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To walk the full length of a path that one truly loves, don Juan said, one needs the
passion, courage, imagination, vigilance, discipline, self-awareness, grace, strength,
resourcefulness, efficiency, patience, adaptability, and humbleness of a navigator.
This is what Tensegrity practitioners aspire to: The spirit of the navigator, the being
who makes the continuous commitment to travel the path of awareness every moment.
The struggle of the navigator is not with ones fellow men, don Juan said. Nor is it with
oneself. And its ultimately not a struggle. Rather, its an acquiescenceto the energetic
currents of the sea of awareness in the universe.
Don Juan said that the seers of his line maintained that the universe is a sea of energy
energy that is in constant change. And that the most functional thing one can do, rather
than attempt to fight or resist that continuous change, is to join forces with itan
endeavor that takes a navigators discipline.
Carlos Castaneda saw Tensegrity as a very apt name for the navigators path in our
times: a practice of interconnecting with oneself and the world. The word tensegrity
(tension + integrity) was coined by visionary architect, innovator, engineer and
navigator R. Buckminster Fuller. Fuller was inspired in his work by what he saw as
natures way of doing the most with the least. He observed structures in nature (from
atoms to cells, to trees, to solar systems, to galaxies) in which the solid parts are held
together in a continuous web of more flexible parts, such as, for example, the way a cell
is held together by its flexible cytoskeleton, or the way the planets and sun are held in a
field of gravity. In such systems, any outside pressure is distributed evenly across the
whole structure, giving it a resilient tone that helps it adapt and yet maintain its
integrity, and ultimately, its interconnectivity.
Fuller pointed to that essential supporter of life on earth, the tree, as a wonderful
example of a tensegrity structure in nature. Arising from a seed, earth, water, air and
sunlight, a tree grows into a tensegrity structure with water and gases moving through
interior channels, allowing it to be both flexible and resilient, as it sways and adapts to
shifting winds and earth, and lifts minerals bits of stardust and water from earth to
sky.1
And modern ecologists are now aware of the interconnectivity of each tree with the
others, adjusting and adapting to the needs of the forest community.
It is this resilient integrity, interconnectivity and resourcefulness that the navigator seeks
to embody, physically, emotionally, mentally, and energetically, Carlos Castaneda said.
It is what one needs to make the continuous effort, regardless of its inconvenience, to
stay on ones chosen patha path that is ever-evolving, and whose map is found
through ones heart.
Don Juan called the embodiment of this recognition the art of freedomthe freedom to
perceive the energetic basis, and interconnected nature of everythingand to act from
that perception. Our interactions in the daily world (at the office, the dinner table, the
metro station, walking in the forest, etc.) then become the extraordinary arena for our
awakening attention, an opportunity to respond to what is present, rather than react
based on unexamined personal history.
As energetic beings, we perceive that the rocks, plants, animals, elements, planets and
stars are sentient and form an interactive fabric of consciousness, of which we are part.
And we find that pervading or existing alongside our known world is another world of
sentient being and consciousness called the sea of awareness, or the second attentiona
world accessible to our complete selvesphysical and energetic. And that world can
give us vital information, help and guidance for navigating this one. As Carlos
Castaneda said:
If you enter a state of non-ordinary reality, it is only to draw from it what you need in
order to see the miraculous character of ordinary reality. For me the way to livethe
path with heartis presence in the world.2
To integrate our being in this way, don Juan said, one needs to be impeccablemeaning
to use ones energy wisely, giving more than ones best to ones endeavors, putting ones
attention in places that enhance rather than disperse ones energy.
The interconnecting Tensegrity tools that can aid us in this quest include:
The art of dreaming, the art of being present: The art of recognizing new possibilities,
and working with ones inner seerour inner compass, connected to the intelligence of
infinityto bring those possibilities into being. This includes the practice of keeping a
dream log, and participating in dream circles, aiding one to hone the dreaming attention
to recognize that one is dreaming, in both sleeping and waking hours.
Silence: A daily practice of pausing, to sit or lie down to listen to ones inner seer. This
is aided by writing down the content of ones inspirations as well as ones inner
dialogue, or monologue.
Practicing these tools, the navigator is guided by the premise: Love is the highest form
of intelligence. Love of self, love of others, love of the extraordinary quality of this
world. Love of this very moment.
1
Fullers description of this principle is found in: Buckminster Fuller: An
Autobiographical Monologue/ Scenario, Documented & Edited by Robert Snyder, New
York: St. Martins Press, 1980 pp. 46-7.
2
Seeing Castaneda Psychology Today, Sam Keen, 1972.
Cara Comunidade de Tensegridade do Brasil!
O que Tensegridade?
Tensegridade a verso moderna do modo do navegador
prticas e princpios que buscam encontrar e percorrer um
caminho com Corao - que Dom Juan Matus ensinou a seus quatro
estudantes: Carlos Castaneda, Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar e
Carol Tiggs.
...
Para integrar o nosso ser dessa forma, disse Dom Juan, preciso ser
impecvel e usar nossa energia de forma inteligente, dando mais do que o
melhor de si aos prprios esforos, colocando a ateno em lugares que
aumentam ao invs de dispersar a energia.