Carlos Castaneda Quotes & Sayings

We don't need anyone to teach us sorcery, because there is really nothing to learn. What we need is a teacher to convince us that there is incalculable power at our fingertips. What a strange paradox! — Carlos Castaneda

Warriors do not win victories by beating their heads against walls, but by overtaking the walls. Warriors jump over walls; they don't demolish them. — Carlos Castaneda

A guardian is broad-minded and understanding. A guard, on the other hand, is a vigilante, narrow-minded and most of the time despotic. — Carlos Castaneda

The reason you keep on coming back to see me is very simple; every time you have seen me your body has learned certain things, even against your desire. And finally your body now needs to come back to me to learn more. Let's say that your body knows that it is going to die, even though you never think about it. So I've been telling your body that I too am going to die and before I do I would like to show our body certain things, things which you cannot give to your body yourself ... So let's say then that your body returns to me because I am its friend — 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

You take yourself too seriously, " he said slowly. "You are too damn important in your own mind. That must be changed! You are so goddamn important that you feel justified to be annoyed with everything. You're so damn important that you can afford to leave if things don't go your way. I suppose you think that shows you have character. That's nonsense! You're weak, and conceited!" - Dom Juan — Carlos Castaneda

There is nothing more lonely than eternity. And nothing is more cozy for us than to be a human being. This indeed is another contradiction-how can we keep the bonds of our humanness and still venture gladly and purposefully into the absolute loneliness of eternity? — Carlos Castaneda

Once a man worries, he clings to anything out of desperation; and once he clings he is bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whomever or whatever he is clinging to. A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn't worry. — Carlos Castaneda

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 — Carlos Castaneda

To worry is to become accessible, unwittingly accessible. And once you worry you cling to anything out of desperation; and once you cling you are bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whoever or whatever you are clinging to. — Carlos Castaneda

Things don't change. You change your way of looking, that's all — Carlos Castaneda

It is important to have a perspective then only through seeing the world is it possible to transcend ideas such as the Flyers, and other aberrant thought forms. With ruthlessness, cunning patience and sweetness, it can be cracked. — 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

The hardest thing in the world is to assume the mood of a warrior. It is of no use to be sad and complain and feel justified in doing so,believing that someone is always doing something to us. Nobody is doing anything to anybody, much less to a warrior. — Carlos Castaneda

To tune the spirit when someone is trampling on you is called control — Carlos Castaneda

Once it has learned to dream the double, the self arrives at this weird crossroad and a moment comes when one realizes that it is the double who dreams the self. — Carlos Castaneda

The spirit reveals itself to everyone with the same intensity and consistency, but only warriors are consistently attuned to such revelations. — Carlos Castaneda

The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity. — Carlos Castaneda

A warrior, or any man for that matter, cannot possibly wish he were somewhere else; a warrior because he lives by challenge, an ordinary man because he doesn't know where his death is going to find him. — Carlos Castaneda

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

It takes all the time and all the energy we have to conquer the idiocy in us — Carlos Castaneda

I too did not want to take the path of a warrior. I believed that all that work was for nothing, and since we are all going to die what difference would it make to be a warrior? I was wrong. But I had to find that out for myself. Whenever you do realize that you are wrong, and that it certainly makes a world of difference, you can say that you are convinced. And then you can proceed by yourself. Any by yourself you may even become a man of knowledge — Carlos Castaneda

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

"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

A warrior acts as if he knows what he is doing, when in effect he knows nothing. — Carlos Castaneda

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

Nothing can temper the spirit of a warrior as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power. Only under those conditions can warriors acquire the sobriety and serenity to withstand the pressure of the unknowable. — Carlos Castaneda

When you need an answer, look over your left shoulder and ask your death. — Carlos Castaneda

Man's predicament is that he intuits his hidden resources, but he does not dare use them. This is why warriors say that man's plight is the counterpoint between his stupidity and his ignorance. Man needs now, more than ever, to be taught new ideas that have to do exclusively with his inner world - shamans' ideas, not social ideas, ideas pertaining to man facing the unknown, facing his personal death. Now, more than anything else, he needs to be taught the secrets of the assemblage point. — Carlos Castaneda

A warrior must cultivate the feeling that he has everything
needed for the extravagant journey that is his life. What counts
for a warrior is being alive. Life in itself is sufficient,
self-explanatory and complete.
Therefore, one may say without being presumptuous that the
experience of experiences is being alive. — Carlos Castaneda

Your problems is that you think you have time — Carlos Castaneda

A warrior must focus his attention on the link between himself and his death ... He must let each of his acts be his last battle on earth. Only under those conditions will his acts have their rightful power. — Carlos Castaneda

Tonight in your dreams you must look at your hands. — Carlos Castaneda

Will is what can make you succeed when your thoughts tell you that you're defeated. — 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 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

If a warrior wants to pay back for all the favors he has received, and he has no one in particular to address his payment to, he can address it to the spirit of man, That's always a very small account, and whatever one puts in it is more than enough. — 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

Heightened awareness is a mystery only for a reason. — Carlos Castaneda

When confronted with unusual life situations ... A warrior acts as if nothing had ever happened, because he doesn't believe in anything, yet he accepts everything at its face value. — Carlos Castaneda

My benefactor used to say the seeds are the 'sober head'
the only part that could fortify the heart of man. — 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

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. — Carlos Castaneda

A warrior knows that he cannot change, and yet he makes it his business to try to change, even though he knows that he won't be able to. That's the only advantage a warrior has over the average man. The warrior is never disappointed when he fails to change. — 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

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

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

My benefactor said that when a man embarks on the paths of sorcery he becomes aware, in a gradual manner, that ordinary life has been forever left behind; that knowledge is indeed a frightening affair; that the means of the ordinary world are no longer a buffer for him; and that he must adopt a new way of life if he is going to survive. The first thing he ought to do, at that point, is to want to become a warrior ... — Carlos Castaneda

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

To ask me to verify my life by giving you my statistics is like using science to validate sorcery. It robs the world of its magic and makes milestones out of us all. — Carlos Castaneda

Beware of those who weep with realization, for they have realized nothing. — Carlos Castaneda

The body must be perfection before the will is a functioning unit — Carlos Castaneda

I'm afraid you will have to fly holding the rock with its heavy chain. — Carlos Castaneda

There's no emptiness in the life of a warrior. Everything is filled to the brim. Everything is filled to the brim, and everything is equal. — Carlos Castaneda

Power rests on the kind of knowledge one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless? — Carlos Castaneda

All paths are the same, leading nowhere. Therefore, pick a path with heart! — Carlos Castaneda

We chose whether to be warriors or to be ordinary. — Carlos Castaneda

A warrior could not avoid pain and grief but only the indulging in them — 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

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

Crows are not always available to give warning. — 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

The things shamans deal with are extremely practical. They break down parameters of normal historical reality. Magical passes are just one aspect of that. — Carlos Castaneda

For a sorcerer, reality, or the world as we all know it, is only a description. — Carlos Castaneda

The art of a warrior is to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man. — Carlos Castaneda

I have no routines or personal history. One day I found out that they were no longer necessary for me and, like drinking, I dropped them. One must have the desire to drop them and then one must proceed harmoniously to chop them off, little by little. If you have no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with your acts. And above all no one pins you down with their thoughts. It is best to erase all personal history because that makes us free from the encumbering thoughts of other people. I have, little by little, created a fog around me and my life. And now nobody knows for sure who I am or what I do. Not even I. How can I know who I am, when I am all this? — Carlos Castaneda

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. — Carlos Castaneda

Eventually I saw that the path of the heart requires a full gesture, a degree of abandon that can be terrifying. Only then is it possible to achieve a sparkling metamorphosis. — Carlos Castaneda

The shadows in the early morning don't tell much. The shadows rest at that time. So it's useless to gaze very early in the day. Around six in the morning the shadows wake up, and they are best around five in the afternoon. Then they are fully awake. — Carlos Castaneda

We have to balance the lineality of the known universe with the nonlineality of the unknown universe. — 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. — Carlos Castaneda

You're chained to you reason ... Understanding is only a very small affair, so very small — Carlos Castaneda

You have little time left, and none of it for crap. A fine state. I would say that the best of us always comes out when we are against the wall, when we feel the sword dangling overhead. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way. — Carlos Castaneda

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. — 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

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

He went on to say that conclusions arrived at through reasoning had very little or no influence in altering the course of our lives. Hence, the countless examples of people who have the clearest convictions and yet act diametrically against them time and time again, and have as the only explanation for their behavior the idea that to err is human. — Carlos Castaneda

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 — Carlos Castaneda

As long as a man feels that he is the most important thing in the world he cannot really appreciate the world around him. — Carlos Castaneda

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. — Carlos Castaneda

Conclusions arrived at through reasoning have very little or no influence in altering the course of our lives. — Carlos Castaneda

A warrior never worries about his fear. — Carlos Castaneda

My worrying, for instance, was a scene in which I looked at myself while I had the sensation of being boxed in. I call that worrying, It has happened to me a number of times after that first time. — 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

Self importance is man's greatest enemy. — Carlos Castaneda

A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting. — Carlos Castaneda

One can say that the nagual accounts for creativity. The nagual is the only part of us that can create. — Carlos Castaneda

Only as a warrior can one survive the path of knowledge. — 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

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. — Carlos Castaneda

One day I found out that personal history was no longer necessary for me and, like drinking, I dropped it ... Little by little you must create a fog around yourself; you must erase everything around you until nothing can be taken for granted, until nothing is any longer for sure, or real. Your problem now is that you're too real. Your endeavors are too real, your moods are too real. Don't take things so for granted. You must begin to erase yourself. — Carlos Castaneda

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. — Carlos Castaneda

That was the way human beings are; they love to be told what to do, but they love even more to fight and not do what they are told, and thus they get entangled in hating the one who told them in the first place. — Carlos Castaneda

Whenever you are in the world of the tonal, you should be an impeccable tonal; no time for irrational crap. But whenever you are in the world of the nagual, you should also be impeccable; no time for rational crap. For the warrior intent is the gate in between. It closes completely behind him when he goes either way — Carlos Castaneda

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. — Carlos Castaneda

Modern man has left the realm of the unknown and the mysterious, and has settled down in the realm of the functional. He is turned is back to the world of the foreboding and the exulting and has welcomed the world of boredom. — Carlos Castaneda

Whenever the internal dialogue stops, the world collapses, and extraordinary facets of ourselves surface, as though they had been kept heavily guarded by our words. — Carlos Castaneda

One ,must have something to die for in order to have something to live for — Carlos Castaneda

The average man is either victorious or defeated and, depending on that, he becomes a persecutor or a victim. These two conditions are prevalent as long as one does not see. Seeing dispels the illusion of victory, or defeat, or suffering. — Carlos Castaneda

Man has a dark side, yes, and it is called stupidity. — Carlos Castaneda