About this title: In THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN, Carlos Castaneda, an anthropologist with an interest in peyote and psychedelics, introduces Don Juan Matus, the Yaqui Indian shaman who became Castaneda's teacher and passed on to him the wisdom of a long line of sorcerers. Under the tutelage of Don Juan, the author embarked on a quest to transcend the boundaries of self and identity through drugs, magic, and dream analysis. The accounts of Castaneda?s visionary drug experiences in Mexico can be viewed as either "field notes" or fiction, but there is no doubt that the book, published in 1968, struck a chord with ...
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Description: Good. 0671804987 GOOD LOOKING mass market paperback book! ! Some creasing of the spine & minor signs of wear from reading--nothing major. SMOKE FREE HOME! Do not settle for worn, torn, throwaways. Pay a few pennies more for a nice copy of a good book! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine
Date Published: 1973
ISBN-13:9780345026569ISBN:034502656X
Description: Fair. Cover quite worn. May have light cosmetic damage on cover. Pages clean. Good reading/reference copy. Reliable seller. Fast shipping from central Texas. All international orders ship by airmail. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon Schuster Trade
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780671804985ISBN:0671804987
Description: Acceptable. MAY HAVE COVER WEAR, SPINE CREASES, HIGHLIGHTING, UNDERLINING & PAGES YELLOWED FROM AGE. FASTER SERVICE FROM US! ! ! read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"I liked the first half of the book, but then it just seemed to be more of the same, so I stopped about 3/4 of the way through. Maybe I'm just impatient, or maybe the story was going nowhere. I understand why don Juan was annoyed with the narrator, he got on my nerves at times, too.
There were good parts, though, I liked where they were out in the desert ingesting peyote, and he wandered off talking to the embodiment of peyote, or "Mescalito", who told him to eat some more, but he didn't have a knife, so he just chewed off the tops of some plants. Heh.
Recently I had a dream where Mescalito told me to take my sheet and wrap it around me like a toga, which I did. Then I was supposed to go somewhere, to a meeting of people like myself, but I stopped because I didn't know where it was. Then Mescalito told me to look on the sheet for writing to appear giving me directions to the meeting. I unwrapped myself and looked for the writing but it didn't appear. Also, I couldn't figure out how to unlock the door out of my apartment so I went back to bed. (Note: this wasn't the result of mescaline, I was just sleepwalking)"
"You may find this book has a lot of chaff on how they prepare peyote and other drugs, mundane descriptions in diary... yet when you less expect it, they hit you with a boulder of wisdom that leaves you freezed.
There is ONE core idea in the book that makes the price tag disappear. You cannot pay for it. It goes like this:
"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."
Ever since I read the book I have followed that advice. Life blossoms with a feeling of realness."
"Was given this book to read by a shamanistically inclined friend and I wanted to see what the whole fuss was about with Castaneda. I didn't feel sympathy with any of the characters, the master-apprentice relationship between Casteneda and Don Juan was really getting on my nerves and I just didn't get what I was expecting to get from this book. Maybe I came across it too late in my life, a sentiment inforced especially after reading the bit about "path of the heart" which I felt resonated with me, since the ideas felt like "yeah, been there done that", so I guess this is best read alongside Hesse and other high school must-reads. Oh and I felt that my (wannabe) shaman friend took the book too seriously..."
"Great book with a lot of hallucinating passages. This makes me realize on the different perception of the world that each person conceives, about the life, the power, the knowledge and death.
In this case, the perception of reality that old tribe Yaqui perceives. It is really shocked how an occident's mind (Castaneda) is captured by old yaqui way of thinking.
This is not a book about hard delirious caused by do drugs, but it is a book where the power of the plants take a very important place in searching for experiences that led to get non-ordinary reality. Non-ordinary reality let Castaneda to see in a different way the world he did know. Don Juan explains that world is more than his eyes can see or his mind can imagine, there is a world beyond and Don Juan helps Castaneda to find out what the other reality is about.
Book is highly recommended if you are interested in learning about ancient mexican culture."
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