Stalking

One stalks oneself to understand who or what one is. In the inventory of warriors, don Juan determined that it was self-importance that took most of our power. Perhaps you think you are cool, so you have to expend most of your energy to uphold that view of yourself. I'd say that he's half-right. The thing is if you don't have Truth, you have to substitute it for some glamour or gloss that you keep over yourself.

From Carlos Casteneda, Eagle's Gift:

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.

Controlled folly.

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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.

1. warriors choose their battleground. A warrior never goes into battle without knowing what the surroundings are.
2. 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.
3. 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. A warrior must be willing and ready to make his last stand here and now. But not in a helter-skelter way.
4. relax, abandon yourself, fear nothing. Only then will the powers that guide us open the road and aid us. Only then.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.

• Body: never to take oneself seriously; they learn to laugh at themselves. If they're not afraid of being a fool, they can fool anyone.
• Heart: endless patience. Stalkers are never in a hurry; they never fret.
• Mind: endless capacity to improvise.