A Dialogue Between Carlos Castaneda and Master Sosan

[Lois]

 

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A Dialogue Between Carlos Castaneda and Master Sosan

Carlos:
I came for knowledge. Don Juan would say it isn’t given for free — but I’ve heard that your teaching is different. You speak of the Oneness of all things… but how do you feel it in action, not just talk about it?

Master Sosan:
You seek what you already have. As long as you look outward, you pass by the door. You can enter only by leaving the search.

Carlos:
Leave the search? But the warrior’s path is continuous effort: stalking, not-doing, impeccability… If I stop searching — wouldn’t that be the death of spirit?

Sosan:
When the search ends, seeing begins.
Effort is useful to sharpen attention, but useless when you’re already at the destination.
You hold a mirror in your hands, yet you ask for directions to your own reflection.

Carlos:
But the world is opaque. It pushes me in different directions. Energies, intent, the shadow of the human form… it’s all so complicated.

Sosan:
Complication is what the mind creates to feel necessary.
In reality there is neither simple nor complex — only what is happening.
And it doesn’t resist you, unless you clash with it head-on.

Carlos:
Don Juan would say you speak like someone who has lost the sense of importance of his personal story.

Sosan (smiling):
A story is a dream. But you can sleep consciously or unconsciously.
The difference lies in a single thought: “this is mine.”

Carlos:
But what about the path? What about intent? Without it, we lose direction.

Sosan:
Direction exists only when there is someone who walks.
But when Being itself is walking — where could it possibly go?
You want to control the wind, but the wind is already blowing.
Stop trying to point its way — and you will become its movement.

Carlos:
What you’re saying… sounds like not-doing, but distilled to its very essence.

Sosan:
Not-doing is just another name for naturalness.
You try to “not do,” yet even that becomes doing.
I say: stop clinging.
Then everything will be done through you.

Carlos:
You claim there is no path and no walker. Then why are we talking?

Sosan:
To hear the silence between the words.
Once you hear it — the conversation becomes unnecessary.

Carlos:
Still… how will I know that I’ve understood?

Sosan:
When you stop asking.
Understanding is not an answer — it’s the disappearance of the need for an answer.

Carlos:
So… everything I’ve studied, all the techniques, all the experiences — they’re just ripples on the water?

Sosan:
Ripples do not prevent the water from being water.
Your practices do not prevent Truth from being Truth.
But stop calling the ripples deep and important — and then you will see the water itself.

Carlos (after a pause):
I see… but I can’t say I understand.

Sosan:
Then that is the first real step.

---

 

[Sanity Check]

I personally dislike Castenada.

 

He told one of his followers if they needed to find him (post humously) they only needed to drive their sports car as fast as possible into the desert.

 

Remains of said followers were later found in the desert. 

 

Uncool bruh.

[stirling]

AI I am guessing. Carlos comes off as obtuse in this fiction.Is "Sosan" S'eng Tsan? If so, despite the correctness of his replies, I would expect greater depth.

[Lois]

2 hours ago, stirling said:

Is "Sosan" S'eng Tsan?

 

This is the third patriarch of Zen

[stirling]

11 hours ago, Lois said:

 

This is the third patriarch of Zen

 

Yes, one and the same.

[S:C]

16 hours ago, Sanity Check said:

followers

are you sure they were? doesn‘t seem they internalized his teaching (above) about not clinging.

noli me tangere… 

[stirling]

For contrast, a taste from Seng T'san's most famous piece:

 

Quote

The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.

 

When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.

 

Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

 

If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.

 

To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.

 

When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

 

The Way is perfect like vast space
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

 

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.

 

Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

 

Be serene in the oneness of things
and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

 

When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity
your very effort fills you with activity.

 

As long as you remain in one extreme or the other,
you will never know Oneness.

 

Those who do not live in the single Way
fail in both activity and passivity,
assertion and denial.

 

To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things
is to miss their reality.

 

The more you talk and think about it,
the further astray you wander from the truth.

 

Stop talking and thinking
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

 

To return to the root is to find the meaning,
but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.

 

At the moment of inner enlightenment,
there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.

 

The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.

 

Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.

 

Do not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully.

 

If there is even a trace
of this and that, of right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.

 

Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.

 

When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
nothing in the world can offend, 
and when a thing can no longer offend,
it ceases to exist in the old way.

 

When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.

 

When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes,
and when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.

 

Things are objects because there is a subject or mind;
and the mind is a subject because there are objects.

 

Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.

 

In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.

 

If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

 

To live in the Great Way
is neither easy nor difficult.

But those with limited views
are fearful and irresolute;
the faster they hurry, the slower they go.

Clinging cannot be limited;
even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment
is to go astray.

 

Just let things be in their own way
and there will be neither coming nor going.

 

Obey the nature of things
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.

 

When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden,
for everything is murky and unclear.

 

The burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.

 

What benefit can be derived
from distinctions and separations?

 

If you wish to move in the One Way
do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.

 

Indeed, to accept them fully
is identical with true Enlightenment.

 

The wise man strives to no goals
but the foolish man fetters himself.

 

There is one Dharma, not many;
distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.

 

To seek Mind with discriminating mind
is the greatest of all mistakes.

 

Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.

 

All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams of flowers in air:
foolish to try to grasp them.

Gain and loss, right and wrong;
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.

 

If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.

 

If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things
are as they are, of single essence.

 

To understand the mystery of this One-essence
is to be released from all entanglements.

 

When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.

No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state.

 

Consider motion in stillness
and stillness in motion;
both movement and stillness disappear.

 

When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.

 

To this ultimate finality
no law or description applies.

 

For the unified mind in accord with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.

 

Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.

 

With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.

 

All is empty, clear, self-illuminating,
with no exertion of the mind's power.

 

Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination are of no value.
In this world of Suchness
there is neither self nor other-than-self.

 

To come directly into harmony with this reality
just simply say when doubt arises, "Not two."
In this "not two" nothing is separate,
nothing is excluded.

 

No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth.
And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space;
in it a single thought is ten thousand years.

 

Emptiness here, Emptiness there,
but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.

Infinitely large and infinitely small;
no difference, for definitions have vanished
and no boundaries are seen.

 

So too with Being and non-Being.
Waste no time in doubts and arguments
that have nothing to do with this.

 

One thing, all things;
move among and intermingle,
without distinction.

 

To live in this realization
is to be without anxiety about nonperfection.

 

To live in this faith is the road to nonduality,
because the nondual is one with the trusting mind.

 

Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is
no yesterday
no tomorrow
no today.

 

- Verses on the Faith Mind
by Chien-chih Seng-ts'an 
Third Zen Patriarch [d. 606 AD]
Tr. by Richard B. Clarke
Zen teacher at the Living Dharma Centers, Amherst, Mass. 


 

While few will appreciate it, this is written with an amazing simplicity and clarity that the AI has failed to master. If you want to know how things are, what to stop and what to master it is all here. No other teaching is necessary. 

[Cobie]

 

2 hours ago, S:C said:

are you sure they were? [followers]

It was Patricia Partin aka Nury Alexander aka the Blue Scout.

https://sustainedaction.org/revised-and-updated-blue-scout-chronology/ 

The other women close to him, all disappeared

https://sustainedaction.org/explorations/missing-women/ 

 

 

 

Edited 8 minutes ago by Cobie