stalking
The art of stalking
is the riddle
of the heart;
the puzzlement sorcerers feel upon becoming aware
of two things:
first that the world appears
to us to
be unalterably objective and factual, because of peculiarities of our awareness
and perception; second, that if
different peculiarities of perception come into play, the very things about
the world that seem so unalterably
objective and factual change.
Carlos Castaneda, The Power of Silence,
1987
The art of stalking
is learning all the quirks
of your disguise.
To learn them so well no one will know you
are disguised. For that you need
to be ruthless, cunning, patient, and sweet.
Stalking is an
art applicable to everything. There are four steps to learning
it: ruthlessness, cunning, patience, and sweetness. Ruthlessness should not be harshness, cunning should not be cruelty, patience should not be negligence, and sweetness should
not be foolishness. These four steps
have to be practiced and perfected
until they are so smooth they are unnoticeable.
Carlos Castaneda, The Power of Silence,
1987
The very first principle of stalking
is that a warrior stalks himself. He stalks himself ruthlessly, cunningly, patiently, and sweetly.
Stalking is the art of using
behavior in novel ways for specific purposes.
Normal human behavior in the
world of everyday life is
routine. Any behavior that brakes
from routine causes an unusual effect
on our total being. That unusual
effect is what sorcerers seek, because it
is cumulative.
The sorcerer seers of ancient times, through their seeing , first
noticed that unusual behavior produced a tremor in the assemblage point. They soon discovered
that if unusual
behavior was practiced systematically and directed wisely,
it eventually forced the assemblage
point to move.
The real challenge for
those sorcerer seers, was finding
a system of behavior that was
neither petty nor capricious, but that combined
the morality and the sense
of beauty which differentiates sorcerer seers from plain witches.
Anyone who succeeds in moving his assemblage
point to a new position is
a sorcerer. And from that new
position, he can do all kinds of good
and bad things
to his fellow
men. Being a sorcerer, therefore, can be like being a cobbler
or a baker. The quest of sorcerer
seers is to go beyond
that stand. And to do that, they
need morality and beauty.
For sorcerers, stalking
is the foundation
on which everything else they do is built.
It is the
art of controlled
folly.
Carlos Castaneda, The Power of Silence,
1987
Sorcerers constantly stalk
themselves. The sensation of being bottled
up is experienced by every human being. It is a reminder
of our existing
connection with intent .
For sorcerers this sensation is even more acute,
precisely because their goal is
to sensitize their connecting link until they can make it function
at will.
When the pressure of their connecting
link is too great, sorcerers relieve it by stalking themselves. Stalking is a procedure, a very simple one. Stalking is special behavior
that follows certain principles. It is secretive,
furtive, deceptive behavior designed to deliver a jolt.
And, when you stalk yourself you jolt
yourself, using your own behavior
in a ruthless, cunning way.
When a sorcerer's awareness
becomes bogged down with the
weight of his perceptual input, the best, or even perhaps
the only, remedy is to
use the idea of death to deliver
that stalking jolt.
Carlos Castaneda, The Power of Silence,
1987