Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/57

 Don Juan had said, when one finally understands what is happening, it is often too late to reverse. He claimed that the intellect is always that tricks us; receives the message in the first place, but instead of believing and acting accordingly, wastes time arguing...

2 The little sisters

If they were the true don Juan heirs of, they had to be impeccable with me, revealing their designs, and not behave as ordinary human beings, greedy...

Told me over and over again that my rationality only understood a small portion of what he called self-totality...

True to his non-committal purposes, don Juan had aspired to total victory or a complete defeat for me. If his teachings had failed to get me in touch with my hidden resources, the test would make it evident, in which case there would have been very little I could do...

What I yearn for at that time was for don Juan mastery with any situation arising, his intellectual camaraderie, his humor. Instead, I was accompanied by two idiots...

My anger disappeared, giving way to a strange serenity, a coldness, and, at the same time a desire to laugh. I then understood something transcendental. Before the impact of Doña Soledad and the sisters acts, my body detached from rationality; I had, in the words of don Juan, stopped the world...

The Nagual said that power comes only after accepting our destinies without discussion.

When there is nothing to lose, courage is acquired. We are afraid only to the extent we have something to hold to...

3 The Fat Lady

The words of don Juan had always had a dual effect on me: one, when hearing his statements for the first time; the other, when reading alone the written and forgotten...

—You are wrong; a warrior does not look for anything to apeace him...

He said that a warrior should leave nothing to happen randomly, a warrior was actually capable of altering the course of events, using his conscience power and the inflexibility of his purpose...

—Yes, —he continued— we are pieces of the Sun. That is why we are luminous beings. But our eyes fail to capture that luminosity because it is very weak. Only the eyes of a witch can see it, and that after a lifetime effort...

The Nagual taught me to stay in balance and not to search for anything with anxiety...

—A warrior must get rid of the human form if he wants to change, really change. Otherwise, things do not go beyond a conversation about the change, as in your case. The Nagual said that it was useless to believe or hope that it is possible to change the own habits. Not one iota changes in as long as the human form is preserved. The Nagual told me that a warrior knows that he cannot change; what is more: he knows it is not allowed. Is the only advantage a warrior has over a common man. The warrior is never disappointed when failing in an attempt to change...

4 The Genaros

He added that everything that happens to a warrior should be interpreted as an omen...

—Everything we say —he continued—, is a reflection of the people’s world. You will find out before your visit ends that you talk and act the way you do because you are still tied to the human form, just as the Genaros and the sisters are still attached to the human form when they are fighting to death between them...

he replied to me that everything in the world of a warrior, as I should know, depended on impeccability...

Said that warriors always had a chance, no matter how small...