impeccability

STUB This material is derived from Carlos Casteneda via don Juan, a Yaqui indian sorcerer. It has been rewritten.

Impeccibility is the expression of human perfection within the world.

The attainment of impeccibility happens after mastering perception and tackling several obstacles of the self: fear, false clarity (ego), and lust of power. Conquering your fear develops your discipline. Conquering your ego, develops your control. And lastly, after conquering the lust of power, you acquire perfect timing.

Control and discipline are like a dam behind which everything is pooled during your path of enlightenment. Timing is the gate in the dam. Providence sets up who will win.

The chances of perfecting these things in a single lifetime are miniscule -- few people ever get to the level of the President, for example. So there is a fourth element that can be drawn upon: the petty tyrant. The other three are internal obstacles. The petty tyrant is the outside element -- the one we cannot control and the element that is perhaps the most important of all for facing this world. The warrior who stumbles upon a petty tyrant is a lucky one. You're fortunate if you come upon one in your path, because if you don't, you have to go out and look for one.

Usually, the three attributes mentioned are played, because most interactions just aren't that significant to the Spirit. However, there is a fourth, special, one that don Juan called "will" which I will call "providence". It is always saved for the ultimate confrontation, when warriors are facing the firing squad, so to speak. One can't force it because that puts one back in the sphere of the Known. Hence one of the items on the path of the Enlightned Warrior is patience.

Will or Providence belongs to another sphere, the Unknown. The other three belong to the Known, exactly where the petty tyrants are lodged. In fact, what turns human beings into petty tyrants is precisely the obsessive manipulation of the known. A perfect petty tyrant has no redeeming feature.

If people can hold their own in facing petty tyrants, then they can face the Unknown with impunity, and then they can even stand the presence of the unknowable.