Question:

Théun, I now find myself in the Unknown and because of this, challenged on every hand! I am trying hard to stay calm and not fret about the fact that my life seems to be falling apart. The only thing that seems to help staying calm is mothering myself the best I can. How do I deal with the way I am feeling right now?

Théun’s Guidance:

I am fully aware of how much you are struggling right now, but believe me, it is not REALLY the Unknown! It is more a matter of your KNOWN world having become unsettled! Uncomfortable, yes, but in many ways a GOOD thing, for how else CAN we learn other than having our COMFORTABLE little worlds turned inside-out? I agree that in the moment whilst it is all happening it APPEARS to be a disaster, but once the dust starts to settle a little we begin to see that all the UPHEAVAL has actually created OPPORTUNITIES for learning that were not present before!

When I say that this is not REALLY the Unknown you find yourself in I wish to bring to your attention that the REAL Unknown is unmistakable once entered! It is unmistakable because whenever it is encountered you KNOW that what you always THOUGHT you knew is merely your LIMITED PERCEPTION of life as you have been experiencing it through your VIEW of the world, but that the REALITY staring you in the face NOW is that you don’t have a CLUE what you ARE dealing with! Such is the nature of the true Unknown! You just KNOW that you DON’T know, but that IF you are going to survive, you had best start ACTING quickly in order to GAIN the KNOWLEDGE you lack! But all apprentices without exception, and just like you are doing right now, always make the mistake of ASSUMING that they are in the Unknown every time their view of the world is being challenged! In a manner of speaking you CAN see it as being in the Unknown, but the REALITY is that the only thing that is unknown about having one’s view of the world challenged is that it has NEVER been challenged BEFORE! And then the apprentice sits down and cries long crocodile tears, saying, “But I thought I was doing so well, and now look, my whole goddamned world seems destined to fall apart!”

But, dear friend, is this then NOT what you WANTED? Is it not the case that you wanted to become a warrior, and that you WANTED to be FREE from your view of the world? So why then are you feeling so miserable about it all and, as you say, mothering yourself? Would it not be altogether better to take the required ACTION in order to LEARN, rather than to sit in a miserable heap INDULGING in feeling ever so sorry for yourself, and fretting about wanting to control what cannot be controlled!

But, :), whoever said the Path of Knowledge is a piece of cake, or a ride in the park, eh? Yet such is life! We all start off by coming to the Path of Knowledge with these ROMANTIC notions of how HAPPY we are going to be once we have become big and strong and power-full! But then, BANG, reality hits us squarely in the guts, and for the first time ever, we begin to realize that warriorship is NOT a metaphor, but a WAY of life that is NECESSARY if we are going to hunt for power in treading the Path of Knowledge! Believe me, to become a warrior is not easy, but it IS the only way in which any of us can SURVIVE hunting for power, and therefore learning to BECOME an impeccable hunter is the first leg of the journey in becoming a warrior!

So come, my friend, lighten up! Put a smile on your face by looking at the funny side of your folly! Taking yourself so VERY seriously only causes you to become heavy and clumsy in trying to learn! As you well know by now, trying to CONTROL or MANIPULATE the outcome of life is futile, and only brings abject misery in the end! But what we CAN control is our IMPECCABILITY in hunting for power! The following aphorism will help you greatly!

“It is very natural to feel helpless in the face of impossible odds. All of us have to learn how to act on our own, and all learning takes time. This is the same principle involved in an infant having to learn to stand up and walk, and all of us are like helpless infants when we first come to the Warrior’s Path. But an infant wants to learn to stand up and walk, and because it cannot manage it at first, it complains and protests in its frustration at not being able to act on its own. Again this is only natural and therefore not wrong. From this it follows that it is not the feeling of helplessness which is wrong, but what is wrong is indulging in helplessness and complaints whilst protesting that you are incapable, for this implies not wanting to learn.”

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

Question:

Does suggestion play a significant role in how we think and approach the world?

Théun’s Answer:

Suggestion forms the very basis of social conditioning, and quite THE most powerful form of suggestion is AUTO-SUGGESTION, for it is NOT much different to SELF-HYPNOSIS! Although people are unaware of what they are doing, they PROGRAM their rational minds, as well the minds of others through the process of suggestion. It is precisely BECAUSE of this that Toltecs have always put so MUCH focus on the power of SPEECH, both verbal as well as written. Time and time again I WARN you all that you ARE the PRODUCT of your SPEECH, but this IS because of suggestion - auto-suggestion! So when I go on and on about speech and about being fully LITERATE it is NOT because I am fanatical about the English language, but because I KNOW how every IMPORTANT it is to not only SPEAK with CLARITY, but also to UNDER-STAND the words we use, for these very WORDS have power within themselves - the power of suggestion!

For example, one of the MOST difficult challenges X had to face when she first came to the Warrior’s Path was her BELIEF that she is academically stupid! X had told herself for so long that she is stupid, that this “stupidity” was entrenched in her every action, emotion and thought, and to such an extent that she WAS stupid! LOL! Now, thank goodness, X has finally re-discovered her intelligence AND her sense of humour! But, it was no easy battle for X, and it took her a good seven years before she was even WILLING to consider that she may well be very BRIGHT instead of being stupid!

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

Question:

Théun, X and I need some guidance on the business we started together. Somehow we have ended up not knowing who should be the boss, and arguing about who should be doing what. Recently we both came to the realisation that we are no longer sure whether this business holds heart for us or not.

Théun’s Guidance:

LOL! It is clear from what you are sharing that neither of you are being all that OBJECTIVE in your approach to this challenge because you are allowing yourselves to become ENMESHED in the DETAILS rather than DETACHING from the challenge in order to be able to define your battle ACCURATELY! So why don’t you strive for SIMPLICITY instead of going round and round in evermore COMPLEX circles?

What is the PURPOSE of the business that you started? It is to SUPPORT both of you financially! What is the MEANING inherent within that PURPOSE? It is the HEART which BOTH of you PUT INTO making this venture YOUR business! Wherein lies the HEART? In LIFE, of course! Where else COULD it lie when ALL of LIFE is but a system of RELATIONSHIPS? The HEART is ABOUT LIFE, ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS!

Therefore ANY career, no matter what it is, is first and foremost ABOUT LIFE, ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS. But being a career it is about THAT relationship with the world which provides you with your livelihood! In other words, a career is a RELATIONSHIP with the world that meets your NEED for a livelihood! But IF you are to have a relationship that meets YOUR needs, then in order for it to succeed it MUST also meet the NEEDS of your clients, for ANY relationship MUST be RECIPROCAL for it to BE a relationship! So in looking at your business what you SHOULD be addressing is the issue of relationships! Firstly, the relationship you have with your SELVES; secondly the relationship you have with each other; and thirdly HOW the relationship you have with each other is being REFLECTED in the relationship between your business and its clients!

If you approach your challenge in this way, you WILL find the HEART in what you are doing, because instead of seeing it as being MERELY your bread and butter, you will begin to see it for the WONDER-FULL PRIVILEGE it is in terms of LEARNING to build MEANING-FULL relationships! And IF we are COMMITTED to building a relationship, how can we EVER become bogged down with problems to be solved? Life, my friends, is NOT a problem to be solved, but instead it is a JOYOUS JOURNEY of DISCOVERY! So instead of seeing problems, you begin to strive TOGETHER to face and conquer CHALLENGES that yield an ever greater UNDER-STANDING of each other, of yourselves, and of the world around you, and with this comes a deepening of the bond of FRIENDSHIP!

So, to keep it simple, ask yourselves, “DO we want to make money? Or do we want to USE earning our keep as an OPPORTUNITY to build meaningful relationships?” Merely making money quickly ends up in a HEART-LESS burden! But building meaningful relationships is a joyous journey of discovery FILLED with HEART! So with all due respect I must ALSO add that a PARTNERSHIP is NOT about WHO is boss. A TRUE partnership is about TWO people with a MUTUAL LOVE for what they are DO-ING, something which is quite DIFFERENT to the normal Employer-Employee relationship! An employer carries ALL of the responsibility, but in a true partnership the responsibility is a JOINT responsibility in which BOTH partners give their ALL to the business, rather than the employee who is only required to DO his or her job impeccably!

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

An article by an apprentice to Théun Mares:

From a Toltec point of view responsibility means the ABILITY to RESPOND intelligently to Life. For me this is closely related to having the courage to act upon my feelings and knowledge in every moment, no matter what the cost may be. I am coming to understand that this includes all spoken and unspoken communication, physical, mental and emotional actions.

Although emotional and mental actions are considered “invisible,” as opposed to the quite tangible physical actions, they have the same effect on me and the world around me. There is responsibility in every “action,” as there are consequences. But the hardest thing to live with are the consequences of being a coward. Quite besides living a life like a leaf, it means that one is learning by default, instead of actively and willingly participating in Life.

Most of my life I avoided taking responsibility and took the stance of keeping silent, even though I could feel and see what was going on in my life. But this left me with a terrible feeling of being one who just stands up and watches. I realised that I could only learn when I do act, and only then will Life present me with the next step.

The more I learn the more responsibility I have. I struggled to discriminate how and when I could openly share my knowledge. The key was given to me by Théun in some guidance:

“So I have LEARNED to give ONLY what is asked of me, NOT because I fear the hurt, but because today I KNOW that to give MORE than is asked for or is required, is to expose the other person to a knowledge for which he/she is not YET ready to take RESPONSE-ABILITY! B-:)”

This implies that I need to be aware not only of my state of being, but also to acknowledge where other people are at, so as to be able to serve the needs of everybody involved in the moment.

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

Excerpt from The Toltec Teachings By Théun Mares, Volume V p.79:

UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO EMBRACE DEATH FULLY YOU CANNOT CHANGE. YOUR OLD SELF MUST DIE IN ORDER FOR THE WARRIOR IN YOU TO EMERGE. TO RESIST DEATH IS TO DIE A SLOW AND MISERABLE DEATH, BUT TO EMBRACE DEATH WILLINGLY IS TO FIND THE COURAGE NEEDED TO FIGHT AN IMPECCABLE BATTLE FOR YOUR FREEDOM.

Freedom! How incredibly badly people understand this concept. And yet, for the person who has reached the end of the line, so to speak, the concept of freedom is crystal clear. Nothing more needs to be explained. Nothing more needs to be understood. Nothing more needs to be considered. When faced with the sober realization that there is nothing left that is worth living for, then freedom can only mean one thing, namely, freedom from Every-Thing which constitutes one’s existing life. In that moment the person concerned does not have to think, or consider, or reflect, or even ponder on what he or she may lose should they embark upon that path of no-return termed the Warrior’s Path. Never ever wanting to return to anything within their existing lives, they also have absolutely nothing to lose. However, it is vital to grasp the implications here. …

*This excerpt is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

Question:

I feel so upset about what has been happening in the Group of late, that I feel the time has come for ALL of us to put ALL our cards on the table!

Théun’s Guidance:

Yes, putting all the cards on the table with ruthless honesty is an excellent place to start in becoming REAL and in making each other REAL too! But it is exactly herein that both SPACE and TIME are needed, for how often do ANY of you truly LISTEN to each other, and above all, listen to yourselves?

All too often it is just the MIND re-enacting the same OLD emotional stuff over and over again, and all of that stuff is the accumulated garbage collected around your shortcomings! Therefore when you DO start trying to MEET each other, it will be imperative that you bear in mind at ALL times your own shortcomings, and how these shortcomings influence your speech, your ability to listen as well as your motives! For example, what do you HEAR in the phrase “space and time?” And what is your FEELING in THIS moment concerning this particular guidance? What am I REALLY saying? All of you will do so much better if ONLY you would bear in mind that true feelings are the expression of IRRATIONAL knowledge, and therefore whenever you catch yourselves being so SURE of a feeling in the moment, you can take it as FACT that you have ALREADY squashed, and I mean squashed, that feeling into your view of the world, and have thereby distorted it!

I bring this to your notice, for all too often this is what I see from all of you! But to make it clear: you have a feeling, which is good and true, but because it is irrational you immediately ASSUME understanding of every-thing surrounding that feeling BECAUSE of this, that or the other that you THINK you know! As a result you become hooked to the face value of the feeling, and then get carried away by the history that has led up to the moment in which you experience the feeling! All of this can be avoided so easily if ONLY you will bear in mind that ANY true feeling is the expression of IRRATIONAL knowledge, and as such, you will at first not know EXACTLY what the feeling SHOULD translate into in terms of PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS!

So whilst laying the cards on the table is good, check your motives, your verbalization and INTENT! It is really quite simple to do this if you would only ask yourselves TWO questions, namely, “Do I want to LEARN? Or do I want to PROVE a point?” In other words, there is a HUGE difference between wanting PROOF of what you THINK your feelings mean, as opposed to WANTING to LEARN what your feelings are trying to tell you! All too often putting the cards on the table amounts to nothing more than two people each demanding PROOF of what they THINK their hearts are trying to TEACH them! Demanding proof implies that you ALREADY KNOW, whereas LISTENING in order to LEARN what your heart is trying to tell you implies OPENNESS and WILLINGNESS!

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

Question:

Théun, I don’t like my body! It has always been a source of embarrassment for me. How do I learn to take knowledge out of this challenge? Is it merely humility that I have to learn from this?

Théun’s Guidance:

Is there ANYTHING about you which you DO like? Start from here and then see where this takes you to. By this I mean SHIFT the FOCUS! Shift from focusing on what you DON’T like to focusing on what you DO like!

As for your body, I fail to see WHAT is wrong with your body! We all have the PERFECT body for our true NEEDS in terms of our challenges! And I am NOT just referring to our physical LOOKS! More importantly I am referring to HOW our bodies SUPPORT us in facing our challenges within life.

Furthermore, true BEAUTY is something indefinable that comes from within! For example, some of the UGLIEST people I have met in my life have bodies that MOST people find HUGELY attractive, but a LOT of these people were NEVER attractive to me! Likewise, some of THE most beautiful people I have ever known look like the back-end of a bus! LOL! For me the difference lies in the FACT that people that are naturally very beautiful all too often RELY upon their good looks to MANIPULATE everyone around them in order to get life on their own terms! Whereas people who KNOW that they do NOT have particularly beautiful bodies KNOW that they have to work HARD at finding OTHER ways in which to express their beauty.

You mention humility, and in this respect I have always loved the example of Socrates who, according to all accounts, was a very ugly man. LOL! Once, in laughing at his own folly, Socrates prayed to the god Pan, pleading, “Pan, please grant me inner beauty, for outer beauty I am never likely to have!”

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

Question:

Théun, why do you state that humanity is lazy?

Théun’s Answer:

The laziness which I term as being inherent within the human being is something the vast majority of humanity never even pauses to consider, namely, making the EFFORT to see for oneself, through EXPERIENCE, that nothing, no human, no animal, no plant, no insect, no whatever, is more or less important than anything else! Why? Simply because ALL of life is inter-related, interactive and therefore INTERDEPENDENT! If people were to drop all of their self-pity, their self-importance, and above all, their LAZINESS in order to LEARN this one ALL-IMPORTANT FACT of life, they would change their view of the world overnight and indeed, also themselves! But people find it EASIER to piss and moan, to feel hard-done-by, to believe that they are underpaid, overworked and under-valued than to FIND within themselves their TRUE VALUE as a unit of the One Life! Yet, of course, within this there is a great MANY implications! Let us look at just ONE of these.

To find one’s true value within life takes a LOT of that unpleasant stuff commonly called “soul searching.” LOL! Soul searching, or searching one’s HEART, if you prefer, brings one hard-up against all those little not-so-nice aspects of one’s beingness which most people prefer NOT to acknowledge are there! The fact that our shortcomings are our passage to power is quite irrelevant to most people - they just HATE to see themselves in such an imperfect light! LOL! And the fact that our BEHAVIOUR merely reflects the gaps in our knowledge is also not too much consolation when one believes one is already a saint!

Yet all of this is but the STARTING point, for once one has come to understand oneself OBJECTIVELY, and has come to ACCEPT oneself warts and all, then one runs into the next little obstacle! Because we come into life to LEARN it stands to reason that in order to FULFILL our POTENTIAL within any one given lifetime, and therefore to MANIFEST one’s TRUE VALUE within that lifetime as a unit of the One Life, we have a GREAT deal to LEARN in order to do so! So, “Oh dear! What must I learn? How must I learn it? From whom will I learn it? Sob! Sob! I am just so helpless and overwhelmed! Oh dear me, what shall I do?”

Laziness? You bet! LOL!

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

Question:

Do drugs help psychosis?

Théun’s Answer:

No. Drugs SUPPRESS psychosis, which causes the situation to aggravate. The cure of psychosis lies in helping the person concerned gain conscious control over the movement of the assemblage point - not in suppression!

Question:

Théun, for me one of the worst aspects of psychosis is the abnormal level of fear that sometimes just surfaces spontaneously. How should I tackle this fear when it comes up?

Théun’s Guidance:

The best thing to do when the fear comes up is to play some music. Please play ONLY Bach or Vivaldi when the fear is there. Do not play the music loudly, but at a GENTLE volume. The music of both Bach and Vivaldi is very soothing for the emotions, and also relaxes and cleanses the nervous system. In listening to the music, focus on the music and not on the fear, and allow yourself to FEEL how the music moves through you and around you. As the music begins to build in intensity you will at first feel the tensions rising within you, but stay with the tensions, do not fight them, and then as the music begins to resolve itself you will feel the tension as well as the fear within you also being resolved. It will bring you a sense of peace and well-being.

If the fear comes up when it is not possible to listen to music, then do the Cleansing Breath from the Dreaming Exercise until the fear subsides.

Administrators Note: Due to the fact that only the guidance that was called forth by apprentices is preserved in the Toltec Legacy teaching facility, the record of the results of following the guidance in this set of posts is not stored. However, I know personally that this woman was able to heal her psychosis and become fully functional within her life.

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares

Question:

Théun, what causes the accelerating process in psychosis? Does a low level of blood sugar have anything to do with this?

Théun’s Answer:

The cause of accelerating psychosis is invariably due to a lack of sleep, for someone with psychosis finds it hard to sleep well. The thing to do is to avoid alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, sugar and fizzy drinks, but eat as MUCH meat as you can stomach! By meat I mean RED meat, most especially pork and beef. You should also drink as much milk as you can, and by this I mean glasses full of milk, not just milk in your tea or with a cereal. You must also eat PLENTY of cream, cheese, butter and FRESH greens, with a LITTLE fruit here and there! Low blood sugar level is NOT due to a LACK of sugar, but rather to too MUCH sugar! Before going to bed at night, you should eat a bowl of cereal with FULL CREAM yoghurt, or with milk ENHANCED with extra cream added in order to correct the blood sugar level.

Apart from diet, the proper administration of herbs is also important. You need herbs that will curb the flow of adrenaline, that will calm the nervous system and allow you to REST because of their soothing effect on the emotions. This will ASSIST in HALTING the acceleration process. Once the acceleration process has been halted you need help in RESTABILISING your perception. What helps greatly in this regard are herbs that restore the chemical imbalances in the body and the nervous system caused by the psychosis and which are factors contributing to the acceleration process.

*This article is taken from the website www.toltec-legacy.com with the permission of the administrators. tag: theun mares