libros

I just finished Journey to Ixtlan by C. Castaneda. I began reading it because I knew it would get my mind off of relationship worries that I have been troubled over. It did that and inspired me to do some dreaming, and take further responsibility in life. Here is a quote:
"Fright never injures anyone. What injures the spirit is having someone on your back, beating you, telling you what to do and what not to do."
About dreaming, Don Juan tells Carlos his apprentice: " you must wear a headband to sleep," he said. "Getting a headband is a tricky maneuver. I cannot give you one, because you yourself have to make it from scratch. But you cannot make one until you have had a vision of it in dreaming. See what I mean? The headband has to be made according to the specific vision. Dreaming is much easier when one wears a power object on top of their head." The purpose of dreaming Don Juan says, is to get personal power. You give yourself power in your dreams to do anything, and then you build up personal power(This is how I word it while deciding not to go into detail about the book). I take this to mean that once one realizes they are dreaming, they will be having a lucid dream and realize that there are possibilities they hadn't thought of acting on before which they now can. After practicing this, mastering it, your waking life's actions will increasingly have more realized possibilities (maybe endless). Don Juan doesn't differentiate between dreaming and waking life. He is a yaqui Indian sorcerer in Mexico. He also told Carlos to look at his hands while dreaming, then look at his surroundings, then back to his hands, then surroundings, etc again. I have been thinking about this but haven't done it yet. Tonight may be the night, since I see myself going to bed at midnight and waking up when I am ready. Tomorrow is Sunday and I don't have timed obligations.
Currently I am reading The Forgotten Language by Erich Fromm which is about dreams and mythology. Mythological symbols are the forgotten language. I'm reading Fromm because someone recommended him and I always saw his books on the shelf at Summer's mom's house and she has a library that's where it's at. I checked out this particular title because it was the easiest to find of his at the library and I was in a hurry to go. "Psychologically, sleep suspends the main function characteristic of waking life: man's reacting toward reality by perception and action. This difference between the biological functions of waking and of sleeping is, in fact, a difference between two states of existence." -Fromm
Tomorrow I am going to sit down with the play I will write my critical analysis in theatre history: James Joyce's Exiles. I'll read it in one sitting and let it sit with me. The paper is not due until November but I want to be thorough.

Well that is it for libros. This has been its incipient blog entry. Thank you!