BEYOND THE PREDATOR'S EYE
* * *
For you the world is weird because if you're not bored with it you're at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.
- Don Juan Matus
Wheel of Time
* * *
On a clear, sunny afternoon in Los Angeles, the four students of don Juan and their apprentices shared a meal on the patio of the seers' house.
All were seated around an expansive, linen-covered U-shaped table and the silverware and glassware shimmered in the mid-afternoon sun.
Everyone ate and talked amicably - telling jokes and stories, listening to each other talk about their favorite films - all save for one apprentice. She, as soon as she was seated, realized that she was not sitting next to Taisha Abelar, Florinda Donner-Grau, Carol Tiggs, nor the nagual Carlos Castaneda, and she began fidgeting in her chair, tensing her stomach, tightening her jaw.
Rather than enjoy the company of her companions and the surrounding garden, this young apprentice continually surveyed the scene, eyeing who was sitting next to whom, and when she noticed a fellow apprentice getting up from beside Taisha, she quickly went to secure the vacated seat for herself.
Taisha neither stirred nor flinched, but turned to smile at the new addition. When the other apprentice returned to claim her seat, the newly-positioned apprentice did not move and simply said to her: "Take my chair until I am finished."
The other apprentice did so, and as Taisha turned to engage her guest more fully, they both heard a buzzing behind their ears: a pair of hummingbirds arriving to sip nectar from the flowers of a nearby tree.
"Watch those hummingbirds," Taisha motioned with a light gesture of her hand. "Watch what they do."
The young apprentice turned her gaze to a loquat tree in full bloom and watched as one of the birds dipped its long bill into a flower. The second hummingbird came close, and the first one physically buzzed it away. Then, seemingly satisfied for a moment after its long drink, the first hummingbird hovered a little above and away from the flower, to which the second hummingbird paused in mid-flight as if to weigh in whether to try its luck at accessing the flower again. The first hummingbird again would have none of it; he dove repeatedly at the second hummingbird moving him away as if to say, 'Hey, don't even think about it; don't even look at my flower!'
The apprentice watched in amazement.
"You're witnessing the 'predator's eye' in action," Taisha said softly. "We forget, but as living creatures we all do the same."
"The predator's eye?" questioned the apprentice. "What's that?"
"A realm which the seers of ancient Mexico did their utmost to get beyond. It manifests itself in a look, a look where everything else dissolves except the object we are after…Tell me, didn't everything and everyone in this garden disappear except your view of this chair that you coveted?"
"Well, yes," the apprentice nodded in agreement after a moment's thought. She had to admit that for seconds everything had gone out of focus except for that one singular seat.
"Our eyes are the holders of our intent," Taisha then said. "Wherever they go, that's where we place our intent, and your intent was on this chair. In fact, in securing it, you saw your cohort only as a competitor that you had to knock out of the way; as a matter of fact, you looked at this chair as if it were your last battle on earth; as if possessing it were the most important thing in your life. That's the predator's eye."
"What can we do about it?" asked the apprentice.
"First we have to admit that we are capable of it, that most of our acts are predator's acts; then we can put our intent on something bigger than ourselves. We can have the discipline to intend beyond the universe of the self."
"Look at that lizard over there, sunning himself," Taisha continued, motioning in the direction of some large cactus plants that bordered the brick patio. "But don't move your head too quickly or he will run away. Like us, he can feel the intent of others' eyes upon him and doesn't want to be stared at. So turn your head slowly and watch him only from your periphery… Can you see his belly rise and fall, his sides move up and down as he breathes?…Why don't you try emulating him? He seems to appreciate being wherever he is."
Settling into her chair, with the lizard in her peripheral view, the apprentice slowly felt the rise and fall of her belly with each breath. After several breaths, she released her stomach and her jaw from their tense grip.
"What you do see now?" asked Taisha.
"I see everyone at this table," the apprentice began. How much they are enjoying each other, and really, supporting each other with their laughter and their smiles."
"Anything else?" asked Taisha.
"I'm almost too embarrassed to say," whispered the apprentice. "But I suddenly feel everyone's support…maybe for the first time. I feel my cohort's gentle affection in letting me sit here as she did. I feel the sun's rays, the tree lending its shade to all of us; the lizard, his breathing; the bricks warming us and holding us up; the hummingbirds showing us their struggle; the greenness of the cactus, the flowers sharing their fragrance."
"Excellent! And what do you now want to do?"
"I want to say thank you to you, Taisha, and to give my cohort back her chair."
The young apprentice got up gracefully from Taisha's side and went to her cohort, apologized, and thanked her for lending her chair.
Now, in her own seat, the apprentice took a deliberate sweeping glance around the garden and the table. There she sensed a vibration of affection, an arc of intent where everyone looked out for and after everyone else.
* * *
For you the world is weird because if you're not bored with it you're at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.
- Don Juan Matus
Wheel of Time
* * *
On a clear, sunny afternoon in Los Angeles, the four students of don Juan and their apprentices shared a meal on the patio of the seers' house.
All were seated around an expansive, linen-covered U-shaped table and the silverware and glassware shimmered in the mid-afternoon sun.
Everyone ate and talked amicably - telling jokes and stories, listening to each other talk about their favorite films - all save for one apprentice. She, as soon as she was seated, realized that she was not sitting next to Taisha Abelar, Florinda Donner-Grau, Carol Tiggs, nor the nagual Carlos Castaneda, and she began fidgeting in her chair, tensing her stomach, tightening her jaw.
Rather than enjoy the company of her companions and the surrounding garden, this young apprentice continually surveyed the scene, eyeing who was sitting next to whom, and when she noticed a fellow apprentice getting up from beside Taisha, she quickly went to secure the vacated seat for herself.
Taisha neither stirred nor flinched, but turned to smile at the new addition. When the other apprentice returned to claim her seat, the newly-positioned apprentice did not move and simply said to her: "Take my chair until I am finished."
The other apprentice did so, and as Taisha turned to engage her guest more fully, they both heard a buzzing behind their ears: a pair of hummingbirds arriving to sip nectar from the flowers of a nearby tree.
"Watch those hummingbirds," Taisha motioned with a light gesture of her hand. "Watch what they do."
The young apprentice turned her gaze to a loquat tree in full bloom and watched as one of the birds dipped its long bill into a flower. The second hummingbird came close, and the first one physically buzzed it away. Then, seemingly satisfied for a moment after its long drink, the first hummingbird hovered a little above and away from the flower, to which the second hummingbird paused in mid-flight as if to weigh in whether to try its luck at accessing the flower again. The first hummingbird again would have none of it; he dove repeatedly at the second hummingbird moving him away as if to say, 'Hey, don't even think about it; don't even look at my flower!'
The apprentice watched in amazement.
"You're witnessing the 'predator's eye' in action," Taisha said softly. "We forget, but as living creatures we all do the same."
"The predator's eye?" questioned the apprentice. "What's that?"
"A realm which the seers of ancient Mexico did their utmost to get beyond. It manifests itself in a look, a look where everything else dissolves except the object we are after…Tell me, didn't everything and everyone in this garden disappear except your view of this chair that you coveted?"
"Well, yes," the apprentice nodded in agreement after a moment's thought. She had to admit that for seconds everything had gone out of focus except for that one singular seat.
"Our eyes are the holders of our intent," Taisha then said. "Wherever they go, that's where we place our intent, and your intent was on this chair. In fact, in securing it, you saw your cohort only as a competitor that you had to knock out of the way; as a matter of fact, you looked at this chair as if it were your last battle on earth; as if possessing it were the most important thing in your life. That's the predator's eye."
"What can we do about it?" asked the apprentice.
"First we have to admit that we are capable of it, that most of our acts are predator's acts; then we can put our intent on something bigger than ourselves. We can have the discipline to intend beyond the universe of the self."
"Look at that lizard over there, sunning himself," Taisha continued, motioning in the direction of some large cactus plants that bordered the brick patio. "But don't move your head too quickly or he will run away. Like us, he can feel the intent of others' eyes upon him and doesn't want to be stared at. So turn your head slowly and watch him only from your periphery… Can you see his belly rise and fall, his sides move up and down as he breathes?…Why don't you try emulating him? He seems to appreciate being wherever he is."
Settling into her chair, with the lizard in her peripheral view, the apprentice slowly felt the rise and fall of her belly with each breath. After several breaths, she released her stomach and her jaw from their tense grip.
"What you do see now?" asked Taisha.
"I see everyone at this table," the apprentice began. How much they are enjoying each other, and really, supporting each other with their laughter and their smiles."
"Anything else?" asked Taisha.
"I'm almost too embarrassed to say," whispered the apprentice. "But I suddenly feel everyone's support…maybe for the first time. I feel my cohort's gentle affection in letting me sit here as she did. I feel the sun's rays, the tree lending its shade to all of us; the lizard, his breathing; the bricks warming us and holding us up; the hummingbirds showing us their struggle; the greenness of the cactus, the flowers sharing their fragrance."
"Excellent! And what do you now want to do?"
"I want to say thank you to you, Taisha, and to give my cohort back her chair."
The young apprentice got up gracefully from Taisha's side and went to her cohort, apologized, and thanked her for lending her chair.
Now, in her own seat, the apprentice took a deliberate sweeping glance around the garden and the table. There she sensed a vibration of affection, an arc of intent where everyone looked out for and after everyone else.
* * *