Tensegrity Seminars
Long Beach - February 1997
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To: The Tango Mailing List
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 16:28:33 PDT
This is what I can remember from the Long Beach seminar: Feb, 14-15 1997.
A stage had been set up against one wall which everyone gathered around. The Nagual Dr. Carlos Castaneda took the stage greeted with a standing ovation. He wore a button up shirt, blue jeans, black shoes and a black leather jacket. After announcing his name the opening lecture began with a review of the basics, such as, the body as a conglomerate of energy fields, the assemblage point where "zillions and zillions" of energetic filaments converge to create perception, the art of dreaming, and the discovery of the magical passes.The passes help a warrior to be ready to grab that cubic centimeter of chance when ever it should pop up. "One needs to be alert and agile to grab it an make use of it". "My knees are like those of a kid!" His fathers knees were locked and he showed us how he walked.The Nagual told us how don Juan use to take him for long walks in the desert. He would walk at a fast pace for hours and Castaneda would beg "Don Juan, don Juan! I need a little break" and he'd sit down lighting a cigarette "to catch my breath" as he inhaled the smoke. "Crazy!" we walk around trying to hold up this idea that we're the greatest. always worrying "what do they think of me" and "how do I look" as he mimes looking into a hand mirror. We love ourselves yet at the same time we're poising ourselves. The boost of energy Tensegrity gives us helps to see that contradiction.
Each of the four of them all had magical passes which were suited to their personal needs. In order to do the Nagual's passes one would have to be his size. They started thinking what a waste it would be to go and take all this information with them. So over the years they made the movements generic so that anyone can do them and achieve magical results. It took years because "We are not hacks." it had to be prefect.
We took a little break to get ready for the passes. In that time Dr. Castaneda was hanging around chatting with Kylie.
About half way through learning the Series For Preparing Intent Kylie announced that there was going to be a lecture. And once again the chauffer took the helm. "You see how I work" Now that you've moved a bit,now we can talk. Questions. (The reverb was terrible making it extremely hard to hear what was being said.) One man asked about holes in the energy body. "What" Holes in the energy body?" Oh, what holds the energy body together." He then went into an explanation of intent that was almost word for word as it is in the newsletter. There was some mention of syntax and how when someone mentions spoon we automatically think knife, plate, fork and so on. Finally "I've run out of things to say," but he managed to talk about how he's a talker until he was dragged from the stage.
Because we were in the middle of learning movements people had surrounded the stage and he stepped down into a crowd of people. Some Cleargreeners came in to usher him out of the chaos.
Taisha Abelar was the next to talk to us. She told us how that in back there had been a pie for everyone so she had a piece, then after no-one came for a while she thought why not have another but still no-one showed up and eventually she ate the whole pie; much to the delight of the audience. Don Juan once told her that she needed to make a bridge. So, Taisha was immediately picturing this giant suspension bridge. "No, no, no," he said. It's much smaller than you think. now she was thinking of your average stream crosser. But it was even smaller still. It's the size of your nose. "Oh well that's just a Teensy weensy little thing, no problem."It turned out to be the most difficult thing she has ever had to do: bridge the two bodies.
Taisha spoke twice,however over time everything she said has blurred together. I can see her from floor level as well as looking down from the bleachers and it's hard to tell what happened where.
Ms. Abelar talked about when they first sent her to the cave to do recapitulation. Instead of recapitulating she would sit and try to raise the Kundalini force. She found a nice flat river stone to sit on and every day, using books, she would meditate. One day the old Nagual got feed up with her actions and said "cut the crap! Recapitulate!" So she did. She told us we don't need a cave or a box to recapitulate in, just do it.
On breathing: As we do the passes that involve the breath we should make the breaths as deep as possible. Sorcerers see that some people are B.F.'s (she didn't seem to like the term Board Fuck). But as people practice the passes breathing to their fullest eventually there comes a time when even to the eye of a sorcerer they don't seem like B.F.'s; it becomes impossible to tell.
She also mentioned something about the second attention. Doing the passes, recapitulating, maybe through some not-doings in. These are the ways to reach the Other and the second attention. At some point during her first lecture a beautiful women came out from the "back stage" area, walked up and sat at the edge of the stage tapping her fingernails until Tiasha turned to look. The women then sat down with the energy trackers.
That women was our next speaker. In the evening Carol Tiggs strolled onto the stage telling us how they all love to look for omens. Tonight's omen was a bumper sticker they saw in the parking lot which read "I love myself just the way I am". So they were going to concentrate on self-importance. (Ms. Tiggs' lectures blend together in my mind even more so than Ms. Abelar's)
Carol Tiggs mentioned how the sorcerers of ancient Mexico learned to see energy as it flowed in the universe and that when a human being was "seen" it was an egg or more properly now is a ball. This ball had at on time a a golden sheen which covered the whole cacoon, however for modern man the plastic like golden cover was now only toe high. "Shanty Town" she called it. That place is the pits, the lowest we can go. If she were to get mad she thinks " Oh no! I'm in shanty town again"
Carol Tiggs is not some holier than now goddess that just comes down off her throne to see how her "little babies are" (at this point her performance was an absolute riot!). Impeccability is a constant struggle, every minute of every day she is fighting. We all must be impeccable. Even if you've done all your Tensegrity and recapitulated you can't start whining about having to do the dishes - impeccablity is a way of life.
Don Juan had her make a list of things that were of an unordinary nature. When she went to see him with this big long list, thinking how proud he would be with her, all he did was look at it and say "cut out the sugar". At that time in her life she loved muffins. In the middle of telling us about this she made a big sweeping motion with her hand across what would be her horizon as she inhaled. Silence for a moment. She explained that that was an example of recapitulating on the go. One descent need a cave or a box to recapitulate. And one neednt''be compulsive about it either. "Get out of my way! I need to get to my box and recapitulate!"
Songs are a major obstacle when trying to reach inner silence. The Nagual woman used to always have songs running through her head. Not even songs just the general tune. For years she was going around singing "orange soda" instead of "Arizona". We gloss over the words just to have something running through our heads.
The Womb Series: These movements help women rediscover their direct link with the spirit. Since women have this direct link they tend not to care. They have no trouble seeing energy and because it's so easy they blow it off. Men have to struggle life times to see energy. This causes them to have more sobriety and a longer, sustained view of energy. They balance each other. That's what these passes do. For women it makes them more open to their direct link to INTENT and makes men more sober and have a clearer purpose; the coning to the spirit.
Masculinity: These movements are short powerful blows to the "crust" of the cuccoon. This crust is seen in some people as something like an orange peel or thicker like the bark of a tree. We break up this crust and it automatically comes back into our centers of vitality.
Also on the first night she was the one to introduce the Energy Trackers as they preformed their long forms. Then the Blue Scout read a chapter from Carlos Castaneda's forth coming book.
The Nagual came back the second day for one more lecture. Basically our society is fucked. We all go around stressed out worrying about this or that. When he was in school his advisor would ask him "How are you today Carlos?" And he'd answer, "Great, I couldn't be better!" The advisor would turn his back walking away muttering "Piss off shithead" or something." But if he would respond, "Aggh! do you have to ask? Why do you have to ask? Look at me!" (he made himself look like a total waste) his advisor would be, "Come here, Come into my office I have some interesting matters we should discuss." In don Juan's world being happy was of utmost importance. Laughter was key. In the western world if you laugh your crazy. Carlos Castaneda once had a graduate student who was as perfect as can be. Always serious and in deep thought (at this point in his story he gave us his scalar impersonation, eyebrows pinched together and protruding lower lip). This kid went to the west indies (I think) to study some tribe. When he came back all the chap did was smile and laugh. He had this little bell he'd ring instead of talking. Who knows what happened to him but he sure was happy. To summarize: western society is fucked and don Juan's world was wonderful.
Carlos Castaneda would always be perplexed about the dates don Juan gave him. 7000-10,000 years ago was impossible from an anthropological stand point. At that time people weren't thought to be on this continent. So bbbzzzz thumbs down on western science/mind. He said that there were several hundred language families in the state of California alone. (I think I heard him wrong. Several hundred is unbelievable to this western mind) A language family is a large grouping of similar tongues. For instance all of Europe except for Basque and Finnish but including Sanskrit are all in the same foamily. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, ect are another family. You get the idea. For western man to come in and try to understand the views and philosophies of cultures with such vast differences was impossible. They didn't even try. When they came they killed. They whipped out staggering numbers of people and cultures and systems of knowledge.
The mind is a foreign installation. Because of the predatory nature of the universe something has taken control of the vital center on top of our heads. It now has a tick tock motion instead of a spiralling one like the others. This movement is quite disgusting for sorcerers to look at. He mentioned that some of the predators that feed off the sheen on our luminous cacoon resemble the patterns some people see when they close their eyes (I think that's what he said).
"Has anyone here been to an A.A. meeting? Go, it's a riot." If you haven't been here's what happens. Some one will get on stage to announce to every one that they're an alcoholic. Usually on the first try they can't do it. They mutter something and leave the stage. On the second try maybe they'll whisper really quickly "I'm an alcoholic." and the leader will pat them on the back "Good job Rick, Ya' did good." (this whole time the Nagual was acting this out keeping us giggling). Now when the person finally was ready to tell the world his problem it would come out something like this... "I'M AN Alcoholic!" and the person would burst into tears. Why is it so hard? Because they're so full of them selves to admit any little flaw.
A sociologist told Carlos Castaneda that when people rub their eyes it's a sure sing that they're bored with what's going on. "And by gum, it works" (starts mimicking someone bored with talking to their wife) "Huh? (rubbing eye) What was that honey?"
And one last thing. I recall him talking about when they leave the blue scout was going to be the one to lead them. Her energy is more resilient. Some man in Colorado had died. The man was Carlos Castaneda and the authorities called up Cleargreen to find out if it was the Nagual. Talia answered the phone and in a demanding voicesaod "NO! CARLOS CASTANEDA IS NOT DEAD!" Carlos Castaneda thought that was not a good way to react. What if he really had died? Talk to these people a little before hanging up. The coroner calculated that the Nagual Carlos Castaneda was about 75 while the man in Colorado was in his fifties. Don Juan told him that he could go at any time so always wear shoes you like. "I like my shoes," he said.
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