Carlos Castaneda
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.Collection: Power
A man of knowledge chooses a path with a heart and follows it and then he looks and rejoices and laughs and then he sees and knows.Collection: Knowledge
We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.Collection: Work
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.Collection: Good
The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.Collection: Work
A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting.Collection: Knowledge
Leave Jesus on the cross. He's very happy there!
All paths are the same, leading nowhere. Therefore, pick a path with heart!
The only thing that is real is the being in you that is going to die.
We have to balance the lineality of the known universe with the nonlineality of the unknown universe.
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.
The things shamans deal with are extremely practical. They break down parameters of normal historical reality. Magical passes are just one aspect of that.
Self-importance requires spending most of one's life offended by something or someone.Collection: Self
We don't need more to be thankful for, we just need to be more thankful.Collection: Being Thankful
Never take a path that has no heart in it. You can't lose if your heart is in your work, but you can't win if your heart is not in it.Collection: Heart
The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.Collection: Balance
You are like you are, because you tell yourself that you are that way.Collection: Way
Discipline, as understood by a warrior, is creative, open, and produces freedom. It is the ability to face the unknown, transforming the feeling of knowing into reverent astonishment; of considering things that exceed the scope of our habits, and daring to face the only war that is worthwhile: The battle for awareness.Collection: War
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.Collection: Strong
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."Collection: Dream
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.Collection: Courage
In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.Collection: Regret
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.Collection: Positive
...to tune the spirit when someone is trampling on you is called controlCollection: Tunes
When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become attainable.Collection: Learning
"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."Collection: Pain
The ego is like a tired old dog. We can never kill it, so put it out on the back porch, let it rest there, and step around it.Collection: Dog
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.Collection: Stress
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.Collection: Differences
Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy and vain. To be a warrior one needs to be light and fluid.Collection: Attitude
If you were a warrior, you would know that the worst thing one can do is confront human beings directly.Collection: Warrior
Things don't change, only the way you look at them.Collection: Spiritual
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.Collection: Success
Self importance is man's greatest enemy.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Life
Will is what can make you succeed when your thoughts tell you that you're defeated.Collection: Attitude
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 JuanCollection: Tired
... everything in the world is a force, a pull or a push. In order for us to be pushed or pulled we need to be like a sail, like a kite in the wind. But if we have a hole in the middle of our luminosity, the force goes through it and never acts upon us.Collection: Order
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.Collection: Regret
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.Collection: Spiritual
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance.Collection: War
How can I know who I am when I am all this?Collection: Who I Am
You're chained to you reason ... Understanding is only a very small affair, so very smallCollection: Understanding
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.Collection: Freedom
To seek the perfection of the warrior's spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood.Collection: Spiritual
The only thing we all have in common is that we play tricks in order to force ourselves to abandon the quest. The counter-measure is to persist in spite of all the barriers and disappointments.Collection: Disappointment
When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisites-to be wide awake, to have fear, respect, and absolute assurance-there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.Collection: Respect
When nothing is for sure, we remain alert, perennially on our toes. It is more exciting not to know which bush the rabbit is hiding behind than to behave as though we knew everything.Collection: Rabbits
For a sorcerer, reality, or the world as we all know it, is only a description.Collection: Reality
... a warrior could not avoid pain and grief but only the indulging in themCollection: Pain