Version 2007.11.07

## "Encounters With The Nagual" - ©2004 by Armando Torres
Part II. Warriors' Dialogue

### The Sorcerer's Alternative

I asked him if an ordinary person has any chance of surviving death.

He answered that there is always one possibility: The way of the warrior.

"If you want to understand this, don't look at it in black and white. See it more in terms of movements of the assemblage point. The challenge of a warrior is to fix his attention, and fight to maintain the awareness of his individuality even after his departure.

"When we reach a certain threshold of perception, we see that physical death is a challenge. Just as there are two ways of living, there are two ways of dying; in both we can act as impeccable warriors- or as unconscious idiots. That difference is everything."

"Do you mean that what happens after death depends on how we prepare for it?"

Perceiving the intention of my question, he answered:

"Yes, but not in the way you want to interpret it. The idea that being good or complying with certain commandments will facilitate things is a fallacy which has been transmitted to us by the social order. The only preparation that is worthwhile is to take on the rigors of the way of the warrior, which teaches us how to save energy and be impeccable.

"Since there are two forms of living and dying, there are also two kinds of people: those who feel immortal, and those who are already dead. The first ones harbor hopes, the last ones do not. A warrior is somebody who knows that his time is already up, but still continues to fight, because that is his nature. If you look into his eyes, you will find emptiness."

"But then what is the sorcerer's alternative really about?"

"There is only one way for a man to be ahead of his own end: through managing his energy. That work consists of dreaming, stalking and recapitulation. These three techniques together give one result: the completion of the energy body.

"In a general sense, the duration of our existence depends in great measure on how we treat our energy. Ordinarily we leave this life filled to the brim with everyday concerns: We are eroded by the things we see and touch, and for that reason we die. But if we call back to ourselves all that vital force through recapitulation, death can no longer be the same because we will have our totality.

"From the seers' point of view, a warrior who has recapitulated his life does not die. His attention is so compact that it is one continuous and coherent line: It is not dispersed. His recapitulation never ends: It continues for eternity because it is the work of retracing his steps; of existing on his own and being complete.

"Just like we need a certain quantity of experience to function as individuals, a sorcerer requires sufficient practice in the second attention to be a true sorcerer; otherwise, he won't be prepared when the time comes, and he will depart into infinity as an incomplete sorcerer. Nevertheless, a warrior who struggled all his life to reach the parameters of impeccability does have a second chance. He can gather the events of his existence, and pick up the scattered energy in order to pass into the world of the nagual."

I asked him what a sorcerer does in that world.

He answered:

"For most people, to die is to speechlessly enter something very unfamiliar, much like what we experience in ordinary dreams. There, nothing has a linear sequence, and the concepts of time, space, and gravity do not apply. Imagine what a warrior with the control of his dreaming double can do on a journey of that nature! No doubt you can see that this is a great feat of awareness.

"A sorcerer is somebody who spends his life tuning himself through arduous discipline. When his time arrives, he faces death like a new stage in his travel along the path. Unlike an ordinary man, he doesn't try to soothe his fear with false hopes.

"The warrior departs for his definitive journey filled with joy, and his death greets him and allows him to keep his individuality like a trophy. His sense of being is so finely tuned that he becomes pure energy, and disappears with the fire from within. In that way, he is able to extend his individuality for thousands of millions of years."

"Thousands of millions?"

"That's it. We are children of the Earth: It is our ultimate source. The option of sorcerers is to unite with the awareness of the Earth for as long as the Earth will live."