The Teachings Of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way Of Knowledge Quotes
"The events that took place on that day and on the following days, however, were momentous to me."
"My basic assumption in both books has been that the articulation points in learning to be a sorcerer were the states of nonordinary reality produced by the ingestion of psychotropic plants."
"For the purposes of avoiding any misunderstandings about my work with don Juan I would like to clarify the following issues at this point."
"The fact that he considers himself to be a Yaqui Indian does not mean that his knowledge of sorcery is known to or practised by the Yaqui Indians in general."
"All the conversations that don Juan and I have had throughout the apprenticeship were conducted in Spanish."
"I have maintained the practice of referring to that system as sorcery."
"In order to render those notes readable and still preserve the dramatic unity of don Juan's teachings, I have had to edit them."
"For the purpose of presenting my argument, I must first explain the basic premise of sorcery as don Juan presented it to me."
"For a sorcerer, reality, or the world we all know, is only a description."
"The more stubborn you are the better it'll be when you finally succeed in changing."
"What I recommend you to do is to notice that we do not have any assurance that our lives will go on indefinitely."
"He is not going to throw that away by making some stupid miscalculation; by taking something for being something else."
"A hunter gives his last battle its due respect. It's only natural that his last act on earth should be the best of himself."
"Dreaming is real for a warrior because in it he can act deliberately."
"A warrior is not a fool. A warrior is an immaculate hunter who hunts power."
"Power is something in oneself; something that controls one's acts and yet obeys one's command."
"Dreaming is as serious as seeing or dying or any other thing in this awesome, mysterious world."
"A man hunting for power has almost no limits in his dreaming."
"Don't think it's a joke. Dreaming is as serious as seeing or dying or any other thing in this awesome, mysterious world."
"Every one of us is different. What you call pointers would only be what I myself did when I was learning. We are not the same. We aren't even vaguely alike."
"It would be simpler for you just to start looking at your hands."
"Every time you look at anything in your dreams it changes shape. Dreaming is real when one has succeeded in bringing everything into focus."
"Leave your civilized world alone. Let it be! Nobody is asking you to behave like a madman."
"I am not trying to make you into a sick, crazy man. You can do that yourself without my help."
"I thought so, but a little crow just told me not to do that."
"To seek the perfection of the warrior's spirit is the only task worthy of our manhood."
"The hardest thing in the world is to assume the mood of a warrior."
"A warrior buries himself in order to find power, not to weep with self-pity."
"The only thing one can do in this place is hunt lions."
"This is a walk for power, so everything counts."
"To venture into the unknown without any power is stupid. One will only find death."
"A hunter of power watches everything. And everything tells him some secret."
"Doing is what makes that rock a rock, and that bush a bush. Doing is what makes you yourself and me myself."
"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
"Not-doing is so difficult and so powerful that you should not mention it."
"A warrior acts as if he knows what he is doing, when in effect he knows nothing."
"The world is a mystery, and it is not at all as you picture it."
"A warrior is only a man. A humble man. He cannot change the designs of his death."
"What determines the way one does anything is personal power. A man is only the sum of his personal power."
"A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the hardships of learning."
"A warrior is impeccable when he trusts his personal power regardless of whether it is small or enormous."
"The only thing I know is that I don't know anything."
"During the day shadows are the doors of not-doing."
"Everything I have taught you so far has been an aspect of not-doing."
"It is stupid for you to scorn the mysteries of the world simply because you know the doing of scorn."
"To hinge yourself to either one is a waste of time because the only thing that is real is the being in you that is going to die."
"You see, every one of us knows the doing of rooms because, in one way or another, we have spent much of our lives in rooms."
"Chance, good luck, personal power, or whatever you may call it, is like a very small stick that comes out in front of us, and invites us to pluck it."
"A warrior never indulges in thoughts like that."
"A warrior is like a pirate that has no qualms in taking and using anything he wants; except that the warrior doesn't mind, or he doesn't feel insulted, when he is used and taken himself."
"You have no place to go back to. I will not explain anything to you anymore."
"The difference between an average man and a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this; and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimetre pops out he has the necessary speed- the prowess to pick it up."
"The thought crossed my mind that I was in the presence of a Chicano coyote."
"The full weight of the impossibility of what was happening struck me."
"I felt something warm and soothing oozing out of the world and out of my own body."
"The world was as I had always seen it. It was getting dark."
"What stopped inside you yesterday was what people have been telling you the world is like."
"In my journey to Ixtlan I find only phantom travellers."
"Only as a warrior can one survive the path of knowledge."
"The art of a warrior is to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man."