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mind, but which has the virtue of
silencing our thoughts once it is in motion. Don Juan called that kind of technique 'to remove
one thorn with another'."
As examples of not-doings, he mentioned listening in the dark, changing the priority of our
senses and the command that compels us to fall asleep as soon as we close our eyes. Also, to
talk with plants, to stand on our heads, to walk backwards, to observe the shadows and the
distance or spaces between the leaves of trees.
"All those activities are among the most effective to silence our internal dialogue, but they
have a defect: We cannot sustain them for a long time. After a while, we are forced to return
to our routines. A not-doing that is exaggerated will automatically lose its power and become
a doing.
"If what we want is to accumulate deep silence with a lasting effect, the best not-doing is
solitude. Together with energy saving and abandoning those who consider us 'facts', learning
how to be alone is the third practical principle of the path.
"The warrior's world is the most solitary thing there is. Even when several apprentices unite to
travel the routes of power together, each one knows that he is alone, that he cannot expect
anything from the others, nor can he depend on anybody. The only thing he can do is to share
his path with those who accompany him.
"To be alone requires a great effort, because we haven't learned how to overcome the genetic
command of socialization yet. In the beginning, an apprentice should be forced by his teacher,
through traps if necessary. But after a while he learns how to enjoy it. It is normal that
sorcerers look for silence in the solitude of mountains or in the desert, and that they live alone
during long periods."
Somebody commented that this was 'a hideous perspective'.
Carlos replied:
"Hideous is to spend our old age like weeping children!
"One of the ironies of modern life is that the more communication increases, the more solitary
we feel. Ordinary man's existence is one of harrowing loneliness. He looks for company, but
cannot find himself. His love has been devaluated; his dream is pure fantasy. His natural
curiosity has become a strictly personal concern, and the only thing he has left is his
attachments.
"On the other hand, the warrior's solitude is like a lovers' retreat, a place for those who seek a
remote niche to write poems to their love. And the warrior's love is everywhere, because it is
this Earth, where he will wander for such a brief time. So, wherever he goes, the warrior
surrenders to his romance. Naturally, he will sometimes avoid dealing with the world; inner
silence is solitary."
Carlos went on to say that the sorcerers of antiquity used power plants to stop the internal
dialogue. But today's warriors prefer less risky and more controlled conditions.
"The same results produced by power plants can be obtained when we are up against the wall.
Facing extreme situations, like danger, fear, sensorial saturation, and aggression, something in
us reacts and takes control: the mind becomes alert and automatically suspends its chatter.
Deliberately creating that situation is called stalking.
"However, the favorite method of warriors is recapitulation. Recapitulation stops the mind in
a natural way.
"The main detonators of our thoughts are pending matters, expectations, and defense of the
ego. It is very difficult to find a person whose internal dialogue is sincere; usually, we hide
our frustrations and go to the opposite extreme: The content of our mind turns into an ode to
'me'.
"To recapitulate puts an end to all that. After a time of sustained effort, something crystallizes
there inside. The habitual dialogue becomes incoherent, uncomfortable; the only remedy is to
stop it.
"An apprentice in this phase will normally find himself facing a gross-fire. On the one hand is
the homogenization of his Assemblage point; and on the other, some enormous parentheses of
silence which strain through his mind, breaking it into fragments.
"When the inertia of the internal dialogue is broken, the world is made over and becomes
new. The wave of energy feels like an unbearable vacuum opening under his feet. Because of
this, a warrior may spend years in an unstable state of mind. The only thing that comforts him
in such a situation is to keep the purpose of his path clear to himself, and not lose, under any
circumstances, his perspective of freedom. An impeccable warrior never loses his sanity.
"If, when applying some of these techniques, warriors feel that their minds shiver, and a voice
that is not the habitual one begins to whisper things to them, that is normal and they should
not be scared. They are not going mad, they are entering into the consensus of sorcerers."
They asked him if moving the assemblage point also attracts silence.
He answered:
"It is the opposite. Inner silence induces displacements of the assemblage point, and these
displacements are cumulative. Once a certain threshold is reached, silence can move the point
a great distance by itself, but not before."
He explained that the force of collective consent creates a certain inertia that varies from
person to person, according to their energetic characteristics. Resistance to the world's
description can vary from some seconds to one hour, or more, but it is not eternal. To conquer
it by means of a sustained intent is what sorcerers call
'arriving at the threshold of silence.'
"That rupture is felt physically, as a crack in the base of the skull or as the sound of a bell.
From that starting point, it becomes a matter of how much power has been accumulated.
"There are those who have stopped their dialogue for some seconds and immediately get
scared, begin to wonder about things or describe what they feel to themselves. Others learn
how to remain in that state for hours or days, and they even use it for useful activities. For
example, there you have my books; on Don Juan's demand, I have written them from a basic
state of silence. But experienced sorcerers go even further than that: They can enter the other
world in a definite form.
"I met a warrior who lived there almost permanently. When I asked him something, he
answered by telling me what he was seeing, without caring if that answer was coherent with
my question. He lived beyond my syntax. From my apprentice point of view, of course he was
crazy I
"In spite of its indefinable nature, we can measure silence through its results. Its final effect,
the one that sorcerers look for with avidity, is that it brings us in tune with a magnificent
dimension of our being, where we have access to an instantaneous and total knowledge that is
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