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			Our total being 
      consists of two perceivable segments. The first is the familiar physical 
      body, which all of us can perceive; the second is the luminous body, which 
      is a cocoon that only seers can perceive, a cocoon that gives us the 
      appearance of giant luminous eggs.
 
			One of the most 
      important goals of sorcery is to reach the luminous cocoon; a goal which 
      is fulfilled through the sophisticated use of dreaming and 
      through a rigorous, systematic exertion called not-doing . 
      I've defined not-doing as an unfamiliar act which engages our 
      total being by forcing it to become conscious of its luminous 
      segment.
 
			To explain these concepts I've make a 
      three-part, uneven division of our consciousness. The smallest, the first 
      attention, or the consciousness that every normal person has developed in 
      order to deal with the daily world, encompasses the awareness of the 
      physical body. Another larger portion, the second attention, is the 
      awareness we need in order to perceive our luminous cocoon and to act as 
      luminous beings. The second attention is brought forth through deliberate 
      training or by an accidental trauma, and it encompasses the awareness of 
      the luminous body. The last portion, which is the largest, is the third 
      attention. It's an immeasurable consciousness which engages undefinable 
      aspects of the awareness of the physical and the luminous bodies. The 
      battlefield of warriors is the second attention, which is something like a 
      training ground for reaching the third attention.
 
			  
		 
			The compulsion to possess and hold on to 
      things is not unique. Everyone who wants to follow the warrior's path has 
      to rid himself of this fixation in order not to focus our 
      dreaming body on the weak face of the second 
      attention.
 
			The dreaming 
      body , sometimes called the "double" or the "Other," because 
      it is a perfect replica of the dreamer 's body, is inherently 
      the energy of a luminous being, a whitish, phantomlike emanation, which is 
      projected by the fixation of the second attention into a three-dimensional 
      image of the body.
 
			The dreaming 
      body is as real as anything we deal with in the world. The 
      second attention is unavoidably drawn to focus on our total being as a 
      field of energy, and transforms that energy into anything suitable. The 
      easiest thing is of course the image of the physical body, with which we 
      are already thoroughly familiar from our daily lives and the use of our 
      first attention. What channels the energy of our total being to produce 
      anything that might be within the boundaries of possibility is known 
      as will .
 
			At the level of luminous 
      beings the range is so broad that it is futile to try to establish 
      limits--thus, the energy of a luminous being can be transformed 
      through will into anything.
 
			We are 
      not merely whatever our common sense requires us to believe we are. We are 
      in actuality luminous beings, capable of becoming aware of our luminosity. 
      As luminous beings aware of our luminosity, we are capable of unraveling 
      different facets of our awareness, or our attention. That unraveling could 
      be brought about by a deliberate effort, as we are doing ourselves, or 
      accidentally, through a bodily trauma.
 
			The old 
      sorcerers deliberately placed different facets of their attention on 
      material objects. By unraveling another facet of our attention we might 
      become receptors for the projections of ancient sorcerers' second 
      attention. Those sorcerers were impeccable practitioners with no limit to 
      what they could accomplish with the fixation of their second 
      attention.
 
 Be fluid, at 
      ease in whatever situation you find yourself. Your challenge is to deal 
      with people with ease regardless of what they do to you. Remember what I 
      have said, that it is of no use to be sad and complain and feel justified 
      in doing so, believing that someone is always doing something to us. 
      Nobody is doing anything to anybody, much less to a warrior.
 
			  
		 
			You must let go of your desire 
      to cling. The very same thing happened to me. I held on to things, such as 
      the food I liked, the mountains where I lived, the people I used to enjoy 
      talking to. But most of all I clung to the desire to be liked. Those 
      things are our barriers to losing our human form. Our attention is trained 
      to focus doggedly. That is the way we maintain the world. Now is the time 
      to let go of all that. In order to lose your human form you should let go 
      of all that ballast.
 
			  
		 
			Dissipating a mood through overanalyzing it wastes our power.
 
 If you have the same vision in 
      dreaming three times, pay extraordinary attention to it. When 
      a dreamer dreams that he sees himself asleep he must avoid 
      sudden jolts or surprises, and take everything with a grain of salt. The 
      dreamer has to get involved in dispassionate 
      experimentations. Rather than examining his sleeping body, the 
      dreamer walks out of the room.
 
			In 
      dreaming what matters is volition, the corporeality of the 
      body has no significance. It is simply a memory that slows down the 
      dreamer . If you do not stare at things but only glance at 
      them, just as you do in the daily world, you can arrange your perception. 
      That is, by taking your dreaming for granted, you then can 
      use the perceptual biases of your everyday life.
 
			  
		 
			Wait before revealing a finding. Wait for the 
      most appropriate time to let go of something that you hold.
 
			  
		 
			Losing the human form brings 
      the freedom to remember your self. Losing the human form is like a spiral. 
      It gives you the freedom to remember and this in turn makes you even 
      freer.
 
 A warrior knows 
      that he is waiting and knows also what he is waiting for, and while he 
      waits he feasts his eyes on the world. The ultimate accomplishment of a 
      warrior is joy.
 
 Accept 
      your fate in humbleness. The course of a warrior's destiny is unalterable. 
      The challenge is how far he can go within those rigid bounds, how 
      impeccable he can be within those rigid bounds. If there are obstacles in 
      his path, the warrior strives impeccably to overcome them. If he finds 
      unbearable hardship and pain on his path, he weeps, but all his tears put 
      together could not move the line of his destiny the breadth of one hair. 
      Fulfill your fate as a warrior not as a petty person.
 
 Detachment does not automatically mean 
      wisdom, but it is nonetheless, an advantage because it allows the warrior 
      to pause momentarily to reassess situations, to reconsider positions. In 
      order to use that extra moment consistently and correctly, however, a 
      warrior has to struggle unyieldingly for a lifetime.
 
			A warrior is someone who seeks freedom. Sadness is not freedom. We 
      must snap out of it. Having a sense of detachment entails having a 
      moment's pause to reassess situations.
 
			Formlessness is, if anything, a detriment to sobriety and levelheadedness. 
      An aspect of being detached, the capacity to become immersed in whatever 
      one is doing, naturally extends to everything one does, including being 
      inconsistent, and outright petty. The advantage of being formless is that 
      it allows us a moment's pause, providing that we have the self-discipline 
      and courage to utilize it.
 
 We unwittingly focus on fear and distrust, as if those were the 
      only possible options available to us, while all along we have the 
      alternative of deliberately centering our attention on the opposite, the 
      mystery, the wonder of what is happening to us.
 
			  
		 
			There are no steps to anything a warrior does. 
      There is only personal power.
 
			  
		 
			In the final analysis every dreamer is 
      different. There are, however, general states. Restful vigil 
      is the preliminary state, a state in which the senses become dormant and 
      yet one is aware.
 
			The second state is 
      dynamic vigil. In this state one is left looking at a scene, 
      a tableau of sorts, which is static. One sees a three-dimensional picture, 
      a frozen bit of something--a landscape, a street, a house, a person, a 
      face, anything.
 
			The third state is passive 
      witnessing. In it the dreamer is no longer viewing a 
      frozen bit of the world but is observing, eyewitnessing, an event as it 
      occurs. It is as if the primacy of the visual and auditory senses makes 
      this state of dreaming mainly an affair of the eyes and 
      ears.
 
			The fourth state is the one in which you are 
      drawn to act. In it one is compelled to enterprise, to take steps, to make 
      the most of one's time. This state is called dynamic 
      initiative.
 
			  
		 
			You have to look after someone and take care of them in a most selfish 
      fashion--that is, as if they are your own self. Selfishness can be put to 
      a grand use. To harness it is not impossible. The surest way to harness 
      selfishness is through the daily activities of our lives.
 
			You are efficient in whatever you do because you have no one to bug 
      the devil out of you. It is no challenge to you to soar like an arrow by 
      yourself. If you are given the task of taking care of someone else, 
      however, your independent effectiveness will go to pieces, and in order to 
      survive you will have to extend your selfish concern for yourself to 
      include the one under your care. You must honor them regardless of what 
      they do to you, and you must train your body, through your interaction 
      with them, to feel at ease in the face of the most trying 
      situations.
 
			It is much easier to fare well under 
      conditions of maximum stress than to be impeccable under normal 
      circumstances, such as in the interplay with another under your 
      care.
 
			Further, then, you cannot under any 
      circumstances get angry with them, because they are indeed your 
      benefactor; only through them will you be capable of harnessing your 
      selfishness.
 
			You take care of them as a means of 
      training yourself for the hardship of interaction with people. It is 
      imperative that you internalize a mood of ease in the face of difficult 
      social situations.
 
			  
		 
			Dreaming begins as a unique state of awareness arrived at by 
      focusing the residue of consciousness, which one still has when asleep, on 
      the elements, or the features, of one's dreams.
 
			The residue of consciousness, called the second attention, is brought into 
      action, or is harnessed, through exercises of not-doing . The 
      essential aid to dreaming is a state of mental quietness, 
      called "stopping the internal dialogue," or the "not-doing of 
      talking to oneself." To teach you how to master it, I've made you walk for 
      miles with your eyes held fixed and out of focus at a level just above the 
      horizon so as to emphasize the peripheral view. This method is effective 
      on two counts. It allows you to stop your internal dialogue, and it trains 
      your attention. By forcing you to concentrate on the peripheral view, I 
      reinforced your capacity to concentrate for long periods of time on one 
      single activity.
 
			The best way to enter into 
      dreaming is to concentrate on the area just at the tip of the 
      sternum, at the top of the belly. The attention needed for 
      dreaming stems from that area. The energy needed in order to 
      move and to seek in dreaming stems from the area an inch or 
      two below the belly button. That energy is the will , or the 
      power to select, to assemble. In a woman both the attention and the energy 
      for dreaming originate from the womb.
 
			Anything may suffice as a not-doing to help 
      dreaming , providing that it forces the attention to remain 
      fixed. The attention one needs in the beginning of dreaming 
      has to be forcibly made to stay on any given item in a dream. Only through 
      immobilizing our attention can one turn an ordinary dream into 
      dreaming.
 
			In dreaming 
      one has to use the same mechanisms of attention as in everyday life. Our 
      first attention has been taught to focus on the items of the world with 
      great force in order to turn the amorphous and chaotic realm of perception 
      into the orderly world of awareness.
 
			The second 
      attention serves the function of a beckoner, a caller of chances. The more 
      it is exercised, the greater the possibility of getting the desired 
      result. But that is also the function of attention in general, a function 
      so taken for granted in our daily life that it has become unnoticeable; if 
      we encounter a fortuitous occurrence we talk about it in terms of accident 
      or coincidence, rather than in terms of our attention having beckoned the 
      event.
 
			  
		 
			The only 
      thing that really counts in making the shift into the dreaming 
      body is anchoring the second attention. Attention is what makes the 
      world. What is important is to store attention in 
      dreaming.
 
			The first attention, the 
      attention that makes the world, can never be completely overcome; it can 
      only be turned off for a moment and replaced with the second attention, 
      providing that the body had stored enough of it. Dreaming is 
      naturally a way of storing the second attention. In order to shift into 
      your dreaming body when awake you have to practice 
      dreaming until it comes out your ears.
 
			I have given you three tasks to train your second attention. First, 
      to find your hands in dreaming . Next, to choose a locale, 
      focus your attention on it, and then do daytime dreaming and 
      find out if you can really go there. I've suggested that you place someone 
      you know at the site in order to do two things: first to check subtle 
      changes that might indicate that you were there in dreaming , 
      and second, to isolate unobtrusive detail, which would be precisely what 
      your second attention would zero in on.
 
			The most 
      serious problem the dreamer has in this respect is the 
      unbending fixation of the second attention on detail that would be 
      thoroughly undetected by the attention of everyday life, creating in this 
      manner a nearly insurmountable obstacle to validation. What one seeks in 
      dreaming is not what one would pay attention to in everyday 
      life.
 
			One strives to immobilize the second 
      attention only in the learning period. After that, one has to fight the 
      almost invincible pull of the second attention and give only cursory 
      glances at everything. In dreaming one has to be satisfied 
      with the briefest possible views of everything. As soon as one focuses on 
      anything, one loses control.
 
			The last generalized 
      task I gave you to train your second attention was to get out of your 
      body. This task begins with a dream in which you find yourself looking at 
      yourself asleep.
 
			To elucidate the control of the 
      second attention, I've presented the idea of will . 
      Will can be described as the maximum control of the luminosity of 
      the body as a field of energy; or it can be described as a level of 
      proficiency, as a state of being that comes abruptly into the daily life 
      of a warrior at any given time. It is experienced as a force that radiates 
      out of the middle part of the body following a moment of the most absolute 
      silence, or a moment of sheer terror, or profound sadness. Those things 
      afford the warrior the concentration needed to use the luminosity of the 
      body and turn it into silence.
 
			For a human being 
      sadness is as powerful as terror. Both can bring the moment of silence. Or 
      the silence comes of itself, because the warrior tries for it throughout 
      his life. It is a moment of blackness, a moment still more silent than the 
      moment of shutting off the internal dialogue. That blackness, that 
      silence, gives rise to the intent to direct the second 
      attention, to command it, to make it do things. This is why it's 
      called will . The intent and the effect 
      are will ; they are tied together.
 
			We 
      don't feel our will because we think that it should be 
      something we know for sure that we are doing or feeling, like getting 
      angry, for instance. Will is very quiet, unnoticeable. 
      Will belongs to the other self. We are in our other selves when we 
      do dreaming .
 
			Will is 
      such a complete control of the second attention that it is called the 
      other self.
 
			  
		 
			Intent is present everywhere. Intent is what makes the 
      world. People, and all other living creatures for that matter, are the 
      slaves of intent . We are in its clutches. It makes us do 
      whatever it wants. It makes us act in the world. It even makes us die. 
      When we become warriors, though, intent becomes our friend. 
      It lets us be free for a moment; at times it even comes to us, as if it 
      had been waiting around for us.
 
 Again, human beings are divided in two. The right side, which is 
      called the tonal , encompasses everything the intellect can 
      conceive of. The left side, called the nagual , is a realm of 
      indescribable features: a realm impossible to contain in words. The left 
      side is perhaps comprehended, if comprehension is what takes place, with 
      the total body; thus its resistance to conceptualization. All the 
      faculties, possibilities, and accomplishments of sorcery, from the 
      simplest to the most astounding, are in the human body itself.
 
			  
		 
			The power that governs the 
      destiny of all living beings is called the Eagle or the 
      Indescribable Force . Providing the luminous shell that 
      comprises one's humanness has been broken, it is possible to find in the 
      Indescribable Force the faint reflection of man. The 
      Indescribable Force 's irrevocable dictums can then be 
      apprehended by seers, properly interpreted by them, and accumulated in the 
      form of a governing body. Thus the rule was formed.
 
			The rule is not a tale. The rule states that every living thing has 
      been granted the power, if it so desires, to seek an opening to freedom 
      and to go through it.
 
			To cross over to freedom 
      does not mean eternal life as eternity is commonly understood--that is, as 
      living forever. What the rule states is that one can keep the awareness 
      which is ordinarily relinquished at the moment of dying. I cannot explain 
      what it means to keep that awareness. My benefactor told me that at the 
      moment of crossing, one enters into the third attention, and the body in 
      its entirety is kindled with knowledge. Every cell at once becomes aware 
      of itself, and also aware of the totality of the body.
 
			This kind of awareness is meaningless to our compartmentalized 
      minds. Therefore the crux of the warrior's struggle is not so much to 
      realize that the crossing over stated in the rule means crossing to the 
      third attention, but rather to conceive that there exists such an 
      awareness at all.
 
			There is a common error, that of 
      overestimating the left-side awareness, of becoming dazzled by its clarity 
      and power. To be in the left-side awareness does not mean that one is 
      immediately liberated from one's folly--it only means an extended capacity 
      for perceiving, and above all, a greater ability to forget.
 
 One has to be utterly humble and 
      carry nothing to defend, not even one's person. One's person should be 
      protected, but not defended.
 
			It takes a very long 
      time to clean out the garbage that a luminous being picks up in the world. 
      We are so stiff and feel so self-important.
 
			  
		 
			Stalkers deal with people, with the 
      world of ordinary affairs. Stalkers are the practitioners of 
      controlled folly as the dreamers are the practitioners of 
      dreaming . Controlled folly is the basis for 
      stalking , as dreams are the basis for dreaming 
      . Generally speaking, a warrior's greatest accomplishment in the second 
      attention is dreaming , and in the first attention his 
      greatest accomplishment is stalking.
 
			In the absence of self-importance, a warrior's only way of dealing with 
      the social milieu is in terms of controlled folly.
 
 Deal with the world exclusively in terms of 
      controlled folly.
 
			  
		 
			A 
      warrior never loses his mind under any circumstances.
 
			  
		 
			A warrior is never under siege. To be 
      under siege implies that one has personal possessions that could be 
      blockaded. A warrior has nothing in the world except his impeccability, 
      and impeccability cannot be threatened. Nonetheless, in a battle for one's 
      life a warrior should strategically use every means available.
 
			  
		 
			We must live our lives 
      impeccably for no other reason than to be impeccable.
 
			  
		 
			Although human beings appear to a 
      seer as luminous eggs, the egglike shape is an external cocoon, a shell of 
      luminosity that houses a most intriguing, haunting, mesmeric core made up 
      of concentric circles of yellowish luminosity, the color of a candle's 
      flame.
 
			Losing the human form is the only means of 
      breaking that shell, the only means of liberating that haunting luminous 
      core. To break the shell means remembering the other self, and arriving at 
      the totality of oneself.
 
			  
		 
			An unconquerable pessimism overtakes a warrior at a certain point 
      on his path. A sense of defeat, or perhaps more accurately, a sense of 
      unworthiness, comes upon him almost unawares. A warrior's resolution to 
      live impeccably in spite of everything cannot be approached as a strategy 
      to ensure success.
 
			The warrior enters into a state 
      of unsurpassed humility; when the true poverty of his human resources 
      becomes undeniable, the warrior has no recourse but to step back and lower 
      his head.
 
			It is monstrous to think that the world 
      is understandable or that we ourselves are understandable. What we are 
      perceiving is an enigma, a mystery that one can only accept in humbleness 
      and awe. The two sides of a human being are totally separate and it takes 
      great discipline and determination to break that seal and go from one side 
      to the other. We have been put together by forces incomprehensible to our 
      reason. The only thing we do not have is time. Every minute might be our 
      last; therefore, it has to be lived with the spirit.
 
 Perception suffers a profound jolt when we 
      are placed in states of quietude in darkness. Our hearing takes the lead 
      then, and the signals from all the living and existing entities around us 
      can be detected--not with our hearing only, but with a combination of the 
      auditory and visual senses, in that order. In darkness the eyes become 
      subsidiary to the ears.
 
			  
		 
			Power spots are actual holes in a sort of canopy that prevents the 
      world from losing its shape. A power spot can be utilized as long as one 
      has gathered enough strength in the second attention. The key to 
      withstanding the Indescribable Force 's presence is the 
      potency of one's intent . Without intent there 
      is nothing.
 
 Be impeccable 
      and practice meticulously whatever you learn, and above all, be careful 
      and deliberate in your actions so as not to exhaust your life force in 
      vain.
 
			The prerequisite for entrance into any of 
      the three stages of attention is the possession of life force, because 
      without it warriors cannot have direction and purpose. Upon dying our 
      awareness also enters into the third attention; but only for an instant, 
      as a purging action, just before the Indescribable Force 
      devours it.
 
			  
		 
			Stalkers become lighthearted and jovial and enjoy their 
      lives.
 
			  
		 
			The second 
      attention belongs to the luminous body, as the first attention belongs to 
      the physical body.
 
			Dreaming is in 
      fact a rational state. In dreaming , the right side, the 
      rational awareness, is wrapped up inside the left side awareness in order 
      to give the dreamer a sense of sobriety and rationality; but 
      the influence of rationality has to be minimal and used only as an 
      inhibiting mechanism to protect the dreamer from excesses and 
      bizarre undertakings.
 
			Our first attention is 
      hooked to the emanations of the earth, while our second attention is 
      hooked to the emanations of the universe. A dreamer by 
      definition is outside the boundaries of the concerns of everyday 
      life.
 
			The dreamers ' 
      power to focus on their second attention makes them into living 
      slingshots. The stronger and the more impeccable the dreamers 
      are, the farther they can project their second attention into the unknown 
      and the longer their dreaming projection will last.
 
			Dreaming is no illusion. It's a step toward the 
      control of the second attention; in other words, you are learning the 
      perceptual bias of that other realm.
 
 There is no way on earth that we can order anyone or 
      ourselves to rally knowledge. It is rather a slow affair; the body, at the 
      right time and under the proper circumstances of impeccability, rallies 
      its knowledge without the intervention of desire.
 
			  
		 
			The first principle of the art of 
      stalking is that warriors choose their battleground. A 
      warrior never goes into battle without knowing what the surroundings 
      are.
 
			To discard everything that is unnecessary is 
      the second principle of the art of stalking .
 
			Warriors don't have the world to cushion them, so they must 
      have the rule. Yet the rule of stalkers applies to 
      everyone.
 The first precept of the rule is that 
      everything that surrounds us is an unfathomable mystery.
 
			The second precept of the rule is that we must try to unravel these 
      mysteries, but without ever hoping to accomplish this.
 
			The third, that a warrior, aware of the unfathomable mystery that 
      surrounds him and aware of his duty to try to unravel it, takes his 
      rightful place among mysteries and regards himself as one. Consequently, 
      for a warrior there is no end to the mystery of being, whether being means 
      being a pebble, or an ant, or oneself. That is a warrior's humbleness. One 
      is equal to everything.
 
			  
		 
			Apply all the concentration you have to decide whether or not to 
      enter into battle, for any battle is a battle for one's life. This is the 
      third principle of the art of stalking . A warrior must be 
      willing and ready to make his last stand here and now. But not in a 
      helter-skelter way.
 
			The fourth principle of the 
      art of stalking is; relax, abandon yourself, fear nothing. 
      Only then will the powers that guide us open the road and aid us. Only 
      then.
 
			The fifth principle is; when faced with odds 
      that cannot be dealt with, warriors retreat for a moment. They let their 
      minds meander. They occupy their time with something else. Anything would 
      do.
 
			The sixth principle: warriors compress time; 
      even an instant counts. In a battle for your life, a second is an 
      eternity; an eternity that may decide the outcome. Warriors aim at 
      succeeding, therefore they compress time. Warriors don't waste an 
      instant.
 
			  
		 
			A 
      recapitulation is the forte of stalkers as the 
      dreaming body is the forte of 
      dreamers . It consists of recollecting one's life down to the 
      most insignificant detail.
 
			The first stage is a 
      brief recounting of all the incidents in our lives that in an obvious 
      manner stand out for examination.
 The second stage 
      is a more detailed recollection, which starts systematically at a point 
      that could be the moment prior to the stalker sitting, and 
      theoretically could extend to the moment of birth.
 
			A perfect recapitulation can change a warrior as much, if not more, than 
      the total control of the dreaming body . In this 
      respect, dreaming and stalking lead to the same 
      end, the entering into the third attention. It is important for a warrior, 
      however, to know and practice both.
 
			The key 
      element in recapitulating is breathing. Recollecting is easy if one can 
      reduce the area of stimulation around the body. Theoretically, 
      stalkers have to remember every feeling that they have had in 
      their lives, and this process begins with a breath.
 
			Write down a list of the events to be relived. The procedure starts 
      with an initial breath. Stalkers begin with their chin on the 
      right shoulder and slowly inhale as they move their head over a hundred 
      and eighty degree arc. The breath terminates on the left shoulder. Once 
      the inhalation ends, the head goes back to a relaxed position. They exhale 
      looking straight ahead.
 
			The stalker 
      then takes the event at the top of the list and remains with it until all 
      the feelings expended in it have been recounted. As stalkers 
      remember the feelings they invested in whatever it is that they are 
      remembering, they inhale slowly, moving their heads from the right 
      shoulder to the left. The function of this breathing is to restore energy. 
      The luminous body is constantly creating cobweblike filaments, which are 
      projected out of the luminous mass, propelled by emotions of any sort. 
      Therefore, every situation of interaction, or every situation where 
      feelings are involved, is potentially draining to the luminous body. By 
      breathing from right to left while remembering a feeling, 
      stalkers , through the magic of breathing, pick up the 
      filaments they left behind. The next immediate breath is from left to 
      right and it is an exhalation. With it stalkers eject 
      filaments left in them by other luminous bodies involved in the event 
      being recollected.
 
			These are the mandatory 
      preliminaries of stalking . Unless stalkers have 
      gone through the preliminaries in order to retrieve the filaments they 
      have left in the world, and particularly in order to reject those that 
      others have left in them, there is no possibility of handling controlled 
      folly, because those foreign filaments are the basis of one's limitless 
      capacity for self-importance.
 
			In order to practice 
      controlled folly, since it is not a way to fool or chastise people or feel 
      superior to them, one has to be capable of laughing at oneself. One of the 
      results of a detailed recapitulation is genuine laughter upon coming face 
      to face with the boring repetition of one's self-esteem, which is at the 
      core of all human interactions.
 
			The rule defines 
      stalking and dreaming as arts; therefore they 
      are something that one performs. The life-giving nature of breath is what 
      also gives it its cleansing capacity. It is this capacity that makes a 
      recapitulation into a practical matter.
 A profound 
      recapitulation is the most expedient means to lose the human form. Thus it 
      is easier for stalkers , after recapitulating their lives, to 
      make use of all the not-doings of the self, such as erasing 
      personal history, losing self-importance, breaking routines and so 
      forth.
 
			  
		 
			A 
      stalker never pushes himself to the front. In order to apply 
      this seventh principle of the art of stalking , one has to 
      apply the other six. Only a master stalker can be a master of 
      controlled folly. Controlled folly doesn't mean to con people. It means, 
      as my benefactor explained it, that warriors apply the seven basic 
      principles of the art of stalking to whatever they do, from 
      the most trivial acts to life and death situations.
 
			Applying these principles brings about three results. The first is 
      that stalkers learn never to take themselves seriously; they 
      learn to laugh at themselves. If they're not afraid of being a fool, they 
      can fool anyone. The second is that stalkers learn to have 
      endless patience. Stalkers are never in a hurry; they never 
      fret. And the third is that stalkers learn to have an endless 
      capacity to improvise.
 
			  
		 
			Stalkers face the oncoming time. Normally we face time 
      as it recedes from us. Only stalkers can change that and face 
      time as it advances on them. They see time as something concrete, yet 
      incomprehensible.
 
			  
		 
			We're warriors, and warriors have only one thing in mind--their freedom. 
      To die and be consumed by the Indescribable Force is no 
      challenge. On the other hand, to sneak around the Indescribable 
      Force and be free is the ultimate audacity.
 
 What's needed to enter fully into the other self 
      is to abandon the intent of our first attention.
 
			  
		 
			Be frugal and utilize every 
      bit of your energy without wasting any of it.
 
			  
		 
			When I talk about time, I am not referring to 
      something which is measured by the movement of a clock. Time is the 
      essence of attention; the Indescribable Force 's emanations 
      are made out of time; and properly, when one enters into any aspect of the 
      other self, one is becoming acquainted with time.
 
			The wheel of time is like a state of heightened awareness which is part of 
      the other self, as the left side awareness is part of the self of everyday 
      life. It can physically be described as a tunnel of infinite length and 
      width; a tunnel with reflective furrows. Every furrow is infinite, and 
      there are infinite numbers of them. Living creatures are compulsorily 
      made, by the force of life, to gaze into one furrow. To gaze into it means 
      to be trapped by it, to live that furrow.
 
			Will belongs to the wheel of time. It is something like the 
      runner of a vine, or an intangible tentacle which all of us possess. A 
      warrior's final aim is to learn to focus it on the wheel of time in order 
      to make it turn. Warriors who have succeeded in turning the wheel of time 
      can gaze into any furrow and draw from it whatever they desire. To be 
      trapped compulsorily in one furrow of time entails seeing the images of 
      that furrow only as they recede. To be free from the spellbinding force of 
      those grooves means that one can look in either direction, as images 
      recede or as they approach.
 
			  
		 
			Warriors have no life of their own. From the moment they understand 
      the nature of awareness, they cease to be persons and the human condition 
      is no longer part of their view. You have your duty as a warrior and 
      nothing else is important. So do your best.
 
			The 
      challenge of a warrior is to arrive at a very subtle balance of positive 
      and negative forces. This challenge does not mean that a warrior should 
      strive to have everything under control, but that a warrior should strive 
      to meet any conceivable situation, the expected and the unexpected, with 
      equal efficiency. To be perfect under perfect circumstances is to be a 
      paper warrior.
 
			I will give you a formula, an 
      incantation for times when your task is greater than your 
      strength;
 
			
				
					
						
						I am 
      already given to the power that rules my fate.And 
      I cling to nothing, so I will have nothing to defend.
 I have no thoughts, so I will 
						see.
 I fear nothing, so I will remember myself.
 Detached and at ease,
 I will dart past the Eagle 
      to be free.
 
			It 
      takes an enormity of strength to let go of the intent of 
      everyday life. One must place one's attention on the luminous shell. A 
      warrior must evoke intent . The glance is the secret. The 
      eyes beckon intent . 
			The reason why 
      seeing seems to be visual is because we need the eyes to 
      focus on intent . Our eyes can catch another aspect of 
      intent and that's called seeing . The true 
      function of the eyes is to be the catchers of intent 
      .
 
			  
		 
			You should trust 
      yourself. On the left side there are no tears. A warrior can no longer 
      weep. The only expression of anguish is a shiver that comes from the very 
      depths of the universe. It is as if one of the Indescribable 
      Force 's emanations is anguish. The warrior's shiver is 
      infinite.
 
			  
		 
			The act of 
      remembering the other self is thoroughly incomprehensible. In actuality it 
      is the act of remembering oneself, which does not stop at recollecting the 
      interaction warriors perform in their left side awareness, but goes on to 
      recollect every memory that the luminous body has stored from the moment 
      of birth.
 
			This act of remembering, although it 
      seems to be only associated with warriors, is something that is within the 
      realm of every human being; every one of us can go directly to the 
      memories of our luminosity with unfathomable 
      results.
 
			  
			
			
			 
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