Carlos Castañeda Quotes

There is no beginning, the beginning is only in your thought.

Que cada uno de tus actos sea tu última batalla sobre la tierra

When man fell to his knees he became the asshole he is today.

Solace, haven, fear, all of these are words which have created moods that one has learned to accept without ever questioning their value.

"- Ma seule raison, c'est de vouloir vraiment apprendre, juste pour savoir. Je vous assure, Don Juan, que mes intentions ne sont pas mauvaises.
- Je vous crois, je vous ai fumé.
- Je vous demande pardon ?
- C'est sans importance. Je connais vos motifs.
- Vous voulez dire que vous voyez à travers moi ?
- Si vous voulez.
- Alors vous m'apprendrez ?
- Non.
- Parce que je ne suis pas Indien ?
- Non. Parce que vous ne connaissez pas votre cœur. Ce qui est important, c'est que vous sachiez exactement pourquoi vous voulez entreprendre cette étude. Etudier le "Mescalito" ; c'est une chose très sérieuse. Si vous étiez Indien, le seul fait de souhaiter l'étudier suffirait. Car très peu d'Indiens expriment un tel désir."

Denying oneself is an indulgence. The indulgence of denying is by far the worst; it forces us to believe that we are doing great things, when in effect we are only fixed within ourselves.

Añadió que nada en este mundo era un regalo: todo cuanto hubiera que aprender debía aprenderse por el camino difícil.

The art of a warrior is to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man.

You must wait patiently, knowing that you’re waiting, and knowing what you’re waiting for. That is the warrior’s way. And if it is a matter of fulfilling your promise then you must be aware that you are fulfilling it. Then a time will come when your waiting will be over and you will no longer have to honor your promise.

To change our idea of the world is the crux of shamanism. And stopping the internal dialogue is the only way to accomplish it.

This series of specially selected quotations was gathered from the first eight books that I wrote about the world of the shamans of ancient Mexico. The quotations were taken directly from the explanations given to me as an anthropologist by my teacher and mentor don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian shaman from Mexico. He belonged to a lineage of shamans that traced its origins all the way back to the shamans who lived in Mexico in ancient times. In the most effective manner he could afford, don Juan Matus ushered me into his world, which was, naturally, the world of those shamans of antiquity. Don Juan was, therefore, in a key position. He knew about the existence of another realm of reality, a realm which was neither illusory, nor the product of outbursts of fantasy. For don Juan and the rest of his shaman-companions - there were fifteen of them - the world of the shamans of antiquity was as real and as pragmatic as anything could be. This work started as a very simple attempt to collect a series of vignettes, sayings, and ideas from the lore of those shamans that would be interesting to read and think about. But after the work was in progress, an unforeseeable twist of direction took place: I realized that the quotations by themselves were imbued with an extraordinary impetus. They revealed a covert train of thought that had never been evident to me before. They were pointing out the direction that don Juan's explanations had taken over the thirteen years in which he guided me as an apprentice. (Introduction)

For an average man, the world is weird because if he's not bored with it, he's at odds with it. For a warrior, the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable. A warrior must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous time.

What channels the energy of our total being to produce anything that might be within the boundaries of possibility is known as will.

«Проблема для всех нас заключается в том, чтобы взять от этого мира только то, что действительно необходимо, — и ничего более. Знать, что же является необходимым — это искусность магов, но взять только то, что необходимо — это их высочайшее достижение. Непонимание этого простого правила и есть самый неизбежный путь попадания в ловушку.»

تو وقتی از مردم عصبانی می شوی که احساس کنی عملشان مهم است .v