The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
(Carlos Castańeda, 1968, Ballantine Books, NY)
1. You must search in your heart and find out why a young man like you wants to undertake such a task of learning.
2. Not every place was good to sit or be on, and that within the confines of the porch there was one spot that was unique, a spot where I could be at my very best.
3. You are a serious person, but your seriousness is attached to what you do, not to what goes on outside you. You dwell upon yourself too much. That’s the trouble. And that produces a terrible fatigue.
4. You get angry at people when you feel that their acts are important.
5. A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the hardships of learning. A man who has, without rushing or without faltering, gone as far as he can in unravelling the secrets of power and knowledge.
6. Learning is never what one expects.
7. A man can call himself a man of knowledge only if he is capable of defeating his four natural enemies: Fear, clarity (dispels fear, but also blinds), power, and old age.
8. A man is defeated only when he no longer tries, and abandons himself.
9. Anthropology has taught us that the world is differently defined in different places… this world, for all its differences of perception, has its own inner logic… our own world is also a cultural construct… The essential skill of good ethnography – the capacity to enter into an alien world.
10. 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 it, you must not stay with it under any conditions… Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good.
11. It was not the fear of dying, but rather the fear of losing my soul, a fear common among men who do have unbending intent.
12. She failed… because you did not budge from the spot on which you are invincible.
13. A man of knowledge needs clarity of mind to match his own specific reasons for acting with the specific purpose of every action.
14. One was capable of conquering fear only by facing it.
1. You must search in your heart and find out why a young man like you wants to undertake such a task of learning.
2. Not every place was good to sit or be on, and that within the confines of the porch there was one spot that was unique, a spot where I could be at my very best.
3. You are a serious person, but your seriousness is attached to what you do, not to what goes on outside you. You dwell upon yourself too much. That’s the trouble. And that produces a terrible fatigue.
4. You get angry at people when you feel that their acts are important.
5. A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the hardships of learning. A man who has, without rushing or without faltering, gone as far as he can in unravelling the secrets of power and knowledge.
6. Learning is never what one expects.
7. A man can call himself a man of knowledge only if he is capable of defeating his four natural enemies: Fear, clarity (dispels fear, but also blinds), power, and old age.
8. A man is defeated only when he no longer tries, and abandons himself.
9. Anthropology has taught us that the world is differently defined in different places… this world, for all its differences of perception, has its own inner logic… our own world is also a cultural construct… The essential skill of good ethnography – the capacity to enter into an alien world.
10. 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 it, you must not stay with it under any conditions… Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good.
11. It was not the fear of dying, but rather the fear of losing my soul, a fear common among men who do have unbending intent.
12. She failed… because you did not budge from the spot on which you are invincible.
13. A man of knowledge needs clarity of mind to match his own specific reasons for acting with the specific purpose of every action.
14. One was capable of conquering fear only by facing it.
