Carlos Castaneda's don Juan's Teachings

323 Pages·2003·0.68 MB·English

Carlos Castaneda's Don
Juan's Teachings

Introduction by Carlos Castaneda

The rest of the book is reached through the links here and at
the end of each section.

1. The Teachings of don Juan
2. A Separate Reality
3. Journey to Ixtlan
4. Tales Of Power
5. The Second Ring of Power
6. The Eagle's Gift
7. The Fire From Within
8. The Power of Silence
9. The Art of Dreaming
12. The Active Side of Infinity
13. Appendix A thru E

...this is not a work of fiction. What I am
describing is alien to us; therefore, it
seems unreal.
CARLOS CASTANEDA
(From The Eagle's Gift; prologue)

Nothing in the world is a gift.
Whatever there is to learn has to be
learned the hard way.
Turn my concepts into a viable way
of life by a process of repetition.
Everything new in our lives, such as the
sorcerers' concepts I am teaching you,
must be repeated to us to the point of
exhaustion before we open ourselves to
it.

DON JUAN

Introduction

(taken from introduction in Journey
To Ixtlan, and, as I explain in the forward
, done in the style I've used throughout
this compilation: put into the form of
being as though it were delivered from
don Juan to each of us.)

The basic premise of sorcery for a
sorcerer is that the world of everyday life
is not real, or out there, as we believe it
is. For a sorcerer, reality, or the world we
all know, is only a description.
For the sake of validating this
premise I will concentrate the best of my
efforts into leading you into a genuine
conviction that what you hold in mind as
the world at hand is merely a description
of the world; a description that has been
pounded into you from the moment you
were born.
Everyone who comes into contact
with a child is a teacher who incessantly
describes the world to him, until the
moment when the child is capable of
perceiving the world as it is described.
We have no memory of that portentous
moment, simply because none of us

could possibly have had any point of
reference to compare it to anything else.
From that moment on, however, the
child is a member . He knows the
description of the world; and his
membership becomes full-fledged,
perhaps, when he is capable of making
all the proper perceptual interpretations
which, by conforming to that
description, validate it.
The reality of our day-to-day life,
then, consists of an endless flow of
perceptual interpretations which we, the
individuals who share a specific
membership, have learned to make in
common.
The idea that the perceptual
interpretations that make up the world
have a flow is congruous with the fact
that they run uninterruptedly and are
rarely, if ever, open to question. In fact
the reality of the world we know is so
taken for granted that the basic premise
of sorcery, that our reality is merely one
of many descriptions, can hardly be
taken as a serious proposition.
Fortunately for you, I'm not
concerned at all with whether or not you
can take my proposition seriously, and
thus I will proceed to elucidate my
points, in spite of your opposition, your
disbelief, and your inability to
understand what I am saying. Thus, as a

teacher of sorcery, my endeavor is to
describe the world to you. Your difficulty
in grasping my concepts and methods
will stem from the fact that the units of
my description are alien and
incompatible with those of your own.
I am teaching you how to see as
opposed to merely looking , and
stopping the world is the first step to
seeing .
Stopping the world is not a cryptic
metaphor that really doesn't mean
anything. And its scope and importance
as one of the main propositions of my
knowledge should not be misjudged.
I am teaching you how to stop the
world . Nothing will work, however, if
you are very stubborn. Be less stubborn,
and you will probably stop the world
with any of the techniques I teach you.
Everything I will tell you to do is a
technique for stopping the 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. I'm going to give you what I call
"techniques for stopping the world."
When you begin this teaching, there
is another reality, that is to say, there is
a sorcery description of the world, which
you do not know. As a sorcerer and a
teacher, I am teaching you that

description. What I am doing with you
consists, therefore, in setting up that
unknown reality by unfolding its
description, adding increasingly more
complex parts as you go along.
In order to arrive at seeing one first
has to stop the world . Stopping the
world is indeed an appropriate rendition
of certain states of awareness in which
the reality of everyday life is altered
because the flow of interpretation, which
ordinarily runs uninterruptedly, has been
stopped by a set of circumstances alien
to that flow. In this case the set of
circumstances alien to our normal flow
of interpretations is the sorcery
description of the world. The
precondition for stopping the world is
that one has to be convinced; in other
words, one has to learn the new
description in a total sense, for the
purpose of pitting it against the old one,
and in that way break the dogmatic
certainty, which we all share, that the
validity of our perceptions, or our reality
of the world, is not to be questioned.
After stopping the world the next
step is seeing . By that I mean what
could be categorized as responding to
the perceptual solicitations of a world
outside the description we have learned
to call reality.
All these steps can only be

understood in terms of the description
to which they belong; a description that
I'm endeavoring to give you. Let, then,
this teaching be the source of entrance
into that description.

Forward

In his first book, The Teachings of Don Juan, published by
the University of California Press and for which Carlos
Castaneda received his doctorate in Anthropology, we are
told: In 1960, as an anthropology student at the University of
California, Los Angeles, Carlos Castaneda began collecting
information on the medicinal plants used by the Indians of the
southwest. Subsequently he met, and became the apprentice
of, don Juan, a Yaqui Indian.
From 1968 thru 1999, the following ten books were
published. They recount his apprenticeship under don Juan
and therewith provide us entrance to the knowledge don Juan
passed on to him--knowledge of an ancient system for
becoming a "man of knowledge."
1968--The Teachings of don Juan: A Yaqui Way of
Knowledge
1971--A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with don
Juan
1972--Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of don Juan
1974--Tales Of Power
1977--The Second Ring of Power
1981--The Eagle's Gift
1984--The Fire From Within
1987--The Power of Silence: Further lessons of don Juan
1993--The Art of Dreaming
1999--The Active Side of Infinity.

This book is a compilation of most of the ideas,
procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, and
principles of the teachings of don Juan presented by Carlos
Castaneda .
I have, where necessary, changed the original text in order
for the teaching to be directed as though from don Juan to any
new student. That being said, however, there are a number of
places where the teaching is directed as though you have been
a participant in something with don Juan; or are acting or
thinking in a particular way. Presenting it that way, seemed to

me, the easiest way to leave parts of the teaching intact . And
on the point of my presenting everything as though from don
Juan: a number of places, perhaps as much as 10% of the total,
were actually Castaneda's insights, explanations, or additions
to the teaching. Lastly, in at least two places, the teaching
actually came from other of don Juan's associates.
In "The Fire From Within": chapter 3, paragraph 48,
Carlos Castaneda tells us that don Juan said that "the old
seers...actually saw the indescribable force which is the source
of all sentient beings. They called it the Eagle..." I refer to this
passage in order to justify my usage, in this book, of the term,
"the Indescribable Force ," instead of the term don Juan used,
"the Eagle." If you miss the use of the term "the Eagle," I
apologize.
The chapter titles of this book and the material in those
chapters, correspond to the above nine books. Within these
chapters are two types of line breaks. The asterisked line
breaks set apart points which, because of removed context,
now appear as disjointed bits (or passages) of teaching. The
plain line breaks (or two asterisks if between pages)
correspond to books' chapter breaks.

The Teachings of Don
Juan

I am going to teach you the secrets that make up the lot of a
man of knowledge. You will have to make a very deep
commitment because the training is long and arduous.
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake,
with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to
knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake,
and whoever makes it will live to regret his steps.
When a man has fulfilled those four requisites there are no
mistakes for which he will have to account; under such
conditions his acts lose the blundering quality of a fool's acts.
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.
* * *
A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully
the hardships of learning, a man who has, without rushing or
without faltering, gone as far as he can in unraveling the
secrets of power and knowledge. To become a man of
knowledge one must challenge and defeat his four natural
enemies.
When a man starts to learn, he is never clear about his
objectives. His purpose is faulty; his intent is vague. He hopes
for rewards that will never materialize for he knows nothing
of the hardships of learning.
He slowly begins to learn--bit by bit at first, then in big
chunks. And his thoughts soon clash. What he learns is never
what he pictured, or imagined, and so he begins to be afraid.
Learning is never what one expects. Every step of learning is a
new task, and the fear the man is experiencing begins to
mount mercilessly, unyieldingly. His purpose becomes a
battlefield.
And thus he has stumbled upon the first of his natural
enemies: fear! A terrible enemy--treacherous, and difficult to
overcome. It remains concealed at every turn of the way,
prowling, waiting. And if the man, terrified in its presence,

runs away, his enemy will have put an end to his quest and he
will never learn. He will never become a man of knowledge.
He will perhaps be a bully, or a harmless, scared man; at any
rate, he will be a defeated man. His first enemy will have put
an end to his cravings.
It is not possible for a man to abandon himself to fear for
years, then finally conquer it. If he gives in to fear he will
never conquer it, because he will shy away from learning and
never try again. But if he tries to learn for years in the midst of
his fear, he will eventually conquer it because he will never
have really abandoned himself to it.
Therefore he must not run away. He must defy his fear,
and in spite of it he must take the next step in learning, and the
next, and the next. He must be fully afraid, and yet he must
not stop. That is the rule! And a moment will come when his
first enemy retreats. The man begins to feel sure of himself.
His intent becomes stronger. Learning is no longer a terrifying
task.
When this joyful moment comes, the man can say without
hesitation that he has defeated his first natural enemy. It
happens little by little, and yet the fear is vanquished suddenly
and fast. Once a man has vanquished fear, he is free from it
for the rest of his life because, instead of fear, he has acquired
clarity--a clarity of mind which erases fear. By then a man
knows his desires; he knows how to satisfy those desires. He
can anticipate the new steps of learning and a sharp clarity
surrounds everything. The man feels that nothing is concealed.
And thus he has encountered his second enemy: Clarity!
That clarity of mind, which is so hard to obtain, dispels fear,
but also blinds. It forces the man never to doubt himself. It
gives him the assurance he can do anything he pleases, for he
sees clearly into everything. And he is courageous because he
is clear, and he stops at nothing because he is clear. But all
that is a mistake; it is like something incomplete. If the man
yields to this make-believe power, he has succumbed to his
second enemy and will be patient when he should rush. And
he will fumble with learning until he winds up incapable of
learning anything more. His second enemy has just stopped
him cold from trying to become a man of knowledge. Instead,
the man may turn into a buoyant warrior, or a clown. Yet the
clarity for which he has paid so dearly will never change to
darkness and fear again. He will be clear as long as he lives,
but he will no longer learn, or yearn for, anything.

He must do what he did with fear: he must defy his clarity
and use it only to see, and wait patiently and measure
carefully before taking new steps; he must think, above all,
that his clarity is almost a mistake. And a moment will come
when he will understand that his clarity was only a point
before his eyes. And thus he will have overcome his second
enemy, and will arrive at a position where nothing can harm
him anymore. This will not be a mistake. It will not be only a
point before his eyes. It will be true power.
He will know at this point that the power he has been
pursuing for so long is finally his. He can do with it whatever
he pleases. His ally is at his command. His wish is the rule. He
sees all that is around him. But he has also come across his
third enemy: Power!
Power is the strongest of all enemies. And naturally the
easiest thing to do is to give in; after all, the man is truly
invincible. He commands; he begins by taking calculated
risks, and ends in making rules, because he is a master.
A man at this stage hardly notices his third enemy closing
in on him. And suddenly, without knowing, he will certainly
have lost the battle. His enemy will have turned him into a
cruel, capricious man, but he will never lose his clarity or his
power.
A man who is defeated by power dies without really
knowing how to handle it. Power is only a burden upon his
fate. Such a man has no command over himself, and cannot
tell when or how to use his power.
Once one of these enemies overpowers a man there is
nothing he can do. It is not possible, for instance, that a man
who is defeated by power may see his error and mend his
ways. Once a man gives in he is through. If, however, he is
temporarily blinded by power, and then refuses it, his battle is
still on. That means he is still trying to become a man of
knowledge. A man is defeated only when he no longer tries,
and abandons himself.
He has to come to realize that the power he has seemingly
conquered is in reality never his. He must keep himself in line
at all times, handling carefully and faithfully all that he has
learned. If he can see that clarity and power, without his
control over himself, are worse than mistakes, he will reach a
point where everything is held in check. He will know then
when and how to use his power. And thus he will have
defeated his third enemy.

The man will be, by then, at the end of his journey of
learning, and almost without warning he will come upon the
last of his enemies: Old age! This enemy is the cruelest of all,
the one he won't be able to defeat completely, but only fight
away.
This is the time when a man has no more fears, no more
impatient clarity of mind--a time when all his power is in
check, but also the time when he has an unyielding desire to
rest. If he gives in totally to his desire to lie down and forget,
if he soothes himself in tiredness, he will have lost his last
round, and his enemy will cut him down into a feeble old
creature. His desire to retreat will overrule all his clarity, his
power, and his knowledge.
But if the man sloughs off his tiredness, and lives his fate
though, he can then be called a man of knowledge, if only for
the brief moment when he succeeds in fighting off his last,
invincible enemy. That moment of clarity, power, and
knowledge is enough.

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 it, you must not stay with it under any
conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined
life. Only then will you know that 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 to do. But your decision to keep
on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I
warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it
as many times as you think necessary.
This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does
this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead
nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the
bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long
paths, but I am not anywhere. 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.

Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this
path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and
then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody

asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has
taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At
that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the
path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to
work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart
is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.
I have told you that to choose a path you must be free from
fear and ambition. The desire to learn is not ambition. It is our
lot as men to want to know.
The path without a heart will turn against men and destroy
them. It does not take much to die, and to seek death is to seek
nothing.

For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a
heart, on any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and
the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full
length. And there I travel--looking, looking, breathlessly.

Introduction
1. The Teachings of don Juan
2. A Separate Reality
3. Journey to Ixtlan
4. Tales Of Power
5. The Second Ring of Power
6. The Eagle's Gift
7. The Fire From Within
8. The Power of Silence
9. The Art of Dreaming
12. The Active Side of Infinity
13. Appendix A thru E

A Separate Reality

You think about yourself too much and that gives you a
strange fatigue that makes you shut off the world around you
and cling to your arguments.
A light and amenable disposition is needed in order to
withstand the impact and the strangeness of the knowledge I
am teaching you. Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy,
and vain. To be a man of knowledge one needs to be light and
fluid.

One has to reduce to a minimum all that is unnecessary in
one's life.

Once you decide something put all your petty fears away.
Your decision should vanquish them. I will tell you time and
time again, the most effective way to live is as a warrior.
Worry and think before you make any decision, but once you
make it, be on your way free from worries or thoughts; there
will be a million other decisions still awaiting you. That's the
warrior's way.
A warrior thinks of his death when things become unclear.
The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit.

To be a warrior you have to be crystal clear.

My acts are sincere but they are only the acts of an actor
because everything I do is controlled folly. Everything I do in
regard to myself and my fellow men is folly, because nothing
matters.
Certain things in your life matter to you because they're
important; your acts are certainly important to you, but for me,
not a single thing is important any longer, neither my acts nor
the acts of any of my fellow men. I go on living though,
because I have my will . Because I have tempered my will
throughout my life until it's neat and wholesome and now it
doesn't matter to me that nothing matters. My will controls the
folly of my life.