”Doubtlessly, one of the most worthwhile finding of the ancient seers, especially for them, was the discovery that organic life is not the only form of life present on this earth.”
I did not comprehend what he had said. I waited for him to clarify his statements.
“Organic beings are not the only creatures that have life” he said and paused again as if to allow me thinks his statements over. I countered with a long argument about the definition of life and being alive. I talked about reproduction, metabolism, and growth, the process that distinguish live organisms from inanimate things.
“You are drawing from the organic”, he said. “But that is only one instance. You shouldn’t draw all you have to say from one category alone.”
- But how else can it be? I asked.
- “For seers, to be alive means to be aware.” He replied.
- “For the average man. To be aware means to be an organism. This is where seers are different. For them, to be aware means that the emanations that cause awareness are encased inside a receptacle. Organic living beings have a cocoon that encloses the emanations. But there are other creatures whose receptacles do not look like a cocoon to a seer. Yet they have emanations of awareness in them and characteristics of life other than reproduction and metabolism.”
Such as what, don Juan?
“Such as emotional dependency, sadness, joy, wrath, and so forth and so on. And I forgot the best yet, love; a love man can’t even conceive”
Are you serious, don Juan?" I asked in earnest.
“Inanimately serious, he answered with a deadpan expression and then broke into laughter. "If we take as our clue what seers see,” he continued, “life is indeed extraordinary.”
If those beings are alive, why don’t they make themselves known to man? I asked.
“They do, all the time- And not only to seers but also to the average man. The problem is that all the energy available is consumed by the first attention. Man’s inventory not only takes it all, but it also toughens the cocoon to the point of making it inflexible. Under those circumstances there is no possible interaction possible.”
Carlos Castaneda, The Fire From Within, Black Swan, 1985, pocket edition, pp 99-100.
