Carlos Castañeda Quotes

Don Juan said that everybody that knew me had an idea about me, and that I kept feeding the idea with everything I did. “Don’t you see?” he asked dramatically. “You must renew your personal history by telling your parents, your relatives, and your friends everything you do. On the other hand, if you have no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with your acts. And above all no one pins you down with their thoughts.

"¡la claridad! Esa claridad de mente, tan difícil de obtener, dispersa el miedo, pero también ciega.
"Fuerza al hombre a no dudar nunca de sí. Le da la seguridad de que puede hacer cuanto se le antoje, porque todo lo ve con claridad. Y tiene valor porque tiene claridad, y no se detiene en nada porque tiene claridad. Pero todo eso es un error; es como si viera algo claro pero incompleto. Si el hombre se rinde a esa ilusión de poder, ha sucumbido a su segundo enemigo y será torpe para aprender. Se apurará cuando debía ser paciente, o será paciente cuando debería apurarse. Y tonteará con el aprendizaje, hasta que termine incapaz de aprender nada más.

If one is to succeed in anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession.

In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call "intent," and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to "intent" by a connecting link. Warriors are concerned with discussing, understanding, and employing that connecting link. They are especially concerned with cleaning it of the numbing effects brought about by the ordinary concerns of their everyday lives. Shamanism at this level can be defined as the procedure of cleaning one's connecting link to "intent."

Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.

«Дон Хуан выразил сожаление в связи с тем, что из всех великолепных вещей, которым научились старые маги, перемещая точку сборки в тысячи разных мест, остались только искусство сновидения и искусство сталкинга.
Он повторил снова, что искусство сновидения означает умение управлять смещением точки сборки. Затем он определил искусство сталкинга как умение фиксировать точку сборки в том месте, куда ее необходимо сместить. — Фиксировать точку сборки на ново»

Accept your fate in humbleness. The course of a warrior's destiny is unalterable. The challenge is how far he can go within those rigid bounds, how impeccable he can be within those rigid bounds. If there are obstacles in his path, the warrior strives impeccably to overcome them. If he finds unbearable hardship and pain on his path, he weeps, but all his tears put together could not move the line of his destiny the breadth of one hair. Fulfill your fate as a warrior not as a petty person.

Dwelling upon the self too much produces a terrible fatigue. A man in that position is deaf and blind to everything else. The fatigue makes him cease to see the marvels all around him.

Smrt je jediný moudrý rádce, kterého máme. Kdykoliv máš pocit, že je něco špatně a že budeš sprovozen ze světa, a ty máš tenhle pocit pořád, obrať se ke své smrti a zeptej se jí , jestli je to tak. Smrt ti řekne, že se mýlíš. Protože doopravdy vlastně záleží jen a jen na jejím dotyku a na ničem jiném už ne. Smrt ti řekne: Ještě jsem si na tebe nesáhla.

Don Juan chuckled and said, 'You haven't dreamt with Carol Tiggs yet. You'll find out that it's
a treat.

Sorceresses don't need any props. They just go to that world whenever they want to; for
them, there is a scout on permanent call.

Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush,
or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My
benefactor's question has meaning now. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is
of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as
long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the
other weakens you.

"I really felt I had lost my body, don Juan."
"You did."
"You mean, I really didn't have a body?"
"What do you think yourself?"
"well, I don't know. All I can tell you is what I felt."
That is all there is in reality - what you felt.

Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow, you must not stay with it under any circumstances.

The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.

A warrior takes responsibility for his acts, for the most trivial of acts. An average man acts out his thoughts, and never takes responsibility for what he does.