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Robert Redford
A fantastic actor, director and producer. And what films!!!
Having to believe II
Don Juan had
liked the story and had made some casual comments about it. He had said that it was not so
difficult to let the spirit of
man flow and take over; to sustain it, however, was something that only a warrior could do.
"What about
the story of the cats?" I asked.
"You told
me you believed that you’re taking your chances, like Max," he said.
"I do
believe that."
"What I’ve
been trying to tell you is that as a warrior you cannot just believe this and let it go at that. With
Max, having to believe means that you accept the fact that his escape
might have been a useless
outburst. He might have jumped into the sewer and died instantly. He might have drowned or starved to
death, or he might have been eaten
by rats. A warrior considers all those possibilities and then chooses to believe in accordance with his
innermost predilection.
"As a
warrior you have to believe that Max made it, that he not only escaped but that he sustained his power. You
have to believe it. Let’s
say that without that belief you have nothing."
The distinction
became very clear. I thought I really had chosen to believe that Max had survived, knowing that he was
handicapped by a lifetime of
soft and pampered living.
"Believing
is a cinch," don Juan went on. "Having to believe is something else. In this case, for instance, power
gave you a splendid lesson, but you
chose to use only part of it. If you have to believe, however, you must use all the event."
"I see what
you mean," I said.
My mind was in a
state of clarity and I thought I was grasping his concepts with no effort at all.
"I’m
afraid you still don’t understand," he said, almost whispering.
He stared at me.
I held his look for a moment.
"What about
the other cat?" he asked.
"Uh? The
other cat?" I repeated involuntarily.
I had forgotten
about it. My symbol had rotated around Max. The other cat was of no consequence to me.
"But he
is!" don Juan exclaimed when I voiced my thoughts. ”Having to believe means that you have to also account for the
other cat. The one that
went playfully licking the hands that were carrying him to his doom. That was the cat that went to his
death trustingly, filled with his
cat’s judgments.
"You think
you’re like Max, therefore you have forgotten about the other cat. You don’t even know his name. Having
to believe means that you
must consider everything, and before deciding that you are like Max you must
consider that you may be like the other cat; instead of running for your life and taking your
chances, you may be going to your
doom happily, filled with your judgments."
"What a
magnificent afternoon," he said, looking at the sky.
"I don’t
like Mexico City," I said.
"Why
not?"
"I hate the
smog."
He shook his
head rhythmically is if he were agreeing with me.
"I would
rather be with you in the desert, or in the mountains," I said.
"If I were
you I would never say that," he said.
"I didn’t
mean anything wrong, don Juan."
"We both
know that. It is not what you mean that matters, though. A warrior, or any man for that matter, cannot
possibly wish he were somewhere
else; a warrior because he lives by challenge, an ordinary man because he doesn’t know where his death is
going to find him.
"Look at
that man over there lying on the grass. What do you think is wrong with
him?"
"He’s
either drunk or ill," I said.
"He’s
dying!" don Juan said with ultimate conviction. "When we sat down here I caught a glimpse of his death as
it circled around him. That’s why
I told you not to get up; rain or shine, you can’t get up from this bench until the end. This is the omen we
have been waiting for. It is late afternoon. Right now the sun is about to set.
It is your hour of power.
Look! The view of that man is only for us."
He pointed out
that from where we sat we had an unobstructed view of the man. A group of curious bystanders were
gathered in a half circle on the
other side of him, opposite us.
The sight of
the man lying on the grass became very disturbing to me. He was lean and dark,
still young. His black hair was short and curly. His shirt was unbuttoned and his chest was
uncovered. He was wearing an orange
cardigan sweater with holes in the elbows, and some old beat up gray slacks. His shoes, of some
undefined faded color, were
untied. He was rigid. I could not tell whether or not he was breathing. I wondered if he were dying, as
don Juan had said. Or was don Juan simply using the event to make a point? My
past experiences with him gave me the certainty that somehow he was making everything fit into some mysterious scheme of
his.
After a long
silence I turned to him. His eyes were closed. He began to talk without opening
them.
"That man
is about to die now," he said. "You don’t believe it, though, do
you?"
He opened his eyes and stared at me for a second. His
look was so penetrating that it
stunned me.
"No. I
don’t believe it," I said.
I really felt
that the whole thing was too easy. We had come to sit in the park and right there, as if everything were
being staged, was a man dying.
"The world
adjusts itself to itself," don Juan said after listening to my doubts. "This is not a setup. This is an
omen, an act of power.
"The world
upheld by reason makes all this into an event that we can watch for a moment on our way to more
important things. All we
can say about it is that a man is lying on the grass in the park, perhaps drunk.
"The world
upheld by will makes it into an act of power, which we can see. We can see death
whirling around the man, setting its hooks deeper and deeper into his luminous fibers. We can see the
luminous strings losing
their tautness and vanishing one by one.
"Those are
the two possibilities opened to us luminous beings. You are somewhere in the middle, still wanting to have
everything under the rubric of reason.
And yet, how can you discard the fact that your personal power rounded up an omen? We came to
this park, after you had found
me where I had been waiting for you—you found me by just walking into me, without thinking, or
planning, or deliberately using
your reason — and after we sat down here to wait for an omen, we became aware of that man, each
of us noticed him in our
own way, you with your reason, I with my will.
"That dying man
is one of the cubic centimeters of chance that power always makes available to a warrior. The
warrior’s art is to be perennially
fluid in order to pluck it. I have plucked it, but have you?"
I could not
answer. I became aware of an immense chasm within myself and for a moment I was somehow cognizant of the
two worlds he was talking
about.
"What an
exquisite omen this is!" he went on. "And all for you. Power is
showing you that death is the indispensable ingredient in having to believe. Without the awareness of death everything
is ordinary, trivial. It is
only because death is stalking us that the world is an unfathomable mystery. Power has shown you that. All
I have done myself is to
round up the details of the omen, so the direction would be clear to you; but in rounding up the details,
I have also shown you that
everything I have said to you today is what I have to believe myself, because that is the predilection
of my spirit."
Deutsch III
der Bereich – area
Bereich {m} – range
Bereich {m} – purview
Bereich/Fläche – area
Feld, Bereich – field
Bereich, Region – region
Besitz, Bereich – domain
Bereich, Sphaere – sphere
Bereich, Zeitachs – range
bereichert – enriches
bereichern – to enrich
Bereiche {pl} – purviews
Zielbereich {m} – target
Das Unternehmen, das im bereich Standardsoftware tätig ist, konnte innerhalb einer Woche mehr als 62 Prozent zulegen. (Quelle: Die Welt Online)
Er ist zuständig für Firmenkunden und den bereich International Trade & Commodity Finance. (Quelle: Die Welt 2002)
Das Papier gehöre weiterhin zu den Favoriten im Chemie- bereich. (Quelle: DIE WELT 2001)
Vor allem die dynamische Entwicklung im IT- und Medien- bereich, aber auch bei den Dienstleistungsberufen mache sich hier bemerkbar. (Quelle: DIE WELT 2000)
wesentlich {adj} – vital
wesentlich {adj} – essential
wesentlich {adv} – essentially
wesentlich {adv} – substantially
wesentlich; notwendig – essential
wesentlich, grundlegend – materially
grundlegend, wesentlich – fundamental
wesentlichst – primely
unwesentlich – unessential
wesentlichere – more essential
wichtig; wesentlich; bedeutend – important
unwesentliche Daten – irrelevant data
Unwesentlichkeit {f} – negligibleness
unwesentlich – irrelevant; unimportant
unwesentlich; geringfügig – negligible
wesentliche Resultate – basic findings
Wesentliche {n}; Hauptpunkt {m} – gist
Inhalt {m}; Wesentliche {n} – substance
unkörperlich, unwesentlich – immaterial
unkörperlich; unwesentlich – immaterial
wesentliche Bestandteile – constituents
Grundsatz der Wesentlichkeit – materiality
die wesentlichen Tatsachen – essential facts
wesentlicher Bestandteil – essential element
Bei komplizierteren Aufgaben, wie dem Erstellen von Angeboten für die Kunden, machten die Angestellten dagegen viel mehr Fehler und brauchten wesentlich länger. (Quelle: Der Spiegel ONLINE)
Und die Experten wissen, dass neue und kürzere Studiengänge das Wissen, die Methoden und Schlüsselkompetenzen in wesentlich konzentrierterer Form anbieten müssen als die herkömmlichen Langzeitstudiengänge. (Quelle: Der Spiegel ONLINE)
Die ist zwar wesentlich kleiner als die Südfront, hat aber wichtige Aufgaben.
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