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Carlos Castaneda

Carlos Castaneda Quotes

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Famous Carlos Castaneda Quotes

“You're in a terrible spot. It's too late for you to retreat but too soon to act. All you can do is witness. You're in the miserable position of an infant who cannot return to the mother's womb, but neither can he run around and act. All an infant can do is witness and listen to the stupendous tales of action being told to him. You are at that precise point now. You cannot go back to the womb of your old world, but you cannot act with power either. For you there is only witnessing acts of power and listening to tales of power.”

WorldRunningActionMotherCan DoPositionListeningReturnTerribleLateTalesSpotsWitnessMiserableToo LatePreciseRetreatInfantWombOld World
Author:Carlos Castaneda
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“There is no way to escape the doing of our world, so what a warrior does is to turn his world into his hunting ground. As a hunter, a warrior knows that the world is made to be used. So he uses every bit of it. A warrior is like a pirate that has no qualms in taking and using anything he wants, except that a warrior doesn't mind or he doesn't feel insulted when he is used and taken himself”

KnowsWorldWayWantFeelsMindDoeMadeUseUsedTurnsBitsTakenWarriorOur WorldHuntingHuntersPirateInsultedDon JuanQualms
Book:Journey to Ixtlan
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“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”

MenWorldWantMayDiesRealizingDifferencesPathConvincedWarrior
Book:Journey to Ixtlan
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“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.”

WorldWantLifeHas BeensFactsInterestResponsibilityAssumingMysteriousDesertConvinceMarvelousToo ShortUnfathomableDon JuanJuan
Book:Journey to Ixtlan
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“The internal dialogue is what grounds people in the daily world. The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such and so and so. The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue”

PeopleWorldInspirationalAttitudeLearningDialogueWarriorInternals
Book:The Wheel Of Time: The Shamans Of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life De
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“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.”

WorldWayRealRealitySocialVisionSeeingTaughtLimitsNormalExpectationsAgreeTricksOne WayAweConvinceDescriptionAgreementReal WorldConsensusSeeing The WorldSocializationConvince UsAgree Upon
Author:Carlos Castaneda
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“We talk to ourselves incessantly about our world. In fact we maintain our world with our internal talk. And whenever we finish talking to ourselves about ourselves and our world, the world is always as it should be. We renew it, we rekindle it with life, we uphold it with our internal talk. Not only that, but we also choose our paths as we talk to ourselves. Thus we repeat the same choices over and over until the day we die, because we keep on repeating the same internal talk over and over until the day we die. A warrior is aware of this and strives to stop his internal talk.”

WorldLifeShouldFactsDiesChoicesAttitudeTalkingPathStriveWarriorRepeatsInternalsOur WorldStrifeIncessantlyDon Juan
Author:Carlos Castaneda
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“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.”

KnowsWorldStatesUseEnergyAbilityAwarenessFieldsEverydayHandleWarriorEveryday LifeEmployedShamanismInaccessibleTime Goes ByEnergy FieldsSaving Energy
Author:Carlos Castaneda
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“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.”

IfsMenWorldWayWantFirstsMeanHas BeensSaidLeftBehindsForeverPathAwarenessOughtOrdinaryAffairWarriorFrighteningNew WaysLeft BehindOrdinary LifeBenefactorsSorceryOrdinary WorldNew Way Of Life
Book:A Separate Reality.Further Conversations with Don Juan
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