Carlos Castañeda Quotes

Detached and at ease, I will dart past the Eagle to be free.

Seeing children's assemblage points constantly fluttering, as if moved by tremors, changing their place with ease, the old sorcerers came to the conclusion that the assemblage points habitual location is not innate but brought about by habituation.

Seeing also that only in adults is it fixed on one spot, they surmised that the specific location of the assemblage point fosters a specific way of perceiving.

Through usage, this specific way of perceiving becomes a system of interpreting sensory data.

Since we are drafted into that system by being born into it, from the moment of our birth we imperatively strive to adjust our perceiving to conform to the demands of this system, a system that rules us for life.

Consequently, the old sorcerers were thoroughly right in believing that the act of countermanding it and perceiving energy directly is what transforms a person into a sorcerer.

Тональ создает мир только образно говоря. Он не может создать или изменить ничего, и тем не менее он делает мир, потому что его функция состоит в том, чтобы судить, свидетельствовать и оценивать. Я говорю, что тональ делает мир, потому что он свидетельствует и оценивает его согласно своим тональным законам. Очень странным образом тональ является творцом, который не творит ни единой вещи другими словами, тональ создает законы, по которым он воспринимает мир, так что, образно говоря, он творит мир.

A warrior doesn't need personal history. One day, he finds it is no longer necessary for him, and he drops it.

Everything is filled to the brim,” he repeated, “and everything is equal. I’m not like your friend who just grew old. When I tell you that nothing matters I don’t mean it the way he does. For him, his struggle was not worth his while, because he was defeated; for me there is no victory, or defeat, or emptiness. Everything is filled to the brim and everything is equal and my struggle was worth my while.

For such sorcerers, the most significant act of sorcery is to see the essence of the universe. The essence of the universe resembles incandescent threads stretched into infinity in every conceivable direction, luminous filaments that are conscious of themselves in ways impossible for the human mind to comprehend.

The only thing that could be done was to follow the quotations, and let them create a sketch of the skeletal form of the thoughts and feelings that the shamans of ancient Mexico had about life, death, the universe, energy. They are reflections of how those shamans understood not only the universe, but the processes of living and coexisting in our world. And more important yet, they point out the possibility of handling two systems of cognition at once without any detriment to the self. (Introduction)

Once you decide something put all your petty fears away. Your decision should vanquish them. I will tell you time and time again, the most effective way to live is as a warrior. Worry and think before you make any decision, but once you make it, be on your way free from worries or thoughts; there will be a million other decisions still awaiting you. That's the warrior's way.
A warrior thinks of his death when things become unclear. The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit.

Those are the lights on the head of death. Death puts them on like a hat and then shoots off on a gallop, gaining on us, getting closer and closer. Sometimes it turns off its lights. But death never stops.

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.

When nothing is for sure, we remain alert, perennially on our toes. It is more exciting not to know which bush the rabbit is hiding behind than to behave as though we knew everything.

El resultado final que los chamanes como don Juan Matus buscaban para sus discípulos era darse cuenta de algo que por su sencillez es tan difícil de lograr: que somos, de hecho, seres que vamos a morir. Por lo tanto, la verdadera lucha del hombre no está en la lucha con su prójimo, sino con el infinito, y esto ni siquiera es una lucha; es, en esencia, un asentimiento.

The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness. The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity.

Nothing being more important than anything else, a warrior chooses any act, and acts it out as if it mattered to him. His controlled folly makes him say that what he does matters and makes him act as if it did, and yet he knows that it doesn't; so when he fulfills his acts, he retreats in peace, and whether his acts were good or bad, or worked or didn't, is in no way part of his concern.

"Ljutiš li se na mene, don Huane?", upitah ga kada se vratio. Izgledao je iznenađen mojim pitanjem. "Ne! Nikada se ni na koga ne ljutim. Niko na ovom svetu ne može da učini ništa toliko značajno da bih se ja naljutio. Ljutiš se na ljude onda kada misliš da su njihovi postupci važni. Ja tako više ne mislim."