the warriors of the Third Attention seek the path through the bush. And once you have sold your soul to the Second Attention, there is almost no redemption possible - renewal rather than repair is the only way out.
For those not familiar with these Toltec terms: the First Attention is the three dimensional physical world, the Second Attention is the two dimensional dream or astral world, and the Third Attention is the one dimensional world of pure spirit. It is of course far more complex than that, but these simplistic distinctions are an excellent thumb-rule to apply clarity to an ultimately confusing and unknowable universe.
You can’t jump any stage on the path to freedom. It leads through the First and Second Attention before you find the gateway to the Third Attention. We have to become accomplished in the physical-social world, as well as in the imagination-dream world, before we have any hope of a bid for the world of pure essence. Each of these worlds has gradations, and all warriors of freedom need to know well the sub-phases of each world, as well as the practices which gain mastery of each.
But mastery does not mean complete perfection - it means ‘sufficient’ perfection. Because the longer you remain in any world or sub-phase, you may gain extended skills, but you become ensnared, and your definitive journey is forfeit. Think of it as a lift in the centre of a three story building. On the first and second floors, when the lift doors open, you step out to explore. The further you wander from the lift well, the more you forget about the lift, and the more you become captivated by the wonders and struggles you encounter. If you can hold close to the lift well, you have the best chance of remembering to return and take the lift to the next floor.
But on both the first and second floors there are other dangers. Beings live there whose intent is to entrap you in their species-current. On the first floor we encounter perhaps the worst type of being - our fellow humans. Never underestimate the devious and devastating ways our fellow humans seek to coral us and strip away our wings and spirit. But I want to speak of the being that live on the second floor, for of these we have little experience.
The Second Attention is chock full of beings who live there entire lives on that plane. So many types it is impossible to conceive of their total range. But there is one type about which we should be afraid ... very afraid.
Don Juan once revealed an extraordinary statement. All those dreamers who succeeded in awakening in the Second Attention, became captives of these beings. This applied to the old Toltecs as much as the new. And it applies to us. Why is this, and what can be done about it? In essence, while we are acquiring sufficiency in the Second Attention, we are caught and robbed of our ability to win through to the Third Attention. This should send spasms of terror down to our coccyx.
Why, is actually a mystery, but some idea can be gained when we lift our imagination to understanding the very nature of the Second Attention. It is not a world like the First Attention. In the Second Attention we roam within a being - everything is within a being, and that being is inorganic - it is ourself. But wait - what is this self? That is the task dreamers are set to divine. We roam within a living being, who is ourself, and within that there is a universe of beings.
In the First Attention we are accustomed to think we exist inside a body, which roams around meeting other selves inside other bodies, who are all separate. This is an illusion, but no matter. In the Second Attention we are turned inside out - our self is outside, and the world is inside. Beings who inhabit the Second Attention become us - that’s just how we move laterally in the Second Attention. Without any volition on their part, our self becomes the self of these beings who are the Second Attention.
Not all of these beings are benign. When we choose to focus on power within the Second Attention, we attract a highly secretive, manipulative and compulsive type of being. It is not their fault - they are simply who they are, as much as it’s in a dog’s nature to bite, a moscuito’s nature to sting, and a virus’s nature to infect, so it is the nature of these beings to consume our vitality. And like an aggressive disease, they will kill us.
What to do about it? There is only one way to escape - the path through the bush. These beings are so excited to find us they show us the wonders of the Second Attention, but we think like First Attention beings, and fail to realise all these wonders are pure imagination. And none of them relate in any way whatsoever to the Third Attention. Oh these beings know about, and will show and teach us knowledge of, the Third Attention, but it’s all illusion - illusion is the Second Attention.
Dreamers have to resist the compulsive fascination of what they see and hear in the Second Attention. They have to see through it and *see* the function, not the objects. By function I mean we have to ask, “What’s really happening here?” And that means what are those beings really doing to us? What is their true function in our ‘living’ in them in the Second Attention. We are food to them - never forget it.
Ultimately the path through the bush for dreamers is the same as it is for stalkers - the same in the Second Attention as it is in the First Attention. Absolute stillness. Complete vacating of the premises, except for awareness. Dreamers enter the Third Attention through absolute rejection of the Second Attention. Just as the warriors of the Third Attention completely obliterated all traces of the warriors of the Second Attention. Just as the Tibetan Buddhists completely dismantle every trace of the elaborate inner images of their Buddhist deities, after having spent years carefully constructing and visualising them. Complete rejection and stopping absolutely still - silent meditation in the dream itself.
I won’t go into what happens after that, as it is not so easy and simple as it is said. But you get the principle. Unfortunately you can’t step off a moving Ferris Wheel. You have to wait till it slows sufficiently. And the Wheel of the Second Attention can’t slow until we have sufficiently tasted of it’s delights - Catch 22.
Once you have tasted of the delights of the beings of the Second Attention, they have their hooks in your soul, and those hooks are there forever. The obsessive spookiness and morbid darkness of these beings infects us and all who know us. Once we have sought power in the Second Attention, those inorganic beings who seek power have us in their power, and there is nothing we can do to escape. But there is something that can help us escape.
The Warriors Party.
This is an appropriate time to bring up this subject, because in everything I have said so far, two critical points have been left out, and I wish to speak of one of them.
There is no way we can find our path through either the First or Second Attention by our own will alone. We have to use every ounce of strength and effort available, and more, to reach to a point where we make ourselves available to the direct guidance of a supreme power. This power has always been known as the Bird. The Bird is the ‘flight of the Third Attention’, just as the Second Attention is a being, so is the Third - but not in any way you can every imagine. We call it the Bird because that’s how it let’s us see it.
The Third Attention is beyond time and space. Things we know about, like the sun, earth and the solar system are all physical objects. These things and constructs have no meaning in the Second Attention, and even less in the Third Attention. The Bird is beyond ... beyond everything, so just forget about talking of it in any familiar terms.
The idea of forming a group to make the journey to the Third Attention is the idea of the Bird - not our idea. Just so, we cannot choose or commit ourselves to a Warrior’s Party - that is sheer insanity. The Bird chooses us. There is no commitment, only realisation and acquiesce. No one can make up a Warrior’s Party. To speak in such terms shows a complete lack of any understanding of the very core of the Toltec path.
However we can choose to not accept the invitation, should we be so stupid - that is allowed. Commitment is not relevant to the Warrior’s Party. Commitment becomes critical because it is the core of Will. Without Will we are nothing. A person without Will cannot commit to anything because there is no power in their word. When a person with Will commits to something, that commitment can never be broken. Thus those who seek freedom are ultra-careful what they commit to, as their word become the command of Spirit ... and they commit often, because that’s the only way to build Will.
No one can commit to a Warrior’s Party. One is either chosen and realises their fate, or they are not chosen and they have to make the journey alone. In either case, it is the Bird we follow. If you don’t know how to read the intent of the Bird, then you haven’t begun. That’s not something to be ashamed of - true knowledge of the Bird comes only after a very long struggle on the path.
It is only the Bird that can carry us through the trap of the Second Attention. It is a blessing to have the intimacy of the Bird, or to know someone who does, and who has our interest at heart. Ultimately the distinction of these three Attentions is pure garbage - it is only a useful handle on an imaginary cup. Thus when all we have done is tallied up, it will fail. Only the guidance of the Bird ... it is all in the Bird’s wings, and always has been.
If you seek the patronage of the Bird, then there is only one offering worthy of our being. No offering can secure this patronage, but if you have any spirit worthy of your being, you will strive to bring something to the table. And that something is the very best of all that we are - we bring it, and we give it up.
