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Here is a collection of quotes and commentaries by Castaneda regarding his apprenticeship with shaman don Juan Matus. It is truly fascinating and enlightening. The experiences and teachings shared within these pages offer a unique perspective on the world of shamanism and spirituality.

Castaneda's detailed accounts of his time with don Juan Matus provide readers with an in-depth look into a different way of life and a different way of seeing the world. The quotes are not only thought-provoking but also offer valuable insights into the nature of reality, consciousness, and the human spirit.

This book is highly recommended, especially to those who have an appreciation for books about culture and spirituality. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in exploring the mysteries of the human experience and expanding their understanding of the world around them.

I didn't take a close look at this book initially. I had a hunch that it could potentially be an engaging historical or cultural narrative. However, to my surprise, it turned out to be something completely different.

It is actually the fictional ravings of a cult leader. This cult leader's wives are missing, and they are presumed to have committed suicide. The story presented in the book is both disturbing and thought-provoking.

It makes one wonder about the power that cult leaders can hold over their followers and the lengths to which they will go to maintain that power. The idea of wives disappearing and being presumed dead of suicide is a tragic and unsettling aspect of this fictional account.

It serves as a reminder of the importance of being vigilant and discerning when it comes to following any leader or ideology. We must always question and seek the truth to avoid falling into the traps set by those with malicious intent.

The Path of the Toltec Warrior

The teachings of Carlos Castaneda offer profound insights into the path of the Toltec Warrior. The idea that power rests on the kind of knowledge one holds is emphasized. It's not about gifts but learning the hard way. One must be wide awake, experience fear, respect, and have absolute assurance. The concept of choosing a path with heart is central. A warrior lives by acting, not thinking about acting or what to think after acting. He is like an egg of circulating fibres, light and fluid, seeing the flow of energy. The idea of death tempers a warrior's spirit. Controlled folly is about acknowledging the unknown, remaining open and fluid, and gathering power by acting impeccably. A spiritual warrior plays for keeps, using personal power in a focused manner, yet realizing that nothing may matter in the grand scheme of the universe. Razor-sharp awareness of the universal force of intent is crucial. One must drop personal history, live in the world but not off it, and act as if every act is the last battle. The warrior takes everything as a challenge, in contrast to an ordinary man who only takes blessings and curses. Erasing personal history involves losing one's importance, assuming responsibility for one's acts, and using death as an advisor. A warrior must love this world for it to show its wonders. When one has nothing to lose, one becomes courageous. The impeccable warrior always survives, never leaving things to chance and affecting the outcomes of events with the force of his awareness and unyielding intent.

Interesante is a Spanish word that means interesting. It can be used to describe a wide variety of things, such as a book, a movie, a conversation, or an activity. When something is interesante, it catches our attention and makes us want to learn more about it or experience it further.

For example, a good book can be very interesante. It can transport us to different worlds, introduce us to new characters, and make us think about things in a new way. A great movie can also be interesante, with its engaging plot, beautiful cinematography, and talented actors.

In addition, an interesante conversation can be a great way to pass the time and learn something new. When we talk to someone who has different experiences and perspectives than we do, we can gain new insights and expand our understanding of the world.

Overall, interesante is a word that describes things that are engaging, captivating, and worth our attention. Whether it's a book, a movie, a conversation, or an activity, when something is interesante, it has the power to enrich our lives and make us more curious about the world around us.

The Wheel of Time

by Carlos Castaneda

Don Juan held a crucial position. He was aware of the existence of another realm of reality, a realm that was neither illusory nor the result of wild fantasies.

To don Juan, seeing energy as it flows in the universe meant the ability to view a human being as a luminous egg or a ball of energy. There were certain common features among men, such as a point of brilliance within the already brilliant luminous ball of energy. Shamans claimed that it was on this point of brilliance, which they called the assemblage point, that perception was assembled. They could logically extend this thought to mean that it was on this point that our cognition of the world was formed. Odd as it may seem, don Juan Matus was correct in this regard.

The perception of shamans was subject to a different process than that of average men. Shamans claimed that directly perceiving energy led them to what they called energetic facts. By this, they meant a view obtained by seeing energy directly, which led to final and irreducible conclusions that could not be tampered with by speculation or by trying to fit them into our standard system of interpretation.

Don Juan said that for the shamans of his lineage, it was an energetic fact that the world around us is defined by the processes of cognition, and these processes are not unalterable. They are a matter of training, practicality, and usage. This thought was further extended to another energetic fact: the processes of standard cognition are the product of our upbringing and nothing more.

For the shamans of ancient Mexico, intent was a force they could visualize when they saw energy flowing in the universe. They considered it an all-pervasive force that intervened in every aspect of time and space. It was the driving force behind everything, and what was of inconceivable value to those shamans was that intent, a pure abstraction, was closely attached to man, who could always manipulate it. The shamans of ancient Mexico realized that the only way to affect this force was through impeccable behavior. Only the most disciplined practitioner could attempt this feat.

Another remarkable aspect of that strange cognitive system was the shamans' understanding and usage of the concepts of time and space. For them, time and space were not the same as the phenomena that are part of our lives as an integral part of our normal cognitive system. For the average man, time is defined as a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in an apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future, and space is defined as the infinite extension of the three-dimensional field in which stars and galaxies exist.

For the shamans of ancient Mexico, time was something like a thought, a thought thought by something of unimaginable magnitude. The logical argument for them was that man, being part of that thought, still retained a small percentage of it, which could be redeemed under certain circumstances of extraordinary discipline. Space, for those shamans, was an abstract realm of activity. They called it infinity and referred to it as the sum total of all the endeavors of living creatures. Space was more accessible to them, almost down-to-earth.

Those shamans had another cognitive unit called the wheel of time. They explained it by saying that time was like a tunnel of infinite length and width, with reflective furrows. Each furrow was infinite, and there were an infinite number of them.

Thoughts

I. When a man is not concerned with seeing, things appear very similar to him each time he looks at the world. However, when he learns to see, nothing is ever the same, yet it is the same. To the eye of a seer, a man is like an egg. Every time the seer sees the same man, he sees a luminous egg, but it is not the same luminous egg.

II. The core of our being is the act of perceiving, and the magic of our being is the act of awareness. Perception and awareness are a single, functional, and inextricable unit.

III. I am already given to the power that rules my fate. And I cling to nothing, so I will have nothing to defend. I have no thoughts, so I will see. I fear nothing, so I will remember myself. Detached and at ease, I will dart past the eagle to be free.

IV. The human form is a conglomerate of energy fields that exist in the universe and are related exclusively to human beings. Shamans call it the human form because these energy fields have been bent and distorted by a lifetime of habits and misuse.

V. We perceive. This is a hard fact. But what we perceive is not a fact of the same kind because we learn what to perceive.

VI. In order to follow the path of knowledge, one must be very imaginative. On the path of knowledge, nothing is as clear as we would like it to be.

VII. Every bit of knowledge that becomes power has death as its central force. Death gives the ultimate touch, and whatever is touched by death indeed becomes power.

VIII. To be angry at people means that one considers their acts to be important. It is essential to stop feeling this way. The acts of men cannot be important enough to outweigh our only viable alternative: our unchangeable encounter with infinity.

IX. Warriors say that we think there is a world of objects out there only because of our awareness. But what is really out there are the eagle's emanations, fluid, forever in motion, and yet unchanged, eternal.

X. There is no completeness without sadness and longing, for without them there is no sobriety, no kindness. Wisdom without kindness and knowledge without sobriety are useless.

XI. Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always remember that a path is only a path. If he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay on it under any circumstances. His decision to continue on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must closely and deliberately examine every path. There is a question that a warrior must 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 a heart is easy - it does not require a warrior to work at liking it; it makes for a joyful journey. As long as a man follows it, he is one with it.

XII. The eyes of man can perform two functions: one is seeing energy at large as it flows in the universe, and the other is "looking at things in this world." Neither of these functions is better than the other. However, to train the eyes only to look is a shameful and unnecessary loss.

XIII. Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish. It operates despite the warrior's indulgence. Intent is what makes him invulnerable. Intent is what sends a shaman through a wall, through space, to infinity.

XIV. Every time a man sets out to learn, he has to work as hard as anyone can, and the limits of his learning are determined by his own nature. Therefore, there is no point in talking about knowledge. Fear of knowledge is natural; all of us experience it, and there is nothing we can do about it. But no matter how frightening learning is, it is more terrible to think of a man without knowledge.

XV. The world is all that is enclosed here: life, death, people, and everything else that surrounds us. The world is incomprehensible. We will never understand it; we will never uncover its secrets. Therefore, we must treat the world as it is: a complete mystery.

XVI. The power that governs the destiny of all living beings is called the Eagle, not because it is an eagle or has anything to do with an eagle, but because it appears to the eye of the seer as an immeasurable jet-black eagle, standing erect like an eagle, with its heights reaching to infinity.

I have a plethora of questions that keep swirling in my mind.

These questions are like little mysteries that I am eager to solve.

I firmly believe that the answers I seek might just lie within his other books.

His works have always intrigued me with their depth and complexity.

Each page seems to hold a hidden gem of knowledge waiting to be discovered.

I look forward to delving into his other literary creations, hoping to unearth the solutions to my numerous inquiries.

Maybe within those pages, I will find the enlightenment I so desperately desire.

The anticipation of finding the answers is both exciting and nerve-wracking.

But I am determined to embark on this literary journey and see where it takes me.

I have faith that his other books will provide the answers I have been longing for.

I’m currently going through a phase where I’m deeply intrigued by next-level spirituality and all things Mexican. This led me to pick up a particular book that claims to demystify Mexican shamans. While the content was interesting, I soon realized that it wasn't quite what I was looking for. You see, this was my first Carlos Castaneda book, and I felt a bit cheated as it seemed to be just a compilation of quotes from his previous works along with some commentary on those quotes.

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it. However, that doesn't mean there wasn't anything of value in it. There were still lots of ideas to ponder and annotate, especially regarding the warrior's journey. According to the book, the warrior is the antithesis of the average man. I even wrote down some of the paraphrasings on how to become this warrior, which, according to the naguals that Castaneda encountered, is essentially what the Mexican shaman is. For example, one should stop internal dialogue, live fearlessly because the worst has already happened, and view challenges simply as challenges, not as good or bad. Also, insisting is not in the realm of warriors. I'm guessing this is because true warriors are smooth operators and don't have to push to the point of insistence.

Maybe my whole problem with this very short read was its whole WARRIOR language. Deep down, I'm such a freaking pacifist at heart. It's possible that this language just didn't resonate with me as much as I had hoped. But despite that, I still gained some food for thought from it, and it has definitely piqued my interest in exploring more about Mexican spirituality and the concept of the warrior.

If you have a strange inclination to explore the writings of a cult leader, then this is the book that might catch your attention.

It could potentially offer insights into the warped mindsets and the strange ideologies that cult leaders often propagate.

Reading such a book might give you a glimpse into the inner workings of a cult, the methods they use to attract followers, and the false beliefs they instill.

However, it's important to approach this kind of reading material with a critical eye and a healthy dose of skepticism.

Don't be swayed by the charismatic language or the seemingly alluring promises.

Instead, use it as an opportunity to understand the power of persuasion and the importance of independent thinking.

After all, it's crucial to be able to recognize the warning signs of a cult and protect ourselves from falling victim to their harmful influence.

I have always felt an intense and irresistible draw towards space and the stars. The vastness and mystery of the universe have a profound allure that captivates my imagination.每当仰望星空，那闪烁的繁星仿佛在向我诉说着宇宙的无尽奥秘。

Space represents a realm beyond our terrestrial boundaries, a place filled with unknowns and possibilities. It is a source of inspiration and wonder, fueling my curiosity and desire to explore.宇宙的广袤无垠让我深感自己的渺小，同时也激发了我对未知世界的探索欲望。

The stars, with their璀璨光芒, seem to hold the key to understanding the fundamental laws of the universe. Studying them allows us to gain insights into the birth, evolution, and ultimate fate of celestial bodies.对星星的研究不仅能让我们了解宇宙的奥秘，还能让我们更好地认识自己在宇宙中的位置。

Whether through scientific research or simply observing the night sky, my passion for space and the stars continues to grow. I am constantly amazed by the beauty and complexity of the universe, and I look forward to the day when we can unlock its many secrets.我相信，随着科学技术的不断发展，我们对宇宙的认识将会越来越深入，而我也将继续为探索宇宙的奥秘贡献自己的力量。

Fiction Not Faction

In the world of literature, it is crucial to distinguish between fiction and faction. Fiction is the realm of imagination, where authors create vivid worlds and characters that may or may not have any basis in reality. It allows for unrestricted creativity and the exploration of various themes and ideas.

On the other hand, faction blurs the line between fact and fiction. It often incorporates real events or people but then adds fictional elements or interpretations. This can lead to confusion among readers, who may not be able to determine what is true and what is fabricated.

For example, the case of Carlos Castaneda has been a subject of much debate. Some claim that his works are based on real experiences and teachings, while others argue that they are pure fiction. The lack of clear evidence and the presence of contradictions within his books have only added to the mystery.

It is important for readers to approach literature with a critical eye and to be aware of the difference between fiction and faction. By doing so, they can better appreciate the creativity and artistry of the author while also being able to separate fact from fiction.

This way, they can make informed decisions about what they read and ensure that they are not misled by false or inaccurate information.

A friend of mine has been constantly telling me about soul journeying, and thus I was in search of a book that could offer some profound insights into shamanism. This particular book contains cryptic yet highly quotable and fascinating snippets of wisdom. Carlos Castaneda acquired these throughout his life from his own journeys, which were guided by Don Juan Marquis and Florinda Matus.

However, as someone who has never read anything by Carlos Castaneda before, this was not an ideal starting point. It is filled with the end results but lacks the underlying story, making it rather difficult to fully absorb. It reminded me most of "CATCHING THE BIG FISH" by David Lynch. Just like that book, it provides some inspiring mystery and metaphor, yet it is hard to actually "catch the fish".

After reading this, I feel more inspired to adopt a less rational approach. I want to let the wheel of time flow around me and explore intuitive patterns instead of dissecting things with detailed analysis.

"The greatest flaw of human beings is to remain glued to the inventory of reason. Reason doesn't deal with man as energy. Reason deals with the instrument that creates energy, but it has never seriously occurred to reason that we are better than instruments: we are organisms that create energy. We are bubbles of energy." This statement really makes me think about the limitations of our rational thinking and the importance of tapping into our intuitive side.