Years ago when I was a college student, I voraciously read and reread the works of Carlos Castaneda. While many of his observations being mentored by his teacher, Don Juan, remain with me, today as I was hiking along the Old Salmon River in Welches, Oregon, I thought about the end of his third book, Journey to Ixtlan. Don Juan and his fellow sorcerer Don Genaro are explaining to Carlos that he has a spiritual challenge: to find and wrestle his “ally” figure. It may destroy him or it may provide some kind of spiritual reward as he “wins his ally.” The ally is veiled and shrouded in mystery. Don Genaro describes to Carlos how many years ago he was spun like a top by his ally and in the end, to his great surprise, triumphed. He went on to describe how he next tried to return to Ixtlan where he had a home, family and friends, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not reach his destination. He characterized other human beings whom he encountered on his journey home, with the exception of Don Juan, as simply phantoms–people who appeared to be real but had no real essence. Don Juan then tells Castaneda that when he gains an ally, he will never be able to return to the Los Angeles that he left. We can speculate what the meaning of all of this is about–profound shift of self-identity and spiritual transformation maybe? Perhaps this is meant to be like a Zen koan that our rational minds will never fully apprehend. But today, along the Old Salmon River, the people I encountered along the trail were as real as people come. They were older retired folks and younger college students and even families. All of them were there with me and Anita taking in the vital force of the forest, the churning river and the misty rain keeping everything drippy wet. Seeing and feeling the carpet of newly fallen leaves under foot reminds me that the natural world follows ancient cycles of change and transformation that our ancestors came to rely on that we moderns have to surrender to as well. Hiking among the natural world is a refreshing departure from the electronic culture that is the zeitgeist of our time, always looking for wi-fi with one of our gadgets and the latest software update. I appreciate when we make the time to leave town and put on our hiking boots and get real. It’s not that we are simply phantoms the rest of the time, although our workaday demands can tend to pull us out of ourselves. It’s just that when surrounded by river, trees, ferns and mist I feel completely real in a way that my connection to nature endorses. And the people we encounter on the trail feel just as real.
Posted by Howard Brockman, LCSW
October 20, 2012
Howard Brockman
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