Carlos Castaneda quotes
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A warrior lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Things don't change, only the way you look at them.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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If a warrior is to succeed at anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
A 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 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 -
A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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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 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.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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 aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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To achieve the mood of a warrior is not a simple matter. It is a revolution. To regard the lion and the water rats and our fellow men as equals is a magnificent act of a warrior's spirit. It takes power to do that.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamens call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerers (those who live of the source) beckon to intent, it comes to them and sets up the path for attainment, which means that sorcerers always accomplish what they set out to do.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Look at every path closely and deliberately, then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then the path is good. If it doesn't, it is of no use.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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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 -
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
An average man is too concerned with liking people or with being liked himself. A warrior likes, that's all. He likes whatever or whomever he wants, for the hell of it.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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A warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he's clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect that he has witnessed everything.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Beware of those who weep with realization, for they have realized nothing.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Do you know at this very moment you are surrounded by eternity? And do you know that you can use that eternity if you so desire?
-- Carlos Castaneda -
There is a flaw with words, they always force us to feel enlightened, but when we turn around to face the world they always fail us and we end up facing the world as we always have, without enlightenment
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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Seek and see all the marvels around you. You will get tired of looking at yourself alone, and that fatigue will make you deaf and blind to everything else. - Don Juan
-- Carlos Castaneda -
A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness. He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as a grounds for regret but as a living challenge.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Forget the self and you will fear nothing, in whatever level or awareness you find yourself to be.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Think about it: what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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A warrior must learn to make every act count, since he is going to be here in this world for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
We are men and our lot in life is to learn and to be hurled into inconceivable new worlds.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
There are lots of things a warrior can do at a certain time which he couldn't do years before. Those things themselves did not change; what changed was his idea of himself.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Nothing in this world is a gift. Whatever must be learned must be learned the hard way.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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Only a warrior can survive the path of knowledge because the art of the warrior is to balance the pain of being a man with the wonder of being a man.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
A warrior chooses a path with heart, any path with heart, and follows it; and then he rejoices and laughs. He knows because he sees that his life will be over altogether too soon. He sees that nothing is more important than anything else.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Things don't change. You change your way of looking, that's all
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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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 -
Before you embark on it you ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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 spirit of a warrior is not geared to indulging and complaining, nor is it geared to winning or losing. The spirit of a warrior is geared only to struggle, and every struggle is a warrior's last battle on earth. Thus the outcome matters very little to him. In his last battle on earth a warrior lets his spirit flow free and clear. And as he wages his battle, knowing that his intent is impeccable, a warrior laughs and laughs.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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Whenever a warrior decides to do something, he must go all the way, but he must take responsibility for what he does. No matter what he does, he must know first why he is doing it, and then he must proceed with his actions without having doubts or remorse about them.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy and vain. To be a warrior one needs to be light and fluid.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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A rule of thumb for a warrior is that he makes his decisions so carefully that nothing that may happen as a result of them can surprise him, much less drain his power.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
A warrior never worries about his fear.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
For an instant I think I saw. I saw the loneliness of man as a gigantic wave which had been frozen in front of me, held back by the invisible wall of a metaphor.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Man lives only to learn. And if he learns it is because it is the nature of his lot, for good or bad.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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All of us, whether or not we are warriors, have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops out in front of our eyes from time to time. The difference between an average man and a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimeter pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess, to pick it up.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you're wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length--and there I travel looking, looking breathlessly.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
To seek freedom is the only driving force I know. Freedom to fly off into that infinity out there. Freedom to dissolve; to lift off; to be like the flame of a candle, which, in spite of being up against the light of a billion stars, remains intact, because it never pretended to be more than what it is: a mere candle.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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You say you need help. Help for what? You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Only the idea of death makes a warrior sufficiently detached so that he is capable of abandoning himself to anything. He knows his death is stalking him and won't give him time to cling to anything so he tries, without craving, all of everything.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
A warrior thinks of death when things become unclear. The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here...
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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In the Art of Dreaming Don Juan tells Carlos, "... most of our energy goes into upholding our importance... if we were capable of losing some of that importance, two extraordinary things would happen to us. One, we would free our energy from trying to maintain the illusory idea of our grandeur; and two we would provide ourselves with enough energy to ... catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the universe."
-- Carlos Castaneda -
It isn't that a warrior learns shamanism as time goes by; rather, what he learns as time goes by is to save energy. This energy will enable him to handle some of the energy fields which are ordinarily inaccessible to him. Shamanism is a state of awareness, the ability to use energy fields that are not employed in perceiving the everyday-life world that we know.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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A warrior seeks to act rather than talk.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
All paths are the same, leading nowhere. Therefore, pick a path with heart!
-- Carlos Castaneda -
To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior, in exactly the same way that nobody is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
A warrior acts as if he knows what he is doing, when in effect he knows nothing.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish. Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated. It operates in spite of the warrior's indulgence. Intent is what makes him invulnerable. Intent is what sends a shaman through a wall, through space, to infinity.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
The world is incomprehensible. We won't ever understand it; we won't ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat the world as it is: a sheer mystery.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
It doesn't matter how one was brought up. What determines the way one does anything is personal power.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. ... 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.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
For a warrior, to be inaccessible means that he touches the world around him sparingly. And above all, he deliberately avoids exhausting himselfand others. He doesn't use and squeeze people until they have shriveled to nothing, especially the people he loves.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
To seek the perfection of the warrior's spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do thingsagainst himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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There's no way to put a limit on what one may accomplish individually if the intent is an impeccable intent. Don Juan's teachings are not spiritual. I repeat this because the question has come to the surface over and over. The idea of spirituality doesn't fit with the iron discipline of a warrior. The most important thing for a shaman like don Juan is the idea of pragmatism.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
One cannot enter don Juan's world intellectually, like a dilettante seeking fast and fleeting knowledge. Nor, in don Juan's world, can anything be verified absolutely. The only thing we can do is arrive at a state of increased awareness that allows us to perceive the world around us in a more inclusive manner.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
What is wrong with us human beings, and has been wrong since time immemorial, is that without ever stating it in so many words, we believe that we have entered the realm of immortality. We behave as if we are never going to die - an infantile arrogance. But even more injurious than this sense of immortality is what comes with it : the sense that we can engulf this inconcievable universe with our minds.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Within these premises, the only thing one can be is an impeccable mediator. One is not the player in this cosmic match of chess, one is simply a pawn on the chessboard. What decides everything is a conscious impersonal energy that sorcerers call intent or the Spirit.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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The only thing that is real is the being in you that is going to die.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
It is best to erase all personal history because that would make us free from the encumbering thoughts of other people
-- Carlos Castaneda -
Don Juan assured me that in order to accomplish the feat of making myself miserable I had to work in the most intense fashion, and that it was absurd. I had now realized I could work just the same in making myself complete and strong. "The trick is in what one emphasizes," he said. "We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
-- Carlos Castaneda -
We have to balance the lineality of the known universe with the nonlineality of the unknown universe.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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To compare Tensegrity with yoga or t'ai chi is not possible. It has a different origin and a different purpose. The origin is shamanic, the purpose is shamanic.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
"Only if one loves this earth with unbending passion can one relieve one's sadness," don Juan said. "Warriors are always joyful because their love is unalterable and their beloved, the earth, embraces them and bestows upon them inconceivable gifts. The sadness belongs only to those who hate the very thing that gives shelter to their beings." Don Juan again caressed the ground with tenderness. "This lovely being, which is alive to its last recesses and understands every feeling, soothed me, it cured me of my pains, and finally when I had fully understood my love for it, it taught me freedom."
-- Carlos Castaneda -
The fact of the matter is that many children see. . . . Most of those who see are considered to be oddballs and every effort is made to correct them.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
When a warrior has put an end to his routines, when he doesn't care anymore whether he has company or is alone, because he has heard the silent whisper of the spirit; then you can say that, truly, he has died. From that point on, even the simplest things in life become extraordinary for him.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
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If you were a warrior, you would know that the worst thing one can do is confront human beings directly.
-- Carlos Castaneda -
"Dreaming is the vehicle that brings dreamers to this world," the emissary said, "and everything sorcerers know about dreaming was taught to them by us. Our world is connected to yours by a door called dreams. We know how to go through that door, but men don't. They have to learn it."
-- Carlos Castaneda
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