The Art of Light Footprints: Walking the Toltec Warrior Path With Integrity
The Toltec system is extremely scientific, highly evolved, and simple to follow. While it is not easy to apply, the steps themselves are very easy to understand. This clarity is the hallmark of a highly evolved system. In our spiritual journey, we should strive towards simplicity and avoid overly complicated teachings.
I used to work in a New Age shop for many years. When you work in retail, you get to know the products inside out. Personally, I have developed ways to see through the noise, and there is very little in the New Age movement that can fool me anymore. I remember taking a book off the shelf one day that was filled with channelled messages from exotic spirits detailing the afterlife. It was chapter after chapter of complex jargon: the sixth ray of the Chohan, the fifth dimension, the thirty-third chakra, the fifty-ninth radiation, and the fifty-ninth sutra. Someone took the trouble to write all of that down to profit off of it!
The truth is, almost no one working in those shops actually believes the illusions they sell. We used to laugh about the sprays and mystical claims in our shop, which was one of the largest in Europe. If a box of incense does what it says on the tin, that is wonderful. It is a box of incense meant to create a pleasant aroma; it is not a tool that will suddenly make you enlightened by sniffing the smoke.
Keep your path simple. Anything that is overly complicated is usually a distraction from the truth. You can practice simplicity right now by allowing your mind to settle, taking a deep breath, and feeling how simple and silent reality truly is. This present moment is incredibly uncomplicated. In Toltec circles, entering this state of awareness is often called the second attention. Scientists and psychologists might refer to it as the alpha brainwave state. These are just different words for the same experience: becoming fully present and simplified within yourself.
When an apprentice begins the Toltec path, the very first step is learning to exist in what is. You learn to stop resisting reality and instead consciously enter it. This state of presence requires you to cultivate as much internal silence as possible. It is a beautiful concept, but it is extremely difficult to achieve without the right guidance from someone who has walked the path before you.
As internal silence grows and you become more self-aware, you will inevitably discover your own self-importance. Self-importance acts like a very clever criminal living inside your mind, constantly conning you into believing you are better or more crucial than you actually are. That delusion is the only way it survives. Becoming an expert hunter of your own self-importance is a long, arduous journey. It means learning to recognize the unique footprints of your ego in your inner jungle so you can track it and manage it.
When you combine internal silence with the active hunting of self-importance, you eventually lose the human form. Alongside this shift, you naturally begin to behave as if your actions in each moment have real consequences. Before this awakening, self-importance deludes us into thinking our actions do not matter and that we can get away with anything as long as we deny it.
You might believe you are already fully aware of your actions because you have been burnt by bad decisions in the past. However, I am not talking about mental wisdom or lessons learned from adversity. I am talking about a deep, physical way of seeing the world. It is the realization that every single movement - from picking up a computer mouse, to speaking, walking, or opening a refrigerator door - carries a specific weight and consequence.
This realization should not turn you into a rigid, overly serious person. Try to understand this concept with your body rather than analyzing it with your mind. Consider how a cat moves. A cat always moves as if its actions have immediate consequences. Even if it takes the exact same route through a house thousands of times, it still tests every step, fluidly avoiding obstacles and moving with deliberate grace.
An average person walks through life unobservant, acting as though their behaviour has no impact. A warrior, however, becomes keenly aware of their impact on the immediate environment. As a result, a warrior’s footprints become incredibly light. Your actions lose their heavy, disruptive edge. You stop slamming doors or clattering dishes.
One can see a reflection of this awareness in our everyday belongings. Take a look at your toothbrush. If the bristles are completely bent and crushed, you are brushing your teeth with excessive, chaotic force. You are acting as if that action has no consequence. A warrior gets the job done perfectly without using unnecessary force. Noisy actions - like banging plates around - are often subconscious ways for self-importance to shout to the environment: “Look at me, I exist, I am important.” We stomp through our lives demanding validation. A warrior does not need to prove their existence to anyone, because they have entirely accepted their place in the present moment.
Because a warrior operates with such a light touch, the things they use last for years. Even the most delicate gadgets, clothes, socks, and household tools remain in excellent condition. If your kitchen knives dull rapidly, it means you are not respecting the consequence of your actions toward that knife. If you were aware, you would cut in a holistic way that works in harmony with the tool, rather than treating it like a petty tyrant.
The Toltec system requires ongoing guidance and the perspective of a benefactor to help you navigate each evolutionary step in personal power.
"Inner silence works from the moment you begin to accrue it. What the old sorcerers were after was the final dramatic, end result of reaching that individual threshold of silence."
~ Carlos Castaneda.
Walk in freedom,
Anaam
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