Introduction: Volume 5
This volume reveals those three pivotal sections of the Toltec teachings termed The Sorcerer’s Explanation, The Rule of the Three-Pronged Nagal and The Rule of the Four-Pronged Nagal.
These three sections form some of the most esoteric concepts to be found within the Toltec teachings – concepts which are so far beyond most people’s frame of reference that they are normally imparted to apprentices only after a great many years of training and, even then, only once they have achieved a high level of proficiency in being able to grasp that which defies the use of words. Therefore, although attempting to verbalise the ineffable is daunting in itself, it is an even taller order to have to verbalise it in a form that will make sense to readers who are more than likely working by themselves, without the assistance of a fully-trained nagal. Consequently, I strongly urge the readers of this volume not to make the errors of assuming either that any part of this book can be taken at face value alone, or that, in having read it, they necessarily understand the concepts. By saying this, I am not implying that the reader is unintelligent, or incapable of grasping these concepts – I am merely stressing that when it comes to the verbalisation of irrational knowledge, words, if taken at face value, can be utterly misleading, and tend to distort the truth rather than doing it any real justice.
Therefore, if this book is to play a meaningful role in enhancing the reader’s perception, and in bringing a greater sense of purpose and a deeper meaning into his or her life, I would like to recommend the following approach to this section of the teachings. Firstly, it is vital for the reader to be fully familiar with the teachings contained in the first four volumes in this series, in the sense that he or she is actively living the teachings and not merely studying them from a passive intellectual angle. Such a student of the teachings will know from experience that the subtleties of the various concepts cannot be grasped unless the teachings are put into practice, and that unless these nuances are grasped, the teachings can become utterly confusing. Needless to say, once confusion has set in, no further progress is possible and the student becomes disheartened.
In addition, when one is trying to grasp the irrational, it is always wise to remember that such knowledge would not be irrational if it could be encapsulated within the limitations of the rational mind. It stands to reason that in trying to grasp the irrational one is going to be stretched beyond one’s normal frame of reference, and so plunged headlong into having to wrestle with concepts that at first appear to make no logical sense, and all too often also appear to be contradictory to everything we think we know and therefore assume to be true. But to be stretched beyond one’s frame of reference means having to enter the unknown, and the only way in which we can find our way around within the unknown, is to try to get a feeling, or an intuitive sense of what that particular part of the unknown entails. Without such a feeling we become prone to rationalisation as we attempt to force the unknown into something that must somehow fit logically into what constitutes for us the known. This process leads us not only to distort the new knowledge, but also unconsciously to fall into the trap of using it to confirm to ourselves those preconceived ideas and prejudices that form part of our normal frame of reference.
Another point to bear in mind is that although people assume they know themselves and their world, the truth is that both man and the world are simply not what they appear to be. We are an unfathomable mystery even unto ourselves, and so is the world around us. If this were not true, then there would be no evolution of awareness, and we would not be able to expand our consciousness beyond its present state. Notice that I use the term, “an unfathomable mystery.” I use this term purposely and for two reasons. Firstly, because all awareness depends upon perception, every time our perception changes, so too does our awareness of ourselves, of others, and of the world in general. But because perception is not dictated to by reason alone, it usually follows a course of change which, although yielding answers that can be highly fulfilling and satisfying, also invariably lead us into asking more and more questions about ourselves and about life. Therefore far from the normal assumption that we can wrap ourselves up into a tight little box of self understanding, the practitioner of the Toltec teachings soon comes to realise that any change in perception and any growth in awareness always serves to prove just how little we really do know about ourselves and the world we live in. Secondly, inherent within the term “unfathomable mystery,” is the realisation that so much of our perception lies beyond the confines of rationality. As a result, our awareness is for ever touching upon the fringes of a vastness that is always just beyond the scope of understanding, no matter how much our awareness expands, and no matter how much we learn about ourselves and about life.
The final point which should be kept in mind all the way through this book is that, if we are truly willing to learn, and if we are truly wanting to enhance our awareness, then we must be willing to stand challenged on our perception of ourselves and of the world we live in. There is simply not other way. Why? Because it is very easy to acquire new information and still hold onto our view of the world. This is so because unless information is acted upon in some way, it cannot translate into experience, and where there is no experience, that information will remain at the level of information, and in time will be forgotten. But this is not true learning, for no real change has been brought into one’s life as a result of having acquired that information. True learning implies that the knowledge gained has the power to change one’s thinking and one’s life in some meaningful way, and the only way of acquiring such new knowledge is through experience. The implications here are that unless the teachings contained in this book are put into practice and grasped through experience, they will remain an interesting proposition that has no real value to the reader. Propositions in themselves cannot possibly empower anyone.
If you follow my recommendations, you should have no problem in acquiring a genuine feeling for what is imparted in this volume. Once you have acquired that feeling, allow the circumstances and the events within your life to start translating that feeling, bit by bit, into a growing sense of knowing without knowing. By this I mean that if irrational feelings are allowed to unfold naturally within daily life, then in time they gradually begin to make sense, even though we can never really rationally explain why they do seem to make sense. However, if, instead of trying to explain and understand such feelings, we simply act upon them, then we very quickly begin to corroborate them through the results achieved. Further, because all action leads to experience, and because experience is knowledge gained, once we do act upon feelings which are perhaps at first not understood, the knowledge gained through that experience will reveal all the understanding we may require. The problem is that people have become completely conditioned into first wanting to understand something before they are prepared to risk having the experience. But realise that although we are entitled to make such demands when we are working with the known, when it comes to working with the unknown, to make such demands is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. By definition we cannot possibly know the unknown beforehand, and therefore if we wish to know it, there is simply no other way than through experience. This is especially true of the teachings contained within this book. Before bringing this introduction to a conclusion I feel it is necessary to repeat the warning that no part of this book should be taken at face value only. When it comes to imparting these sections of the teachings, every nagal chooses his own unique verbalisation in order to try to impart a feeling for that which cannot be expressed in words. As a result no two nagals will verbalise any of these concepts in the same way, and the same nagal will often even have several apparently different verbalisations of the same concept. Yet the content of the concept being verbalised will remain constant, for all trained nagals impart the same concepts. How could this not be so? In the final analysis there is only the One Life, and therefore only the One Truth, no matter what verbalisation it is encased in. It is after all not the wrapping that is important, but that which is contained within.
What I have stated here with respect to verbalisation also has a bearing on another, altogether different, but nonetheless very important issue, namely the books of Carlos Castaneda. In the introduction to my first book, Volume I, I stated how I view Dr. Castaneda, and what my own stance is towards the contents of his first eight books, but for the sake of those readers who have studied his books, I would like to clarify a few more points here.
The first point is that in imparting the Rule of the Four-Pronged Nagal, as well as the Sorcerer’s Explanation, Dr. Castaneda has used a verbalisation which, if not entirely the same verbalisation as used by his own teacher, must at least be very similar. This is an important point, because the being who taught Dr. Castaneda, and whom he chose to call Juan Matus, was a very fine warrior indeed. In the light of this fact, there is no doubt in my mind that Juan would have imparted these two sections of the teachings to Dr. Castaneda just as impeccably as he imparted the rest. However, both of these sections as imparted by Dr. Castaneda are incomplete, and both contain some parts which have been verbalised in a way that is not only misleading, but at times even inaccurate. Why this should be so is not at all clear, but these unexplained facts do nonetheless raise a number of questions concerning Dr. Castaneda’s rendition of the Toltec teachings.
Taking into consideration that Dr. Castaneda received these two sections of the teachings whilst in heightened awareness, could it be that he did receive these teachings in their entirety, but afterwards could simply not remember them in full? Or did Juan, for some reason, or Dr. Castaneda himself for that matter, choose not to impart these sections in full? If it is true that Dr. Castaneda could not recall everything that had been imparted to him, then there is a strong possibility that even those parts that he was able to remember, could have been recalled inaccurately, thus accounting for the various inaccuracies contained in his work, as well as the misleading verbalisation used in some places. If, on the other hand, these two sections of the teachings were never imparted in their entirety, either by Juan or by Dr. Castaneda, and if it was not a question of Dr. Castaneda not being able to recall everything, then it still leaves open the question concerning the inaccuracies and the misleading verbalisation. If it was Juan’s verbalisation, then did he do this purposely so as to throw up some sort of smoke-screen for Dr. Castaneda and therefore for the readers of Dr. Castaneda’s books? If so, why? Or was it that Dr. Castaneda never really grasped these two sections of the teachings properly, and therefore could not verbalise them accurately?
I am in no way going to try to answer these questions concerning two men who are now both dead, but I have chosen to raise these questions for two good reasons. Firstly, to point out to the gullible reader that the first eight books of Dr. Castaneda, as good as they may be, are nonetheless not what they appear, and therefore the teachings presented in them should not be taken at face value. Secondly, to point out that if these two sections of the teachings as imparted by me are compared with the writings of Carlos Castaneda, many apparent discrepancies will become obvious. Then if we add to this the huge difficulties involved in trying to verbalise these sections of the teachings, it should be abundantly clear to those readers who wish to compare my work with that of Carlos Castaneda that the onus is entirely on them to study these particular sections with great care.
Finally, the verbalisation which I have chosen for the purposes of this book does not entirely conform to my own personal predilection for mysticism, but it is one which I feel will most readily convey a true feeling to the reader who is not working with a nagal, and which will therefore also be of the most benefit to him or her. However, in spite of this, the reader is once again urged to adopt the stance of the warrior in studying this material; that is, to believe without believing, and to accept without accepting. Only in this way will my words have the impact needed in order to shift the reader’s focus from understanding to feeling. The importance of this advice will become most apparent in reading The Sorcerer’s Explanation, for although this section of the teachings always comes across as myth, irrespective of the verbalisation, the serious student should nonetheless have no difficulty in being able to sense that contained within this strangest of strange myths is an ancient truth that causes life to take on a meaning that was not present before. And yet, although that meaning becomes clear with time, the ring of truth which gives rise to this remains for ever, mysteriously, just beyond the grasp of the human mind. It is for this reason that it is stated that unless the warrior becomes the myth, the truth remains for ever elusive.
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