‘The Teachings of a Toltec Survivor’ Review!

“We can say that we have an external world and an internal world, just for the sake of illustration. In reality, you come to the point when you don’t know which is which. There came a time I didn’t know when I was dreaming and when not. Then came a time I didn’t know if I was dead or alive. Now I’m integrated and it’s all happening in the same moment. We’re going to play the game for now that there is an internal and an external world.” – The Teachings of a Toltec Survivor.

This is a beautiful work from Koyote Ciego and a great blessing for a reader to come across these tellings. The telling is a story. The telling is a fact. Probably fiction, partly unreal, partly illusive yet the fainting throb of the real message is definitely felt in the solar plexus.

To write not for the sake of writing, but to convey the teaching is rather difficult. The mood and the chambers where these teachings were being imparted (in the book) were marvelous. The messenger (the author Koyote) very tactfully takes the reader on a journey of Self-Inquiry. There were moments when the reader felt that the messenger was right there in front portraying the message with his hand movements, with bold strokes on the canvas, with the dance movements, and the rituals. Everything that the messenger conveyed was nonconforming to the machine as its own life was in jeopardy. But the spear went through the pin-hole.

There is an interesting note about the reverberation which rarely a person recognizes. It bears repetition here. In the book it reads as, ‘An impression hits the moving centrum and creates a reverberation. You observe the reverberation. It happens very fast. The mental centrum classifies the reverberation, has a response to it, and calls that response an emotion, and tells you how to react, how to manifest the “emotion” externally. The mental centrum observes the reverberation and classifies it, and we call that emotion.’

And there are tons of such pearls of wisdom and exercises which are breathtaking and surreal. This is a must-read book for people on any path, following any school, doing any of the yoga regimes or meditation retreats. It will cut right through all the cliched spiritual garbage and point you towards the essence of what ‘All this drama’ is about! It is certainly not for you, not for him or her, not for the other or for the Self. It is for that part inside which knows that it won’t survive once we hear the message.