Toltec
Prominent thousands of years ago, the Toltec were known throughout southern Mexico as "women and men of knowledge" Anthropologists have spoken of the Toltec as a nation or a race, but, in fact, the Toltec were scientists and artists who formed a society to explore and conserve the spiritual knowledge and practices of the ancient ones. It may seem peculiar that they combined the secular with the sacred, but the Toltec considered science and spirit to be one I land the same since all energy, whether material or ethereal, is derived from the one source and influenced by the same universal laws.
The Toltec came together as masters (Naguals) and students at Teotihuacan, the ancient city of pyramids outside Mexico City known as the place where "Man becomes God." Here, in order to realize the promise of the work to transcend the realm of ordinary human awareness and attain their personal freedom, the apprentices studied the three Toltec Masteries: Awareness, Transformation, and Intent. The students had to have the courage to face and know themselves and, through that knowing, change their way of life. Teotihuacan remained the Toltec center of spiritual knowledge and transformation for many thousands of years and still endures as a living repository of "silent knowledge.
Over the millennia, European conquest, coupled with a brief period of misuse of personal power by some of the apprentices, forced the Naguals to conceal the ancestral wisdom and maintain its existence in obscurity. They thought it was important to shield the knowledge from those who were not prepared to use it wisely or who might again intentionally misuse it for personal gain. Fortunately, the esoteric Toltec knowledge was embodied and passed on through generations by different lineages of Naguals. Though the knowledge remained veiled in secrecy for hundreds of years, ancient prophecies foretold the coming of an age when it would be necessary to return the wisdom to the people. Now, with the shadow of fear enveloping our belief system, a Nagual from the Eagle Knight lineage, Don Miguel Angel Ruiz, has been guided to teach and prepare additional masters to share the powerful Toltec wisdom. With the gift of this knowledge, each of us has the opportunity, through our own mastery, to change our internal and external dreams, escape the hell we live in, and create a vision of heaven on earth.
Toltec knowledge arises from the same essential unity of truth as all the sacred esoteric traditions found around the world. Though it is not a religion, it honors all the spiritual masters who have taught on the earth. Though it does embrace spirit, it is most accurately described as a way of life. Unlike our familiar experience, this way of life is distinguished by the ready accessibility of happiness and love.
The quality of love in this context is a radical departure from the concept of love we have been taught. The love most of us have come to know often feels like pain, makes us suffer with jealousy and need, or compels us to try to control one another. It is a false image of love, originating in fear and worn like a mask to protect us from the wounds we believe others inflict on us. On the other hand, the Toltec concept of love originates in intention of the Creator. This love is what we could -if we would - perceive as divine love, the love with no conditions.
"Wherever I go, whomever I meet, I see myself in their eyes, because I am part of everything, because I love "
don Miguel Angel Ruiz from The Four Agreements
Mastery of the Toltec teachings requires an intellectual understanding of the knowledge held within the mysteries. To thoroughly learn the material is time- consuming, but not difficult. However, an extraordinary effort is required to take the ACTION necessary to experience the benefits of the wisdom. To awaken and reach freedom, we have to let go of our false images and the misconceptions through which we create hell. The greatest challenge requires piercing the veil of fear that surrounds our beliefs and cleaning our mind of its emotional poison: the thoughts that make us feel it's not possible to be truly happy, the emotions that make us feel victimized or hopeless, the beliefs that make us feel we're not pure enough to love or be loved, and the subtle sensations that whisper our unworthiness to be children of God. Fortunately, all these judgments were formed in illusion and therefore have no basis in truth.
Throughout history, humans have tried to place responsibility for their suffering outside of themselves. Most societies have long held the assumption that the ruling body needs to change in order for the human -condition to change. This method has been tried unsuccessfully by hundreds of generations, each in turn trying to impose their particular form of "illumination." Despite these efforts, the human condition remains essentially unchanged - societies based on fear and individuals filled with pain. To further complicate matters, these conditions have become so familiar that it's hard to recognize the pervasive levels of fear and consequential suffering that dominate our lives.
The implications are clear: the world reflects our beliefs to us, it does not create them. Therefore it is not necessary to try to change anyone but ourselves; in fact, it's impossible. The truth is that change can only occur when each of us, the individuals who make up humanity, change. Since we are all fundamentally connected, individual change does create collective change. There is no doubt that just taking responsibility for our own personal change requires immense tenacity in the face of equally tenacious obstacles. However, the rewards are invaluable; as our perceptions change, our experience of the world changes.
The path to change is as individual as each of us. The goal is a way of life that is entirely our own expression and offers us the complete freedom to be ourselves. Though that may sound simple, it's not.
The Toltec masteries teach us that there is no ! way for us to change if we don't understand exactly what we humans are, how we got this way, why there is so much fear, and why we live in a place ~ that sounds a lot like hell. For us to change, we need I awareness of what the human mind is, how it works, and how we create and perceive our world.
Our minds begin to be formed when we are very young, by a process of acculturation called . domestication As we grow up, we learn from others ~ (our parents, our teachers, television~ what it means I-to be a human being, and we absorb all of the fear-based misperceptions which have been agreed upon by humanity. Our mind's natural ability to perceive the world from a perspective of love lies dormant, and we adopt this artificial point of view as our own.
The Toltec identified the mind as that part of us which recognizes, shapes, and controls our reality. These processes take place when we are both awake and asleep. Although we bailey that we dream only when we are asleep, the Toltec believed that we dream when we are awake, as well. Thus, the mind | is the tool with which we create, or dream, our reality; in other words, we simply dream our reality and create our individual dream. With this newfound awareness that we do, in fact, control our dream, we I can also realize the possibility of changing it.
To gain control of our dream and to explore awareness, we must venture beyond the boundaries of the usual beliefs, thoughts and emotions that form the basis of our understanding of life. Through awareness we learn that our normal mode of perception has more limitations than possibilities.
The Toltec knew that the universe is a living being in which the macrocosm and microcosm mirror one another. By looking closely at ourselves the microcosm~, we can advance our knowledge of the macrocosm that is the universe. However, we must develop our ability to perceive beyond the capacity of our reason or our intellectual and physical perception, if we are going to understand either one. This is not easy. The universe is so immense and mysterious that when we venture away . from familiar territory, we immediately seek an interpretation that makes us feel safe, even if it is mistaken.
To support our own personal island of safety, we assume that our perception is the extent of possibility. Our reason is so limited that it prevents us from understanding the scope of our power to create reality. So our "reality" is also our illusion, or, more accurately, our own personal dream. YOU might even call it a trick of the mind.
Because as humans we share the same style of brain, the same narrow range of sensory . perception, and a similar internal dialogue that almost mechanically holds our collective and individual attention, we find we're actually able to dream together and agree on a restricted interpretation of reality. We create a world of objects limited to the energy most of us can discern. Still, no two people share the same understanding of reality, or the same dream. The reality that we do share represents a meager portion of what is available to us within this universe.
There also exist many different energies that are not perceivable as objects or matter. For instance, we cannot see emotions, thoughts, or another's dreams. Obviously, that doesn't mean they don't exist; they are a part of our daily experience and therefore we understand they exist in ourselves arid in others. So, recognizing that each of us is composed of something more than material energy, we must ask, "Who is the I AM. Is it the body, the thinker, or the dreamer?"
The Toltec knew that our reason's perception of reality was just a point of view, one that generally doesn't consider how we fit into an expanding, living, intelligent universe. As we begin to identify the I AM, we become aware of how limited we have been conditioned to think we are and how little of our energy supply we use. To transcend the realm of our old dream and move into our full potential, we need to transfer the point where we "assemble our perception from our "reason" to our "will." Shifting the source of our personal power from our mind to our spirit allows us to access "silent knowledge" and create the energy necessary to remember what we have forgotten. We can all dream a new dream and live a life of freedom--it is simply a matter of choice.
Once we make that choice, we can seek a guide to assist us on our journey to freedom. La Dona can teach us the Toltec masteries which reveal the powerful techniques ancient and modern that are available to transform our lives and our potential. Under the guidance of the Nagual, we can harness the vast energy available to each of us, rid ourselves of our personal demons and false beliefs, and regain control of our own minds. When we let go of fear, we create the space to experience love. With impeccability, the correct use of this newfound personal power, we recognize everything we do and say as an enormous act of power.
Our final destination on the Toltec journey to personal freedom is an awareness of the spiritual human as Godself. Here we completely align with Intent to serve as co-creator on our Earth journey. With full illumination there is no illusion, and we become free to discover the identity of the I AM and embrace the light of divinity within.
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