“Light energy is pouring down on us constantly…like rain, entering into the top of your head. Let this energy flow through your whole being. Take it in, knowing that your body and spirit are being revitalized with this infusion of light, this energy.” Don Emilio

By Richard Juarez

Tony was fidgeting so much it was obvious he was anxious to talk about what we had done during the month. We had arrived a few minutes early and were already seated as Don Emilio walked in. Once he was seated and ready to begin, he asked us how our practice exercises went.   [Read more…]

“The Toltecs and other native cultures of the Americas believe that the spirit of an animal has chosen to be one of your guides. On a spirit level you have agreed to accept its help. This animal spirit has been with you for some time now and knows your thoughts and dreams. It knows other information too, and can try to share that information with you.” Don Emilio

By Richard Juarez

The more that time passed, the more I found I really looked forward to spending time with Don Emilio. The stuff he had talked about so far was not the typical boring stuff we trudged through in school. Some of it sounded strange, but in a good way. I didn’t really understand it yet, but I knew these ancient teachings were really important stuff, and that I would eventually want to share it with others. I was glad that Don Emilio and people like him were making an effort to see that this knowledge was preserved.   [Read more…]

“Our ancient experience confirms at every point that everything is linked together, everything is inseparable.” Dalai Lama XIV

By Richard Juarez

“Hey man, take a look at this!” Tony was looking through his binoculars toward the Padres’ bullpen. “Look at the guy in the stands next to the bullpen pitchers’ mound. He’s talking to Luis DeLeon, one of the guys warming up. And he was just shaking his hand. Doesn’t he look familiar?” He handed me the glasses.

“Here, hold my hot dog for me,” I said, “and don’t eat any of it. I don’t have much left.” Tony had already inhaled his hot dog. I looked through the binoculars and found the bullpen. “No way! It can’t be. That looks like Don Emilio! But I don’t think so. I knew he was still in town, but he never said anything about going to a Padres game or even liking baseball.”   [Read more…]

“The seer sees that every man is in touch with everything else, not through his hands, but through a bunch of long fibers that shoot out in all directions from the center of his abdomen.” Don Juan, in A Separate Reality, by Carlos Castañeda.

By Richard Juarez

We were both so eager to start our next session with Don Emilio that the month just seemed to drag on and on. When the time to meet with him again finally arrived, Tony met me at my house and we ran to Nana and Tata’s.

“Good morning,” Don Emilio called to us we bounded up to the garden shed.

“Good morning, Don Emilio,” I answered as I stepped in and took my seat, breathing a little hard from the short run.
  [Read more…]

“Pablito’s a jerk and a loud mouth. He and Arturo take the stupidest risks. And too often we’re the ones who end up paying for their stupidity. I’m glad we have a chance to take a new direction, to do something different instead of hanging with them all the time.” Tony
By Richard Juarez

One immediate result of the sessions with Don Emilio was that no one in the family bugged me or gave me a hard time anymore. From sisters, to parents, to grandparents, no one asked what I was doing, or where I was going, or who I was going with. When I asked if I could go to the library after our session with Don Emilio last week, to do some research on a school paper, my mother surprised me with her response.

“You don’t have to ask if you can leave the house anymore,” she said. “I should keep you on restriction, but your father and I promised Tío Emilio that we would let him deal with you. So you are now off restriction and in his hands. Don’t go and blow this, and embarrass him and your Tata. Tata is the one who really wanted Tío Emilio to help you. I was opposed to this, but Tata insisted, and … well, he’s my father. So you don’t have to ask any more. But use your common sense, and let me know when you’ll be gone, so that I don’t have to worry about you.”   [Read more…]

“Perhaps the time has come to not simply follow others, and instead, go a different way. I am offering you the opportunity to take a completely different path than most people walk. It is an ancient path, the path of your ancestors, a path connected with nature and the earth, connected to God and the energy of the universe. It is the way our ancestors used to live.” Tío Emilio

By Richard Juarez

As it turned out, our incident in East San Diego didn’t slip by unnoticed like we thought it did. One of the neighbors had seen us talking that night in front of Nana and Tata’s house. A few days later she asked Nana who had been driving Tata’s car and talking to her grandson and Amador’s store clerk. Of course it was a total surprise to Nana and Tata that Tío Emilio had been with Tony and me that night. So when they called and asked him about it, he told them the whole truth. And they, of course, told our parents, plus a few others.

Pretty soon everyone in both families had heard at least one or more versions of the story about how Tony and I almost died in East San Diego. In some of the versions, Pablito and Arturo were still missing. You’d think we had been arrested for some serious crime, the way everyone was yelling at us. It was as if it was the worst thing that could have happened. But nothing happened!!   [Read more…]

“They’re talking about Tío Emilio. I think they want him to come and cure me of my evil ways.” Vincent

By Richard Juarez

“Too bad he couldn’t stay longer,” mused Tío Pancho. “I thought I was going to be able to spend a little time with him today.”

I stood on the porch next to Tío Pancho as we watched my father drive off in Tata’s car with Tata and Tío Emilio. They were taking him to the bus station, so he could get back to L.A.

“That was a long way to go to turn around and go right back,” Tía Paula said as she walked up the porch steps and stood beside us. She lived only a few blocks away, so she had made it over here this morning in time to have breakfast with Nana, Tata, and Tío Emilio. My mother insisted on us doing most of the usual Saturday morning household chores before we came over, so we didn’t get there until about eleven o’clock, right when they were getting ready to leave. Tío Pancho arrived just after we did.   [Read more…]

“There are no accidents. We choose our life actions, and doing so, we choose the consequences too. If we choose not to die, we do not put ourselves in danger.” Tío Emilio

By Richard Juarez

AA-OOOOOO-GA … AA-OOOOOO-GA.

“Dang, I told him not to honk that horn!” Tony whispered. “My parents are gonna know that it’s Pablito’s dad’s car.” Tony peeked into the house and turned back to me.

“Good! My dad’s asleep on the couch and my mom’s on the phone.”

He opened the door quietly and stuck in his head. “Mom,” he whispered across the living room to his mother who was seated at the dining room table. “I’ll be back in a little while. Vincent an’ me are going out for a bit.” He didn’t want to wake his father and his whispering didn’t interrupt her telephone conversation. She was engrossed in her call and could hardly hear him. She looked up briefly, then just waved goodbye. I was surprised his mother was letting him go out. He had been grounded like me, but I guess they loosened up a little. My parents thought I was spending the evening with Tony at his house. I was just hoping Gracie and Alice didn’t talk to each other and figure out we were both gone.   [Read more…]

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.  Buddhist Proverb

By Richard Juarez

As I got close to the house I could see Tío and Tata sitting on the front porch, talking and drinking from their coffee mugs. They both said good morning as I approached the front gate.

“Hola, Vicentillo,” Nana called from the living room. She saw me through the screen door as I walked up the porch steps. “¿Ya comistes?”

“Sí, Nana, gracias, I’ve eaten already.” I thought about it for a second, but couldn’t resist. “¿Pero … tienes una tortilla?”

“Pues sí.” She motioned for me to follow her into the kitchen where she immediately lit up two burners on the stove. “¿Quieres un burrito con frijoles y chorizo?”   [Read more…]

“The world is as you dream it.”  Numi

By Richard Juarez 

I sat on my bed after dinner, partly listening to my radio, but mostly thinking about the day and about Tío Emilio. After a while, my eyes just felt so heavy, I couldn’t keep them open. Maybe sweeping the walks front and back, and sweeping out the patio and wiping down the patio furniture before dinner tired me out more than I thought. Or maybe it was from eating too much. I sat there with my eyes closed, thinking about the leather binder cover and the scene carved on it. Finally we would get to talk about it in the morning. The thought occurred to me to get up and change into my PJs. But instead, I plopped over on the bed and immediately drifted off into a deep sleep….

I must have been traveling very fast. What a rush, feeling the wind on my face, and hearing it speak to me as it whizzed past my ears. It told me to look up and see the clouds. They looked like huge beautiful puffy balls of cotton floating in the sky. The next thing I knew I was sailing up into one of the lower clouds and could feel the coolness of its moisture. I leaned to the left and curled back down out of the clouds, then sailed right back up into the cool mist. Sometime while sailing through the clouds, I realized that I was a small eagle, flying through the sky.   [Read more…]

“Many mothers and fathers y abuelitos want to teach their children our traditions, our culture, and also about the ancient knowledge of our ancestors. But … some have fears of what they call ‘the old ways.”  Tío Emilio

By Richard Juarez

I was trying to make out bits and pieces of the phone conversation my mother was having with Tata. I don’t usually try to listen in, but this time she was almost arguing with him, which she never does. My sisters and I were playing monopoly in the sala on Saturday afternoon. I never liked the game much—it always took too long, and my mind tended to wander between turns. No wandering this time, however. I could tell from the look on the girls’ faces that they were as surprised as I was about what we heard coming from the dining room. I didn’t understand all of what was said, but I did make out that it had to do with me somehow, and she kept saying no to him, over and over, raising her voice. Then she got quiet, and it seemed like they came to some kind of agreement, as she ended the conversation with a few buenos. When she got off the phone she called to me.

“Vincent, they want you over at Tata’s. Tío Emilio is down from Los Angeles. You go put on a decent shirt and get right over there. And … he wants you to bring that leather cover.”   [Read more…]

“Brujos are like witches or sorcerers,” said Eddie. “They have strange powers. I hear you have a brujo visiting you, Vincent. What strange things can he do?”

By Richard Juarez

I had been looking forward to a little freedom hanging out with Tony. Since being restricted to the house I hadn’t seen him much except at school. Before leaving for the afternoon my parents told me to get a couple of things at Amador’s. So I decided to do it just before Tony got off work. That way we could take the long way home and walk around the neighborhood a little before my parents got back. I was standing just inside in the doorway of the store waiting for Tony to get off work when Pablito walked in.

“Hey, vato,” he said, smiling, “What’s going on?”

“You dummy, you got us into trouble,” I answered. “That’s what’s going on! That placa you put outside on the wall, don’t you ever think about where you’re putting that stuff?”   [Read more…]