Stopping the World
Stopping the World
the Not-Doing of the self
"The world is the world because you know the doing
involved in making it so...if you didn't know its doing, the world
would be different."
Don Juan Matus in Journey to Ixtlan
"What do you see?" the nagual Carlos Castaneda asked one
of his apprentices on a walk through a city park. "What do
you see?" he asked again as he motioned to a specific
garden area before them both.
"Well," mumbled the apprentice. "I see daisies and a bed
of roses, white roses with dark green leaves."
"Anything else?" the nagual asked again.
"Why, should I?" questioned the apprentice. "Maybe
some brown dirt, a few gnats. That's all," said the apprentice,
shrugging his shoulders.
"Oh, oh, oh," laughed the nagual, slapping his left thigh in
glee before bending nearly in half to sit down on a park
bench. "I see!"
Stretching his arms wide, resting them on the back of the
bench, he continued:
"We are caught in a flux, a singular current, a stream of
association, from which many of us never return. We see a
configuration of color upon a stalk, we call it 'flower,' it reminds
us of a Japanese watercolor print we once saw in a museum
which in turn reminds us of a great uncle who once gave a
plant we loved to our brother instead of us, and suddenly we
lose our taste for 'flower'...forever. Don Juan told me that this
is how we construct our world, and ourselves. He called it
doing. Take for instance what you believe to be true about
your identity.
"You believe yourself to be smart," he continued. "At the
age of three, you were taught how to read; because of this, in
primary school, you excelled in phonics, spelling and
language; later, still advanced beyond your educated years,
you wrote term papers, essays that won awards; by the time
you reached adulthood, you were untouchable,
unimpeachable. Nobody could tell you otherwise."
The apprentice was at a loss for words. "Is there
something else?"
"There certainly is-but not for this by itself!" The nagual
tapped him on the forehead. "There are worlds of vibration, of
feeling, worlds where it doesn't make any difference if we
think we are smart, or dumb."
"How can we access them?"
"Through not-doing. Through putting a halt on our
otherwise endless stream of associations."
"I don't understand."
"It doesn't really matter. There's really no way to talk about
not-doing, because it's the body that does it. If we halt the
rhythm and momentum of our stream of associations, seers
maintain, we stop the world. And it's done with the whole
body-the whole being."
the Not-Doing of the self
"The world is the world because you know the doing
involved in making it so...if you didn't know its doing, the world
would be different."
Don Juan Matus in Journey to Ixtlan
"What do you see?" the nagual Carlos Castaneda asked one
of his apprentices on a walk through a city park. "What do
you see?" he asked again as he motioned to a specific
garden area before them both.
"Well," mumbled the apprentice. "I see daisies and a bed
of roses, white roses with dark green leaves."
"Anything else?" the nagual asked again.
"Why, should I?" questioned the apprentice. "Maybe
some brown dirt, a few gnats. That's all," said the apprentice,
shrugging his shoulders.
"Oh, oh, oh," laughed the nagual, slapping his left thigh in
glee before bending nearly in half to sit down on a park
bench. "I see!"
Stretching his arms wide, resting them on the back of the
bench, he continued:
"We are caught in a flux, a singular current, a stream of
association, from which many of us never return. We see a
configuration of color upon a stalk, we call it 'flower,' it reminds
us of a Japanese watercolor print we once saw in a museum
which in turn reminds us of a great uncle who once gave a
plant we loved to our brother instead of us, and suddenly we
lose our taste for 'flower'...forever. Don Juan told me that this
is how we construct our world, and ourselves. He called it
doing. Take for instance what you believe to be true about
your identity.
"You believe yourself to be smart," he continued. "At the
age of three, you were taught how to read; because of this, in
primary school, you excelled in phonics, spelling and
language; later, still advanced beyond your educated years,
you wrote term papers, essays that won awards; by the time
you reached adulthood, you were untouchable,
unimpeachable. Nobody could tell you otherwise."
The apprentice was at a loss for words. "Is there
something else?"
"There certainly is-but not for this by itself!" The nagual
tapped him on the forehead. "There are worlds of vibration, of
feeling, worlds where it doesn't make any difference if we
think we are smart, or dumb."
"How can we access them?"
"Through not-doing. Through putting a halt on our
otherwise endless stream of associations."
"I don't understand."
"It doesn't really matter. There's really no way to talk about
not-doing, because it's the body that does it. If we halt the
rhythm and momentum of our stream of associations, seers
maintain, we stop the world. And it's done with the whole
body-the whole being."