Step #2

Discipline: Theme song

The problem with freedom is that it leads to complacency. Complacency leads ultimately to death. How will we put an end to your complacency? Don Juan calls it the "petty tyrant" for even the most wicked of men becomes petty if you simply follow these rules. But what's happened in America is beyond petty: it's got machine guns, tazers, lawyers, doctors with needles who are ready to take you down if you get out-of-line. No, what we've got aren't petty tyrants, these are the Tyrants. Don Juan couldn't quite face this one, because it took down his whole people where it still rides them like a burro. They are the Big Dog that will not back down to any little dog.

The Law won't let you have want you want -- unless you let it ride you. Petty tyrants are all of the little tyrants that think they know what's right and get on top of you. It's the policeman, the lawyers, the Judge, but could be your landlord, the barkeep, the person who mows your lawn. In a dysfunctional society, everyone becomes a petty tyrant because they're all looking for control. They make sure they "correct" you, or that they get in line first, whatever. They haven't purified their life, or if they have, you can be sure that they don't know where they're going, so we're already putting you ahead.

Under any other circumstances, confronting one of these tyrant could be a danger to your life. You could end in jail^*. You could be disabled, or thrown in to a whirlpool of energy you don't know how to handle that will pull you into years of lost time. The enlightened warrior never pushes themself to the front. You don't go around stirring up hornets`s nests to show "who's boss" -- that makes you a new petty tyrant. No, at this phase, you're just entering the various battlezones, knowingly, and mapping out the strengths and weaknesses of the battle field while you're letting them beat you up. Maybe you go planting some hints and wait for them to come to you...

Don Juan said that discipline helps the warrior map out the tyrant`s weaknesses even when they're beating you up. A warrior may lose many battles, but as long as s/he keeps getting up, the warrior hasn't failed and the battle against self-importance is still on. So, if you think it's too late for you, think again.

Examine all of your routines. Don't let anything escape you. Your diet, your sleep patterns, your places of work, of socializing, your spirituality or religion. Normally, these tasks would be under "control" (cleaning out yourself), but you must either understand them or get out them. You have to establish what works for you and what doesn't. Technically, this is confronting the world, because they were established above you. In a way, the "petty tyrant" is YOU. YOU have to figure out what your individual path is, no one else. Every man and woman ate from the Tree of Knowledge, and it cannot tell you who you are.

So, your next step is to strategize. The enlightened warrior isn't just off in his own world separated from it. The [Western] warrior on the way to enlightenment is steeping themselves in it. It's a special step, getting involved in the tyranny without sticking your neck out. Learn a skill that's in demand or should be. Those with real skill have the special privilege to ignore those who don't. Enroll at a university or trade school. Go to the library. Having the discipline to master it gives you real credibility that no one can take from you and lends credibility to the enterprise rather than "searching for trouble".

Read the news and analyze. Debate with other people about issues wherever you are -- because, after all, it affects them too. Be an educated pundit, not a vocal one. You're not interfering with their life -- you're introducing them to it. Because they probably haven't mastered even the first step: control. The days of pretending to be separate are over. Everyone is affected by everything going on.

You have to map out the weaknesses of your world and its strengths. Is it your constitution? Is it the marketplace? Are they the religious traditions? You must sniff out all of the corners so that you're neither being fooled nor missing any resources that may become useful.

Once you know all of this, your head's gotten on top of your world. You're not taken by surprise by it. Yet, you're still just a plieb, without power, presumably. So what do you do?

You move to the next step: entering the battlezone and failing. Become a "sleeper" in some powerful organization, maybe. Becoming an officer of the military is a unique path -- if you can't get out of it. That'll stir things up and test you. In any case, you have to enter the center of the cyclone that makes the world spin. Because that's the only thing that will make you a master in your lifetime.

Step #3: Forbearance

---

Prior step.

---

Sleeper (n.): A covert agent placed in a target country or organization holding no immediate mission, but acting or "sleeping" as a potential asset if/until activated.

---

• The author has been in jail 4 times now and attained a Doctor of the Law (JD).