04 December 2022

Week 2022-48: Carlos Castañeda - Collected Quotes

"A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Teachings of Don Juan", 1968)

"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." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Teachings of Don Juan", 1968)

"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." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Teachings of Don Juan", 1968)

"The most effective way to live is as a warrior. A warrior may worry and think before making any decision, but once he makes it, he goes his way, free from worries or thoughts; there will be a million other decisions still awaiting him. That's the warrior's way." (Carlos Castañeda, "A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan", 1971)

"Things don't change. You change your way of looking, that's all." (Carlos Castañeda, "A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan", 1971)

"It doesn't matter what one reveals or what one keeps to oneself. Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we don't have enough personal power the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and it won't make a damn bit of difference." (Carlos Castaneda, "Tales of Power", 1974)

"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse." (Carlos Castaneda, "Tales of Power", 1974)

"The world doesn't yield to us directly, the description of the world stands in between. So, properly speaking, we are always one step removed and our experiences of the world is always a recollection of the experience. We are perennially recollecting the instant that has just happened, just passed. Re recollect, recollect, recollect." (Carlos Castaneda, "Tales of Power", 1974)

"The daily world exists because we know how to hold its images; consequently, if one drops the attention needed to maintain those images, the world collapses." (Carlos Castaneda, "Second Ring of Power", 1977)

"To tune the spirit when someone is trampling on you is called control." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Fire from Within", 1984)

"The third point of reference is freedom of perception; it is intent; it is spirit; the somersault of thought into the miraculous; the act of reaching beyond our boundaries and touching the inconceivable." (Carlos Castaneda, "Power of Silence", 1987) 

"Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: 'Does this path have a heart?'" (Carlos Castaneda, "The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life", 1998)

"The internal dialogue is what grounds people in the daily world. The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such and so and so. The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life", 1998)

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