THE TOLTEC TEACHINGS
Volume VI
(The Book of Aphorisms).
All of the Toltec teachings, compiled over aeons, are contained within aphorisms. The explanations of these aphorisms have always served to express the teachings in a manner suited to the relevant times.
Yet no stage throughout their history have Toltec seers transmitted this core of their teachings; namely, the aphorisms, in anything other than purely oral form. Now for the first time, the Toltec aphorisms have been committed to writing in their entirety by the Toltec and seer charged with revealing the Toltec legacy to humanity today - Théun Mares. These range from the simplest, given to an apprentice at the outset of his or her journey on the Path of Knowledge, to those given only after a great many years of painstaking endeavour in learning to become a true Man or Woman of Knowledge.
The aphorisms have been assembled by Théun in such a manner that reflects the seven stages of learning, thus enabling seekers of learning to answer their own questions as they progress through the different stages of the pathway to acquiring true knowledge.
ISBN 0-958-4675-6-0
EXTRACTS FROM VOLUME VI
CONTENTS
The Obligation
Preface 1
Magnum Opus Toltecum Vatium
Introduction 15
The Nine Truths of Awareness 29
Section I 33
Section II 43
Section III 103
Section IV 131
Section V 199
Section VI 271
Section VII 293
Postscript 313
EXTRACT FROM INTRODUCTION
(The Seven Stages in Learning)
The only true learning there is, is learning about the self, for man is the microcosm of the macrocosm.
The true Scholar has known for ever that it is insanity to assume that we can understand life, and therefore the world around us, unless we acknowledge that we too are a part of this ineffable mystery we look upon as being life, and which we are wanting to fathom and understand. But, being part of this mystery, our every action, our every thought and our every feeling, affects our perception of our experience. And what is knowledge, if it is not that which we perceive as being our experience within life?
Therefore, the act of learning, like every action we take within life, must and does have a direct influence upon our perception of the knowledge which arises from having taken that action. It follows that the act of learning directly affects how we perceive the knowledge gained in the process of learning.
The profound truth that emerges from this is that, in learning, we create the answers we seek, according to our perception of what is revealed to us during the process of learning. In other words, we create our own reality, whether we are aware of this or not.
So the question facing everyone who wishes to learn is; "How do we know that the reality we have created is in fact the truth we are seeking?" or, more precisely; "How do we corroborate the subjective reality, when the only reality we can measure it against is our perception of the objective reality to which we bear witness by virtue of being alive, for is it not this very perception we are questioning when we set out to learn?" This difficulty in learning is a conundrum for which there is no logical solution, other than to start the process of learning from the premise that whatever we experience within life; that is, whatever we perceive to be factual, is not necessarily the objective reality to which we bear witness, but merely the subjective reality which causes us to look upon our experience as being the factual reality we are dealing with.
This, however, does not presuppose that the subjective reality which arises from experience is any less true than the objective reality we are witnessing. Instead it serves to confirm that the subjective reality, being dependent as it is upon our perception, is what we are experiencing, whereas the objective reality, which exists independently of our perception of it, must at best be witnessed without judgement, until such time as we have gained the necessary knowledge with which to bridge the gap that exists between our subjective experience and an objective reality that transcends the limitations of perception. It is this gap between our perception and the objective reality being witnessed that instils in us, the Observers, the desire to gain the needed skill with which to fill the gap between the subjective and the objective.
If we, as the Observers, are to fill the gap existing between the subjective and the objective, then it is vital that we bear in mind that the subjective, by definition, implies the purely personal, whereas the objective, also by definition, implies that which is transpersonal, and therefore existing independently of the purely personal nature of our perception. It follows that the Observer is not only the point at which perception is being assembled in relation to the experience of the Observer, but that for there to be any experience at all, the Observer must of necessity also be the catalyst that brings into existence the experience he is having of the objective reality to which he bears witness.
Consequently, although the Observer starts off by being an impartial witness to life around him, the moment he starts to interact with the world he has the choice of either seeing himself as being the victim of circumstance, or else seeing himself as being the catalyst that causes objective reality to start imposing itself upon the subjective reality he has created according to his perception. The first option is clearly antithetical to learning anything of real value, which means that the true Scholar has no option other than to see himself as being the creator of his reality.
Once we are clear on this much, it becomes perfectly possible to acquire skill in the technique of learning, for all that is required in order to gain this skill, is to remember that the Observer is both the Witness of objective reality, as well as the Experimenter directing the process entailed in learning how to relate perception of that objective reality to the reality underlying his subjective experience of it.
This is the theory, and if one adheres to the theory it appears that this should be a relatively simple exercise to accomplish, given the required time and the due diligence. However, in practice it is not quite as simple as the theory would have us believe, for although gaining the skill to learn is undoubtedly within the grasp of any man or woman, achieving this skill is nonetheless the task of a lifetime. The reason for this, as Toltecs have discovered in mapping out the process of learning, is that acquiring skill in learning entails conquering seven distinct areas of expertise.
