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"Castaneda’s view is that life and awareness are eternal and intertwined, pre-existing and intrinsic. At its most basic level, and from eternity, the universe consists of strands of luminous energy that are already alive and aware. Life with awareness does not evolve from nothing. It exists everywhere and manifests repeatedly in a multitude of different forms. It’s nearly impossible to describe these strands of aware energy because we are made of them. By projecting our limited imagination onto them, we can visualize them as filaments or emanations. We can’t say if they’re large or small. Each one stretches endlessly into an infinite length and eternity unto itself. Billions of them can pass through our being.
This energy is aware and conscious of itself, sizzling, alive and moving with the universe’s momentum and purpose. These strands can be called the universe’s commands, or its intention. They are infinite strings of indescribable energetic awareness.
‘As I stared at the wondrous sight, filaments of light began to radiate from everything on that prairie. At first it was like the explosion of an infinite number of short fibers, then the fibers became long threadlike strands of luminosity bundled together into beams of vibrating light that reached infinity. There was really no way for me to make sense of what I was seeing, or to describe it, except as filaments of vibrating light. The filaments were not intermingled or entwined. Although they sprang, and continued to spring, in every direction, each one was separate, and yet all of them were inextricably bundled together.’
These basic elements of the universe are infinite. Each is individual and independent, yet they are bundled together to make streams and currents. Together, these infinite numbers of infinite strands make up a vast sea of awareness, with tiny wisps of spray, powerful currents and unknown depths.
Life and awareness do not arise from a mass of primordial inert matter and impersonal energy accidentally combining and then evolving randomly. The universe has aware energy and an infinite number of moulds, or archetypes, for every kind of sentient being. It somehow casts or stamps us into human form. Our form, then, is like a receptacle that interacts with the filaments of universal aware power to perform a magical act: perception.
We materialize and appear as tiny bubbles floating in the immense ocean of indescribable awareness far beyond our understanding. Our existence is an infinitesimally small part of a process wherein this ocean of awareness organizes and knows itself. Our form of life and awareness is not the crown of creation. It is only one aspect of an immeasurable universal awareness that has its own intent, a swirling ocean impossible to conceive of or understand.
The universe is basically predatory in nature. Multitudes of entities exist in the universe, preying on each other, seeking each other’s awareness. We are at the mercy of vast currents of energy which have awareness, that manifest in many forms. Life forms are born and die constantly. Sentient beings are lent awareness, and the purpose of life is to enrich that awareness and then return it to the endower in an enhanced form.
The universe is predatory because the interaction between life and death is the necessary cause of enhanced awareness. Once a sentient being is born, it enters a dance with death. The constant presence of death, and the awareness of death, causes the enhancement of the individual’s and the universe’s awareness.
Our position as miniscule outposts of a limited awareness in this vast unknown is precarious. The only possible control we have is the ability to know things within our own small field of energy. Our conscious being is made up of the things which we are given as known; we are like tiny islands floating in a boundless space of unknown powers. We build and maintain our island by learning to perceive selected items. To survive we must protect our island by controlling our own awareness, nourishing our perception of things we know, blocking out the unknown which would otherwise engulf us.
Many types of individual sentient beings exist in the universe of energetic awareness, including organic beings as well as inorganic entities which have awareness but no bodies. There are hierarchies of awareness. We are aware of many beings that have little or no awareness that we exist and perceive them, such as many insects and microscopic creatures. Entities exist which are aware of us while we are not aware of them, even while we share the same space."
Peter Luce, Getting Castaneda: Understanding Carlos Castaneda (p. 32-34).
This energy is aware and conscious of itself, sizzling, alive and moving with the universe’s momentum and purpose. These strands can be called the universe’s commands, or its intention. They are infinite strings of indescribable energetic awareness.
‘As I stared at the wondrous sight, filaments of light began to radiate from everything on that prairie. At first it was like the explosion of an infinite number of short fibers, then the fibers became long threadlike strands of luminosity bundled together into beams of vibrating light that reached infinity. There was really no way for me to make sense of what I was seeing, or to describe it, except as filaments of vibrating light. The filaments were not intermingled or entwined. Although they sprang, and continued to spring, in every direction, each one was separate, and yet all of them were inextricably bundled together.’
These basic elements of the universe are infinite. Each is individual and independent, yet they are bundled together to make streams and currents. Together, these infinite numbers of infinite strands make up a vast sea of awareness, with tiny wisps of spray, powerful currents and unknown depths.
Life and awareness do not arise from a mass of primordial inert matter and impersonal energy accidentally combining and then evolving randomly. The universe has aware energy and an infinite number of moulds, or archetypes, for every kind of sentient being. It somehow casts or stamps us into human form. Our form, then, is like a receptacle that interacts with the filaments of universal aware power to perform a magical act: perception.
We materialize and appear as tiny bubbles floating in the immense ocean of indescribable awareness far beyond our understanding. Our existence is an infinitesimally small part of a process wherein this ocean of awareness organizes and knows itself. Our form of life and awareness is not the crown of creation. It is only one aspect of an immeasurable universal awareness that has its own intent, a swirling ocean impossible to conceive of or understand.
The universe is basically predatory in nature. Multitudes of entities exist in the universe, preying on each other, seeking each other’s awareness. We are at the mercy of vast currents of energy which have awareness, that manifest in many forms. Life forms are born and die constantly. Sentient beings are lent awareness, and the purpose of life is to enrich that awareness and then return it to the endower in an enhanced form.
The universe is predatory because the interaction between life and death is the necessary cause of enhanced awareness. Once a sentient being is born, it enters a dance with death. The constant presence of death, and the awareness of death, causes the enhancement of the individual’s and the universe’s awareness.
Our position as miniscule outposts of a limited awareness in this vast unknown is precarious. The only possible control we have is the ability to know things within our own small field of energy. Our conscious being is made up of the things which we are given as known; we are like tiny islands floating in a boundless space of unknown powers. We build and maintain our island by learning to perceive selected items. To survive we must protect our island by controlling our own awareness, nourishing our perception of things we know, blocking out the unknown which would otherwise engulf us.
Many types of individual sentient beings exist in the universe of energetic awareness, including organic beings as well as inorganic entities which have awareness but no bodies. There are hierarchies of awareness. We are aware of many beings that have little or no awareness that we exist and perceive them, such as many insects and microscopic creatures. Entities exist which are aware of us while we are not aware of them, even while we share the same space."
Peter Luce, Getting Castaneda: Understanding Carlos Castaneda (p. 32-34).
