A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan Book

We read and we read, and then, we encounter, well, A Separate Reality. Much depends on how we read. If we're too immersed in story, we miss the More, if we're to concerned with artificial criteria of evaluation, we miss the Value, if we're too bubbled in our cocoon-of-self we miss the Usefulness. Within the distinct realism of A Separate Reality we find an overwhelm of potency, which, if we're not prepared to actually change our world, will pass us by.

To read this powerful and transformative work we have to DO much. Such as set aside our habits, including the habit of reading. Here we're required to stop, absorb, hear, imbibe, incorporate, assimilate, Apply, integrate, and actually Change. Not only who we are, but our entire conception of ourselves and which world we live in. We have to set aside our continuity, a difficult challenge for many, unhook from our conformity, our cosiness and indulgences. Discarding our habits-of-perception and our assumptions of focus is another. We have to perceive past the obvious and pay close Attention to that which requires no faith or belief, no external agents to implement, and in these pages we can find such power. There's much to gain if we make that effort to determine Value, Usefulness and Applicability for ourselves, with an open being.

Too many get lost in the indulgence of connecting to the drug-story lure, which is immaterial to the magic of this book. Or they unnecessarily sideline themselves by needlessly debating whether Don Juan is real or not. What does it matter where a self-evident Value comes from? If you need someone to be real to determine whether an utterance or communication has Value or validity, well, then you're lost before you begin. Only you have that particular power, since you and you alone, are the Final-Arbiter-of-Truth. When we discern the wisdom and conceptualising genius so abundant in A Separate Reality we encounter a treasure trove of Life-Change.

The inordinate Gift of A Separate reality is exactly that, a separate Reality-of-Being. Such a potential is gifted us in this monumental work if we can see past the tests-of-self which are part of this challenge-of-being. We have to look at the real power, which is the presentation of new conceptions of what it means to BE. Ways-of-Being which are distinct, new, foreign, even alien, yet attainable. Simple but complex, such as relinquishing the seduction of self-importance. We are not merely informed this may be valuable, the usefulness of this life-transformation is amply demonstrated for us by that marvellous example of Impeccability, Don Juan.

I feel many make the mistake of identifying with the fool Carlos, because yes, of course we too are similar nincompoops, but, the real Gift I believe lies in stretching ourselves to identify with the *possibility* of being as much like Don Juan as we can. Once we grasp this as an actual potential actuality, we begin a Path where his Way-of-Being becomes our model, or standard, our code, our sensibility, and default measure for our Impeccability. If we simply ask ourselves how Don Juan would behave in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in, we have a fantastic self-leverage which is powerful and transformative. If we connect to Don Juan not for his magical powers, but to his essential Character-of-Self, we connect to his ethics, his integrity, his Joy-of-Being and all the other marvellous examples of a self we can move toward being. If we read this book in this way, well, it becomes much more than reading. Such is the nature of this mind-bloom.

But, to connect to this power of the book, we have to read past the story, past the character interactions, and truly listen, truly hear what's conveyed. Our read-perception has to include identifying what we *don't* want, what's irrelevant and immaterial, and in that simple selectivity, we come to see what's truly of issue and important to our Deep-Self. We are thus required to read and connect to the implications of what's imparted, to look past the tests-of-self such as the rituals and the indulgences of Carlos and look at the Way-of-Living and Deep Sobriety Don Juan Shares so incredibly. Doing so connects us to what he's really offering, which is of course, a Gift of Power.

Of all the thousands of books I've read, which include a substantial selection of classics from around the world, this incredible book stands out, and is a definite must-read and multiple-read. (Along with its extension, A Journey to Ixtlan.) To be sure, one can find all the conceptions and ideas elsewhere, however, not so compacted and cohesive, not presented as an example in practice, and also not in the excellent resonating language of Don Juan. When we read to hear him, feel him, know him, imbibe him, and connect to this paragon of possibility who is Don Juan, especially if we don't over-mythologise him, and read not to remember what he said, but to BE what he Shares, then we shift into our journey toward living in a reality which more and more becomes A Magic Reality of actuality.