Carlos Castaneda
Carlos Castaneda
Carlos Castanedawas an American author with a Ph.D. in anthropology...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 December 1925
CountryUnited States of America
real convince-us agree-upon
Our normal expectations about reality are created by a social consensus. We are taught how to see and understand the world. The trick of socialization is to convince us that the descriptions we agree upon define the limits of the real world. What we call reality is only one way of seeing the world, a way that is supported by social consensus.
energy conquer idiocy
It takes all the time and all the energy we have to conquer the idiocy in us
juan toes rabbits
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.
hands understanding guardian
A guardian is broad-minded and understanding. A guard, on the other hand, is a vigilante, narrow-minded and most of the time despotic.
bunch convinced
Sorcerers are convinced that all of us are a bunch of nincompoops. We can never relinquish our crummy control voluntarily, thus we have to be tricked
reality deaf-and-blind world
The sorcerer's description of the world is perceivable. But our insistence on holding on to our standard version of reality renders us almost deaf and blind to it.
expectations stupidity conform
It was stupidity that forced us to discard anything that did not conform with ourself - reflective expectations.
mind path don-juan
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, you must not stay with it under any circumstances.
attention world needed
... 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
courage humble eye
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.
courage warrior hands
Personal history must be constantly renewed by telling parents, relatives, and friends everything one does. On the other hand, for the warrior who has no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with his acts. And above all, no one pins him down with their thoughts and their expectations.
innovation intuition littles
Conclusions arrived at through reasoning have very little or no influence in altering the course of our lives.
reality world description
For a sorcerer, reality, or the world as we all know it, is only a description.
yield world steps
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.