There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: Does this path have a heart?... All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. However, a path without a heart is never enjoyable. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy - it does not make a warrior work at liking it; it makes for a joyful journey; as long as a man follows it, he is one with it.
Peruvian-American author (1925-1998)
Carlos Castañeda (December 25, 1925 – April 27, 1998) was an American writer. Starting in 1968, Castaneda published a series of books that describe a training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named don Juan Matus. While Castaneda's work was accepted as factual by many when the books were first published, the training he described is now generally considered to be fictional.
From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Native Name:
Carlos Castaneda
Alternative Names:
Carlos César Salvador Arana Castañeda
From Wikidata (CC0)
A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting... Thus a man of knowledge sweats and puffs and if one looks at him he is just like an ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under his control. Separate Reality: Conversations With Don Juan. (1971) p. 85; As cited in: Eugene Dupuis (2001) Time Shift: Managing Time to Create a Life You Love. Ch. 5: Self Management
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.
"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."
Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you... Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question ... Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use.
La ricerca della libertà è l'unica forza stimolante che conosca. Libertà di volare in quell'infinito là in alto; libertà di dissolversi; libertà di distaccarsi da tutto; di essere come la fiamma di una candela che, nonostante il paragone con la luce di miliardi di stelle, rimane intatta perché non ha mai finto di essere più di quanto non fosse: solo una candela.
Don Juan
..He patted me vigorously on the back and laughed. “Wish him well, Carlitos,” he said. “Wish him well.” I was very tired. I had a strange surge of happy sadness. I told him that I came from a place where people rarely if ever wish one another well. “I know,” he said. “The same thing happened to me. But I’m a warrior now and I can afford to wish him well.