Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
University of California Press (1998), 232 pages
Description
In 1968 University of California Press published an unusual manuscript by an anthropology student named Carlos Castaneda. The Teachings of Don Juan enthralled a generation of seekers dissatisfied with the limitations of the Western worldview. Castaneda's now classic book remains controversial for the alternative way of seeing that it presents and the revolution in cognition it demands. Whether read as ethnographic fact or creative fiction, it is the story of a remarkable journey that has left an indelible impression on the life of more than a million readers around the world.
User reviews
LibraryThing member BirdBrian
Semi-abandoned. (Read in earnest for 160 pages, skimmed the last 80 pages)
Forward
I don’t normally take time to explain why I read the books I do, but this is a special case. This book, and this author, have serious credibility problems. You can Google all the gory details, but suffice it to say
So why read this book? Well, in the early 1970's this book had a minor cult following, and one of its enthusiasts was a friend of my parents, who told me on several occasions when I was a teenager how great it is, and how I should read it. I spotted this copy in a bookstore about ten years ago, and thought I might see what all the fuss was. Knowing now of its dubious veracity, I still wanted to read it, out of curiosity.
If we're going to do this thing, let’s try to get something out of it
The easy route would be to make fun of the book for all its New Agey hoopla. I could rip on it in a humorous way that would get a bunch of votes, but that seems a bit pointless. Instead, I wanted to examine it to see what had captivated so many readers.
The most profound thing I found here was Don Juan explaining that there were four challenges a mind must overcome to become "learned":
1- overcome fear
2- overcome certainty
3- avoid the seduction of power
4- maintain intellectual curiosity
I like that second one "overcome certainty"; that's not half bad. George W. Bush could have used a bit of that. Are these the only four things? Could there be a better item on the list? Maybe, but these are good ideas in principle. All the profound-sounding hoodoo in the delivery was a bit overdone, but every successful religion has an element of showmanship, doesn't it?
So what else did this book have?
Not much. Most of it is accounts of Castaneda and Don Juan picking around in the Sonoran desert for hallucinogenic plants (some of the botanical information herein is inaccurate, I’m told) …cutting them up, drying them, preparing them for ingestion, and recording the ensuing hallucinations. A lot of this could have been edited out, unless of course the book is intended as a guide to help readers go out and do the same.
Three hallucinogenics are experimented with: Peyote, Jimson Weed, and "The Smoke" (not sure what drug is being referred to here, but it is a hallucinogenic indigenous to the Sonoran Desert, if that helps)
Mescalito (Peyote) Jon Juan anthropomorphizes Peyote, describing him as a semi-transparent dog (that's “caninomorphizing”, isn’t it?) named Mescalito, who is also a teacher. Mescalito teaches by showing you things... I can follow that, to a certain extent. Castaneda dreams the dog drinks water, and he can see the water being absorbed into the dog's blood and coursing through its body. Later, Castaneda and the dog telepathically manipulate each other's limbs to put on a sort of interactive puppet show. When Castaneda wakes up, Don Juan tells him that when he was high, he pissed on the neighbor's dog. It’s an odd mix of mysticism and frat boy antics.
"The Devil's Weed" (Jimson Weed) is anthropomorphized to a woman, who makes the user feel powerful and ambitious, and who also makes Castaneda literally see red... as in his vision is tinted red. I don't know about all that. There were no freaky hallucinations here, so I lost interest.
Note: I looked up Jimson Weed in a book I have about medicinal plants, and it turns out it has high concentration of scopolamine and atropine- natural stimulants which act on the bronchial muscles, and can be useful in treating asthma, if taken at the right dose, but which can be highly toxic and even fatal if that dose is exceeded. I would strongly recommend AGAINST anybody messing around and trying to get high on it. This is not a drug to be fucked around with.
-BirdBrian
"The Smoke" Whatever drug that was, Castaneda had a bad trip on it. He describes feeling "outside of [his] body", and later Don Juan tells him the "The Smoke" can be used to turn oneself into a crow.
Given the credibility problems above, I wonder whether the hallucinations in this book were real hallucinations or made-up hallucinations. That’s a weird distinction to be thinking about isn’t it? …Because hallucinations come from one's mind, and making things up comes from one's mind too, so it seems anything you could make up, you could hallucinate... so is it really possible to create a "counterfeit" hallucination? The only difference is that the “real” hallucination requires mind-altering drugs, and the “fake” hallucination is the volitional product of a sober mind… which is weird, because those tend to be the exact opposite definitions we would apply to anything else (i.e. hallucinated things are fake, and things you have to work for are real). Way out, man.
What’s it all mean?
Getting back to my original mission with this book, it came out in 1968 when a lot of young people in the Western industrialized world were just starting to experiment with psychadelic drugs. For as fun and novel as this might have been, I can imagine there would also be some apprehension attached to it as well… you’re messing with your body, you may be doing something illegal, the drugs aren’t regulated or certified for safety, and they don’t come with any instructions except the word-of-mouth direction of one’s peers. This book seems to provide an authoritative-sounding wise old mentor in Don Juan, who guides Castaneda, and by extension the reader, through the experimentation, all the way providing assurances that these drugs have been time-tested in the native culture of the Yaqui. I think that must have been comforting to some... however ill-founded that comfort actually was.
I don’t know how much of the writing reflects true, actual Yaqui Indian culture. To the extent that it does, that is interesting too. It doesn’t seem like Castaneda is really trying to teach the reader anything along those lines, but something may be learned by indirect exposure. Like a lot of unfamiliar religions, it seems sort of mystical to me. That is to say that even though it might hide a complex belief system with internal logic and coherence, I am too unversed in it to appreciate those things. All I see are questions answered with questions, seemingly-contradictory statements, and vague parables with no obvious point. For people well-versed in that belief system, it may provide comfort and a cosmology which helps them make sense of life, but I’m too outside of it to know. Unfortunately, it seems like a certain segment of modern Western industrialized society grooves on superficially-grasped foreign philosophies, which it makes its own in the form of mysticism and “New Age” beliefs. That’s a little embarrassing to me, because it seems to reject traditional Western religions in favor of something just as eager to take your money and keep you ignorant, but with none of the pageantry, tradition, and sense of cultural belonging that the Old School religions offer. If “New Age” stuff floats your boat, I apologize, but to me it seems like a [n even] worse deal than the traditional religions.
By far my favorite part of this book:
After being away for two months, Carlos returns to Don Juan’s home, to find him in a cast with a broken foot. “How did you break your foot?”, he asks, and Don Juan explains that he had used ancient secret medicines to turn himself into a crow. While sitting on a branch, he had suddenly been attacked by a blackbird… but it wasn’t just any blackbird; a woman who lived in the area was a witch, and she had turned herself into the blackbird. With his foot broken as a crow, he found his regular foot broken, when he turned back into a man. By attacking him when they were both in animal form, Don Juan explained, this witch had started a mortal feud which had to end in one of their deaths; he had to kill her now. That was what he had been contemplating when Carlos showed up.
“How will you kill her?”, Carlos asked, “with witchcraft?”
“Don’t be an idiot”, Don Juan replied.
Forward
I don’t normally take time to explain why I read the books I do, but this is a special case. This book, and this author, have serious credibility problems. You can Google all the gory details, but suffice it to say
Show More
that on original publication (1968), this book was passed off as the nonfictional notes of UCLA Anthropology graduate student Carlos Castaneda. It supposedly details his studies under a Yaqui Indian shaman named Don Juan (seriously?) from 1960 to 1966. Since then, Castaneda has admitted that no Don Juan really exists; he is a literary amalgam of assorted people Castaneda supposedly did meet. Some other elements in the book have also been discredited. Peyote doesn't grow where Castaneda says it does, and certain beliefs and practices he attributes to the Yaqui Indians of Mexico are not authentic.So why read this book? Well, in the early 1970's this book had a minor cult following, and one of its enthusiasts was a friend of my parents, who told me on several occasions when I was a teenager how great it is, and how I should read it. I spotted this copy in a bookstore about ten years ago, and thought I might see what all the fuss was. Knowing now of its dubious veracity, I still wanted to read it, out of curiosity.
If we're going to do this thing, let’s try to get something out of it
The easy route would be to make fun of the book for all its New Agey hoopla. I could rip on it in a humorous way that would get a bunch of votes, but that seems a bit pointless. Instead, I wanted to examine it to see what had captivated so many readers.
The most profound thing I found here was Don Juan explaining that there were four challenges a mind must overcome to become "learned":
1- overcome fear
2- overcome certainty
3- avoid the seduction of power
4- maintain intellectual curiosity
I like that second one "overcome certainty"; that's not half bad. George W. Bush could have used a bit of that. Are these the only four things? Could there be a better item on the list? Maybe, but these are good ideas in principle. All the profound-sounding hoodoo in the delivery was a bit overdone, but every successful religion has an element of showmanship, doesn't it?
So what else did this book have?
Not much. Most of it is accounts of Castaneda and Don Juan picking around in the Sonoran desert for hallucinogenic plants (some of the botanical information herein is inaccurate, I’m told) …cutting them up, drying them, preparing them for ingestion, and recording the ensuing hallucinations. A lot of this could have been edited out, unless of course the book is intended as a guide to help readers go out and do the same.
Three hallucinogenics are experimented with: Peyote, Jimson Weed, and "The Smoke" (not sure what drug is being referred to here, but it is a hallucinogenic indigenous to the Sonoran Desert, if that helps)
Mescalito (Peyote) Jon Juan anthropomorphizes Peyote, describing him as a semi-transparent dog (that's “caninomorphizing”, isn’t it?) named Mescalito, who is also a teacher. Mescalito teaches by showing you things... I can follow that, to a certain extent. Castaneda dreams the dog drinks water, and he can see the water being absorbed into the dog's blood and coursing through its body. Later, Castaneda and the dog telepathically manipulate each other's limbs to put on a sort of interactive puppet show. When Castaneda wakes up, Don Juan tells him that when he was high, he pissed on the neighbor's dog. It’s an odd mix of mysticism and frat boy antics.
"The Devil's Weed" (Jimson Weed) is anthropomorphized to a woman, who makes the user feel powerful and ambitious, and who also makes Castaneda literally see red... as in his vision is tinted red. I don't know about all that. There were no freaky hallucinations here, so I lost interest.
Note: I looked up Jimson Weed in a book I have about medicinal plants, and it turns out it has high concentration of scopolamine and atropine- natural stimulants which act on the bronchial muscles, and can be useful in treating asthma, if taken at the right dose, but which can be highly toxic and even fatal if that dose is exceeded. I would strongly recommend AGAINST anybody messing around and trying to get high on it. This is not a drug to be fucked around with.
-BirdBrian
"The Smoke" Whatever drug that was, Castaneda had a bad trip on it. He describes feeling "outside of [his] body", and later Don Juan tells him the "The Smoke" can be used to turn oneself into a crow.
Given the credibility problems above, I wonder whether the hallucinations in this book were real hallucinations or made-up hallucinations. That’s a weird distinction to be thinking about isn’t it? …Because hallucinations come from one's mind, and making things up comes from one's mind too, so it seems anything you could make up, you could hallucinate... so is it really possible to create a "counterfeit" hallucination? The only difference is that the “real” hallucination requires mind-altering drugs, and the “fake” hallucination is the volitional product of a sober mind… which is weird, because those tend to be the exact opposite definitions we would apply to anything else (i.e. hallucinated things are fake, and things you have to work for are real). Way out, man.
What’s it all mean?
Getting back to my original mission with this book, it came out in 1968 when a lot of young people in the Western industrialized world were just starting to experiment with psychadelic drugs. For as fun and novel as this might have been, I can imagine there would also be some apprehension attached to it as well… you’re messing with your body, you may be doing something illegal, the drugs aren’t regulated or certified for safety, and they don’t come with any instructions except the word-of-mouth direction of one’s peers. This book seems to provide an authoritative-sounding wise old mentor in Don Juan, who guides Castaneda, and by extension the reader, through the experimentation, all the way providing assurances that these drugs have been time-tested in the native culture of the Yaqui. I think that must have been comforting to some... however ill-founded that comfort actually was.
I don’t know how much of the writing reflects true, actual Yaqui Indian culture. To the extent that it does, that is interesting too. It doesn’t seem like Castaneda is really trying to teach the reader anything along those lines, but something may be learned by indirect exposure. Like a lot of unfamiliar religions, it seems sort of mystical to me. That is to say that even though it might hide a complex belief system with internal logic and coherence, I am too unversed in it to appreciate those things. All I see are questions answered with questions, seemingly-contradictory statements, and vague parables with no obvious point. For people well-versed in that belief system, it may provide comfort and a cosmology which helps them make sense of life, but I’m too outside of it to know. Unfortunately, it seems like a certain segment of modern Western industrialized society grooves on superficially-grasped foreign philosophies, which it makes its own in the form of mysticism and “New Age” beliefs. That’s a little embarrassing to me, because it seems to reject traditional Western religions in favor of something just as eager to take your money and keep you ignorant, but with none of the pageantry, tradition, and sense of cultural belonging that the Old School religions offer. If “New Age” stuff floats your boat, I apologize, but to me it seems like a [n even] worse deal than the traditional religions.
By far my favorite part of this book:
After being away for two months, Carlos returns to Don Juan’s home, to find him in a cast with a broken foot. “How did you break your foot?”, he asks, and Don Juan explains that he had used ancient secret medicines to turn himself into a crow. While sitting on a branch, he had suddenly been attacked by a blackbird… but it wasn’t just any blackbird; a woman who lived in the area was a witch, and she had turned herself into the blackbird. With his foot broken as a crow, he found his regular foot broken, when he turned back into a man. By attacking him when they were both in animal form, Don Juan explained, this witch had started a mortal feud which had to end in one of their deaths; he had to kill her now. That was what he had been contemplating when Carlos showed up.
“How will you kill her?”, Carlos asked, “with witchcraft?”
“Don’t be an idiot”, Don Juan replied.
Show Less
LibraryThing member joeydag
I read this so long ago. Pretty much an enticing con. Don't expect a ringing endorsement from me for shamanistic teachings of an esoteric nature. It was groovy back in the day of "opening the doors of perception" - not so much so in the day of "where did I leave my glasses again".
LibraryThing member yogipoet
i had a friend who read all cc's work. i only read this one but it was valuable. recommended.
LibraryThing member endersreads
Mesoamerican shamanism interests everyone right? Or was it Mescalito, Mushrooms, and Datura stramonium that brought you here? Whether Castaneda's work is fiction or anthropological fact is debatable. It's entertaining quality is undeniable. The Yaqui shaman named don Juan Matus is an unforgettable
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character. Whatever your theology, I believe Toltec shamanism (or the synthesis of shamanism) and Castaneda's books contain important and relevant information to today's world. Non-ordinary reality should be investigated, but beware, it is non-ordinary, and not exactly well taken with anthropologists anymore (at one time, they did believe in the authenticity of Castaneda's work). I sum it up to say those interested in the New Age, or Occultism, or even good story, should check Castaneda's series of books out! Show Less
LibraryThing member sfisk
Do yourself a favor and read the original series, it will make you question the way we live and perceive reality
LibraryThing member PamelaWells
Every Seeker has at some point experienced an unexplainable moment. These are great opportunities to expand your perceptions to begin to believe in something greater then yourself that cannot be explained by your culture, current beliefs or family. Any of Carlos Castanada's books will give you the
I cried, I laughed and I journeyed deeply into the heart of this incredible mystic; with him into the meaning of and purpose of life. I found many answers to my questions and was very inspired by Carlos Castaneda to continue my search even deeper into the mysteries of the human spirit and mind. I thank him as a student would thank a teacher with deep love and gratitude for his contribution to greater consciousness for us all.
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opportunity to discover another perspective about what reality really is. For those who call themselves Seekers - looking for the meaning of life - this is a foundational book. This was the first book I read that started me on the path to greater consciousness. I cried, I laughed and I journeyed deeply into the heart of this incredible mystic; with him into the meaning of and purpose of life. I found many answers to my questions and was very inspired by Carlos Castaneda to continue my search even deeper into the mysteries of the human spirit and mind. I thank him as a student would thank a teacher with deep love and gratitude for his contribution to greater consciousness for us all.
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LibraryThing member stipe168
One of Carlos' greatest acheivements is tying scientifical data to pure philosophical feeling. He feels so much, he's not only analyzing, he's feeling.. because he gets so scared. I loved it and want to read more. He's very readable, and you're right there with him the entire time.
LibraryThing member alanfurth
The book recounts the author's alleged experiences as apprentice of Juan Matus, a Yaqui native American shaman he met while conducting research on medicinal plants as an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles, during the summer of 1960.
Castaneda's apprenticeship was based
Like Huxley's Doors, Castaneda's Don Juan can be seen as consistent with the hypothesis put forward by Bernard Haisch in his book "The God Theory" of an infinite consciousness that brings about the creation of physical reality with the ultimate goal of realizing its infinite potential.
THE DARK SEA OF AWARENESS
Castaneda learned that sorcerers of Don Juan's lineage were able to perceive human beings as "conglomerates of energy fields that have the appearance of luminous balls," each one individually connected to an energetic mass of inconceivable proportions that exists in the universe:
"...a mass which they called the dark sea of awareness. They observed that each individual ball is attached to the dark sea of awareness at a point that is even more brilliant than the luminous ball itself. Those shamans called that point of juncture the assemblage point, because they observed that it is at that spot that perception takes place. The flux of energy at large is turned, on that point, into sensorial data, and those data are then interpreted as the world that surrounds us."
Moreover, they also saw the universe a purposeful, infinitely conscious, "intelligent" entity:
"Another of such masses of filaments, besides the dark sea of awareness which the shamans observed and liked because of its vibration, was something they called intent, and the act of individual shamans focusing their attention on such a mass, they called intending. They saw that the entire universe was a universe of intent, and intent, for them, was the equivalent of intelligence. The universe, therefore, was, for them, a universe of supreme intelligence. Their conclusion, which became part of their cognitive world, was that vibratory energy, aware of itself, was intelligent in the extreme. They saw that the mass of intent in the cosmos was responsible for all the possible mutations, all the possible variations which happened in the universe, not because of arbitrary, blind circumstances, but because of the intending done by the vibratory energy, at the level of the flux of energy itself."
The idea of the mind as a kind of filter that intelligently subtracts from infinite consciousness in order to allow us to structure the perception of everyday reality that proposed by both Haisch and Huxley, is also present here:
" When the sorcerers of ancient Mexico saw the assemblage point, they discovered the energetic fact that the impact of the energy fields going through the assemblage point was transformed into sensory data; data which were then interpreted into the cognition of the world of everyday life. Those shamans accounted for the homogeneity of cognition among human beings by the fact that the assemblage point for the entire human race is located at the same place on the energetic luminous spheres that we are: at the height of the shoulder blades, an arm's length behind them, against the boundary of the luminous ball.
Their seeing-observations of the assemblage point led the sorcerers of ancient Mexico to discover that the assemblage point shifted position under conditions of normal sleep, or extreme fatigue, or disease, or the ingestion of psychotropic plants. Those sorcerers saw that when the assemblage point was at a new position, a different bundle of energy fields went through it, forcing the assemblage point to turn those energy fields into sensory data, and interpret them, giving as a result a veritable new world to perceive. Those shamans maintained that each new world that comes about in such a fashion is an all-inclusive world, different from the world of everyday life, but utterly similar to it in the fact that one could live and die in it.
For shamans like don Juan Matus, the most important exercise of intending entails the volitional movement of the assemblage point to reach predetermined spots in the total conglomerate of fields of energy that make up a human being, meaning that through thousands of years of probing, the sorcerers of don Juan's lineage found out that there are key positions within the total luminous ball that a human being is where the assemblage point can be located and where the resulting bombardment of energy fields on it can produce a totally veritable new world. Don Juan assured me that it was an energetic fact that the possibility of journeying to any of those worlds, or to all of them, is the heritage of every human being. He said that those worlds were there for the asking, as questions are sometimes begging to be asked, and that all that a sorcerer or a human being needed to reach them was to intend the movement of the assemblage point."
A PATH WITH HEART
The genius of Don Juan is perhaps best expressed in one passage that has become a mantra of personal growth movements and spiritual seekers of the most diverse tendencies:
"A 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 . . . Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question . . . Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use."
Castaneda's apprenticeship was based
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on the ceremonial ingestion of the psychedelic cactus peyote, whose principal agent is mescaline, the same substance that Aldous Huxley used for writing his book "The Doors of Perception."Like Huxley's Doors, Castaneda's Don Juan can be seen as consistent with the hypothesis put forward by Bernard Haisch in his book "The God Theory" of an infinite consciousness that brings about the creation of physical reality with the ultimate goal of realizing its infinite potential.
THE DARK SEA OF AWARENESS
Castaneda learned that sorcerers of Don Juan's lineage were able to perceive human beings as "conglomerates of energy fields that have the appearance of luminous balls," each one individually connected to an energetic mass of inconceivable proportions that exists in the universe:
"...a mass which they called the dark sea of awareness. They observed that each individual ball is attached to the dark sea of awareness at a point that is even more brilliant than the luminous ball itself. Those shamans called that point of juncture the assemblage point, because they observed that it is at that spot that perception takes place. The flux of energy at large is turned, on that point, into sensorial data, and those data are then interpreted as the world that surrounds us."
Moreover, they also saw the universe a purposeful, infinitely conscious, "intelligent" entity:
"Another of such masses of filaments, besides the dark sea of awareness which the shamans observed and liked because of its vibration, was something they called intent, and the act of individual shamans focusing their attention on such a mass, they called intending. They saw that the entire universe was a universe of intent, and intent, for them, was the equivalent of intelligence. The universe, therefore, was, for them, a universe of supreme intelligence. Their conclusion, which became part of their cognitive world, was that vibratory energy, aware of itself, was intelligent in the extreme. They saw that the mass of intent in the cosmos was responsible for all the possible mutations, all the possible variations which happened in the universe, not because of arbitrary, blind circumstances, but because of the intending done by the vibratory energy, at the level of the flux of energy itself."
The idea of the mind as a kind of filter that intelligently subtracts from infinite consciousness in order to allow us to structure the perception of everyday reality that proposed by both Haisch and Huxley, is also present here:
" When the sorcerers of ancient Mexico saw the assemblage point, they discovered the energetic fact that the impact of the energy fields going through the assemblage point was transformed into sensory data; data which were then interpreted into the cognition of the world of everyday life. Those shamans accounted for the homogeneity of cognition among human beings by the fact that the assemblage point for the entire human race is located at the same place on the energetic luminous spheres that we are: at the height of the shoulder blades, an arm's length behind them, against the boundary of the luminous ball.
Their seeing-observations of the assemblage point led the sorcerers of ancient Mexico to discover that the assemblage point shifted position under conditions of normal sleep, or extreme fatigue, or disease, or the ingestion of psychotropic plants. Those sorcerers saw that when the assemblage point was at a new position, a different bundle of energy fields went through it, forcing the assemblage point to turn those energy fields into sensory data, and interpret them, giving as a result a veritable new world to perceive. Those shamans maintained that each new world that comes about in such a fashion is an all-inclusive world, different from the world of everyday life, but utterly similar to it in the fact that one could live and die in it.
For shamans like don Juan Matus, the most important exercise of intending entails the volitional movement of the assemblage point to reach predetermined spots in the total conglomerate of fields of energy that make up a human being, meaning that through thousands of years of probing, the sorcerers of don Juan's lineage found out that there are key positions within the total luminous ball that a human being is where the assemblage point can be located and where the resulting bombardment of energy fields on it can produce a totally veritable new world. Don Juan assured me that it was an energetic fact that the possibility of journeying to any of those worlds, or to all of them, is the heritage of every human being. He said that those worlds were there for the asking, as questions are sometimes begging to be asked, and that all that a sorcerer or a human being needed to reach them was to intend the movement of the assemblage point."
A PATH WITH HEART
The genius of Don Juan is perhaps best expressed in one passage that has become a mantra of personal growth movements and spiritual seekers of the most diverse tendencies:
"A 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 . . . Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question . . . Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use."
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LibraryThing member blake.rosser
I thought his first three books were much better before I realized he had written 12 others. You start to wonder how factual it could be. . .
LibraryThing member Phoenixangelfire
On of my all time favourites that set he pace for me to read the sequels. Each time I was not disappointed wither with the writings or the story line. While there is the official story there is also a deeper hidden and more spiritual message to those who are open to deciphering it. I found it
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clever then and am looking forward to going back and rereading after these many long years. Show Less
LibraryThing member waelrammo
The Teachings of Don Juan follows a Carlos' journey to enlightenment with a native american indian called Don Juan. Don Juan is considered to be a 'brujo'.. something of a sorcerer, and Carlos initially approaches him to understand more about a specific plant, but is drawn into Don Juan's intrigue.
The book has an academic tone in its diary style and dialectic, which, for a nerd like me, is somewhat refreshing, but I can't help but feel so bored reading it. I'll admit it, I sometimes hardly payed attention. He's talked about altered states of consciousness (fancy words for 'getting high) and describes them in some nice detail. And the ideas presented are compelling, but don't seem to be axiomatic enough for me to get excited about.
The definition of a man of knowledge as someone who follows with integrity the hardships of learning. The discipline and modesty required to learn. Learning starts with ignorance, and fear mounts when you realize that what you signed up for isn't exactly what you're getting. But this is part of learning, and here is the first battle on the road to non-ignorance. Overcoming fear is taking the next step in learning despite the fear. Despite the desire to run away. This brings clarify, which dispels fear, but blinds a man to doubt (necessary for learning). Defying clarity enables to continue yearning for knowledge. Then learning brings power, which a man of knowledge must learn never really belongs to him.
The enemies of a man of knowledge are fear, clarity, power, old age. Old age, which brings tiredness that a man of knowledge must trudge through. There was the description of a man have an infinite number of paths that could be travelled, and the importance of choosing the path with a heart. A deliberate and self-assessed choice.
As every book inevitably does, this offers a new perspective on some old ideas. But you could probably go without reading it.
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The book has an academic tone in its diary style and dialectic, which, for a nerd like me, is somewhat refreshing, but I can't help but feel so bored reading it. I'll admit it, I sometimes hardly payed attention. He's talked about altered states of consciousness (fancy words for 'getting high) and describes them in some nice detail. And the ideas presented are compelling, but don't seem to be axiomatic enough for me to get excited about.
The definition of a man of knowledge as someone who follows with integrity the hardships of learning. The discipline and modesty required to learn. Learning starts with ignorance, and fear mounts when you realize that what you signed up for isn't exactly what you're getting. But this is part of learning, and here is the first battle on the road to non-ignorance. Overcoming fear is taking the next step in learning despite the fear. Despite the desire to run away. This brings clarify, which dispels fear, but blinds a man to doubt (necessary for learning). Defying clarity enables to continue yearning for knowledge. Then learning brings power, which a man of knowledge must learn never really belongs to him.
The enemies of a man of knowledge are fear, clarity, power, old age. Old age, which brings tiredness that a man of knowledge must trudge through. There was the description of a man have an infinite number of paths that could be travelled, and the importance of choosing the path with a heart. A deliberate and self-assessed choice.
As every book inevitably does, this offers a new perspective on some old ideas. But you could probably go without reading it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cpq
I read Book 1 of Carlos Castenada's anthropological/spiritual series almost 35 years ago, and have never forgotten it. In fact, it changed my view of reality entirely.
Carlos Castenada was an anthropology student at UCLA when he first met don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian, in his search for
Carlos Castenada was an anthropology student at UCLA when he first met don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian, in his search for
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information about mind altering drugs. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge is the story of how Castenada became the unwitting apprentice of a powerful Yaqui brujos (sorcerer or shaman). there is no way to describe the journey that became the cornerstone for a whole movement of spiritual seekers. You'll just have to read it and see for yourself. Show Less
LibraryThing member drj
The first of Castaneda's books, sets the stage for all to follow. An anthropologist student takes his studies under a native shaman and learns lessons on life and the aspects of reality that are not included in modern Western thought.
LibraryThing member goosecap
For me, this is shamanistic philosophy, you know. I don’t know whether or not it makes sense to say whether it’s “fiction” or “non-fiction”, right. What about Plato’s Republic? Is that “fiction” or “non-fiction”? What about the last chapter or book in Plato’s Republic? For
And, you know, I’m going to try not to whine and spit like a kid in the chess club who gets bullied by the basketball team and makes it worse—I don’t mean that like as how you guys are, (basketball, bullying), but just about me (‘the importance of being earnest’, although I haven’t read that book)—it’s…. I don’t know, it’s funny. Apparently a LOT of people thought that shamanistic philosophy and non-ordinary reality was going to have the same standards of thinking as vote-counting, obviously the exclusive pinnacle of human existence, right. I mean, it’s like, if you watched C-SPAN for four hours (was a pirate making you keep going?) and then at the end complained that it was boring, that it was ultimately trivial and ordinary or whatever, that it was petty and material, it’s like—well, you knew that it was C-SPAN, right? Surely you knew that that was one way of looking at C-SPAN? And yet you were…. Surprised, I guess?
For myself, I found that there’s a lot less dividing shamanistic philosophy from Jewish or Christian philosophy, I think, than it’s easy to assume, you know. (“He’s a witch! He’s a witch! Torture him, torture him! *crying* In the Name of Jesus, torture him! *collapses in emotion*). I mean, ultimately even a good “primitive” teacher, I think, certainly many Native teachers, will tell you that the most important thing is not the “devil’s weed”, sex and power, and greed, you know, (as difficult as that can be to fend off when you’re young, or even just when you’re having a bad day, and I’ve come to appreciate that the histrionics of moralism and basically reacting and rejecting don’t really help you to live a more pure life), but that it’s better to work with “the smoke”, a purer sort of knowledge that isn’t about power, sex, control.
Of course, both of these things are, in their literal forms, actually plants or drugs that are probably illegal to use in the United States for most people, which is kinda instructive, in the sense that while it’s certainly not illegal for a Native person to convert to Christianity or for a non-Native person to stigmatize Carlos or whoever as being primitive and sad, it is illegal to use these substances, and stigmatizable for someone to try to understand a way of looking at the world that is neither German philosophy or C-SPAN, you know, nor our medicine; it’s, neither anti-body (even Soren made fun of Hegel), or 100% materialistic.
Probably the best part of the main part of the book, and that has become the title to another book, is the “path with heart” part. In the end, the thing is to follow a path with heart. It doesn’t lead anywhere, in particular—that is the great misunderstanding of the ordinary person, I think, like, one day they’ll wake up with ten million dollars in the bank, and now they’ll really be…. Somewhere! And after that, somewhere else!…. But I mean, you follow the path with heart, at least you’re really living, you’re really alive, you know. It’s not about “ending up” somewhere where you’re Rich and you’ve “arrived”.
It’s not about being the most macho warrior in all of Homer, you know.
…. Walter Cronkite: Thank you, Carlos. Well, that concludes today’s edition of the CBS Evening News with Normie. Tune in next week for the Midcentury Schoolboy’s Structural Analysis of the Teachings of the Man of Knowledge—the midcentury schoolboy, making the simple stilted and the profound weird, for a holistic simple and profound into stilted and weird experience. Well, this is the Most Trusted Man of the Midcentury, signing off. Until next time, stay safe—stay normal.
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some people, it’s primitive garbage, but for me, it was the most rewarding part of the book, the WHY of philosophy. And, you know, I’m going to try not to whine and spit like a kid in the chess club who gets bullied by the basketball team and makes it worse—I don’t mean that like as how you guys are, (basketball, bullying), but just about me (‘the importance of being earnest’, although I haven’t read that book)—it’s…. I don’t know, it’s funny. Apparently a LOT of people thought that shamanistic philosophy and non-ordinary reality was going to have the same standards of thinking as vote-counting, obviously the exclusive pinnacle of human existence, right. I mean, it’s like, if you watched C-SPAN for four hours (was a pirate making you keep going?) and then at the end complained that it was boring, that it was ultimately trivial and ordinary or whatever, that it was petty and material, it’s like—well, you knew that it was C-SPAN, right? Surely you knew that that was one way of looking at C-SPAN? And yet you were…. Surprised, I guess?
For myself, I found that there’s a lot less dividing shamanistic philosophy from Jewish or Christian philosophy, I think, than it’s easy to assume, you know. (“He’s a witch! He’s a witch! Torture him, torture him! *crying* In the Name of Jesus, torture him! *collapses in emotion*). I mean, ultimately even a good “primitive” teacher, I think, certainly many Native teachers, will tell you that the most important thing is not the “devil’s weed”, sex and power, and greed, you know, (as difficult as that can be to fend off when you’re young, or even just when you’re having a bad day, and I’ve come to appreciate that the histrionics of moralism and basically reacting and rejecting don’t really help you to live a more pure life), but that it’s better to work with “the smoke”, a purer sort of knowledge that isn’t about power, sex, control.
Of course, both of these things are, in their literal forms, actually plants or drugs that are probably illegal to use in the United States for most people, which is kinda instructive, in the sense that while it’s certainly not illegal for a Native person to convert to Christianity or for a non-Native person to stigmatize Carlos or whoever as being primitive and sad, it is illegal to use these substances, and stigmatizable for someone to try to understand a way of looking at the world that is neither German philosophy or C-SPAN, you know, nor our medicine; it’s, neither anti-body (even Soren made fun of Hegel), or 100% materialistic.
Probably the best part of the main part of the book, and that has become the title to another book, is the “path with heart” part. In the end, the thing is to follow a path with heart. It doesn’t lead anywhere, in particular—that is the great misunderstanding of the ordinary person, I think, like, one day they’ll wake up with ten million dollars in the bank, and now they’ll really be…. Somewhere! And after that, somewhere else!…. But I mean, you follow the path with heart, at least you’re really living, you’re really alive, you know. It’s not about “ending up” somewhere where you’re Rich and you’ve “arrived”.
It’s not about being the most macho warrior in all of Homer, you know.
…. Walter Cronkite: Thank you, Carlos. Well, that concludes today’s edition of the CBS Evening News with Normie. Tune in next week for the Midcentury Schoolboy’s Structural Analysis of the Teachings of the Man of Knowledge—the midcentury schoolboy, making the simple stilted and the profound weird, for a holistic simple and profound into stilted and weird experience. Well, this is the Most Trusted Man of the Midcentury, signing off. Until next time, stay safe—stay normal.
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LibraryThing member Ranjr
Well, I’ve finally found the combination of dope and spirituality I’ve been looking for in works such as The Joyous Cosmology by Alan Watts, The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley, and why I perused the works (I inherited a full set of books from my late uncle) of Thomas
Some of my favorite quotes dealing with the trippy part are:
“The difficulty of the ingredients,” he proceeded suddenly, “makes the smoke mixture one of the most dangerous substances I know. No one can prepare it without being coached. It is deadly poisonous to anyone except the smoke’s protégé! Pipe and mixture ought to be treated with intimate care. And the man attempting to learn must prepare himself by leading a hard, quiet life. Its effects are so dreadful that only a very strong man can stand the smallest puff. Everything is terrifying and confusing at the outset, but every new puff makes things more precise.” [pg.69]
And:
[…] I told him I could see in the dark.
He stared at me for a long time without saying a word; if he did speak, perhaps I did not hear him, for I was concentrating on my new, unique ability to see in the dark. I could distinguish the very minute pebbles in the sand. At moments everything was so clear it seemed to be early morning, or dusk. Then it would get dark; then it would clear again. Soon I realized that the brightness corresponded to my heart’s diastole, and the darkness to its systole. The world changed from bright to dark to bright again with every beat of my heart.
I was absorbed in this discovery when the same strange sound that I had heard before became audible again. My muscles stiffened. [pg.98]
Lastly:
The sound of my voice did not project out, but hit the roof of my palate, bounced back in to [sic] my throat, and echoed to and fro between them. The echo was soft and musical, and seemed to have wings that flapped inside my throat. Its touch soothed me. I followed its back-and-forth movements until it had vanished. [pg.96]
This work purports (more on that later) to be a “true” record in the form of a young anthropologist student’s (Carlos Casteneda’s) diary documenting his time spent learning as an acolyte of a Yaqui (a Native American ethnic group in Mexico where this story takes place) shaman named Don Juan in the text. For the most part, this book is very readable, and the narrative moves at a good pace. This is not a boring book granted most of the action is contained in the shamanistic drug trips of its protagonist culminating in a “battle” with a disguised witch. I enjoyed the first section of the book.
The second section, however, is not really good reading, it’s an analysis of the previous text and the logical structuring of the basis of Don Juan’s teachings. It is somewhat interesting but can be skipped as the tone of this last part of the book is whiplash from vibrant descriptive content to a very dry scholarly and analytical blandness. Don’t get me wrong, it does help to clarify some aspects of the previous section, but it does detract a little from the reading experience of the first three-fourths of the book.
Are there tidbits of wisdom in this book? A few, I guess.
“Is the smoke the best possible ally for everybody?”
“It’s not the same for everybody. Many fear it and won’t touch it, or even get close to it. The smoke is like everything else; it wasn’t made for all of us.” [pg.68]
There’s even a little advice for the majority of people on the internet:
“No! I’m never angry at anybody! No human being can do anything important enough for that. You get angry at people when you feel that their acts are important. I don’t feel that way any longer.” [pg.72]
I might share a little personal sentiment here in the context of the net.
And then hilariously (and smartly):
I followed him. He walked around the house, making a complete clockwise circle. He stopped at the porch and circled the house again, this time going counterclockwise and again returning to the porch. He stood motionless for some time, and then sat down.
I was conditioned to believe that everything he did had some meaning. I was wondering about the significance of circling the house when he said, “Hey! I have forgotten where I put it.” [pg.77]
Would I recommend this book? Well, first, this book is considered entirely fictional for good reason which I was aware of when I dove in. However, I still found the main text of the book (the first section) compelling and interesting. This is despite the book being nowhere near factual when it comes to anything concerning the Yaqui people of Mexico. The shamanistic beliefs represented in the narrative are (admittedly by the author) based on Toltec shamanic beliefs (according to Wikipedia). There are also several other books published that refute the anthropological truth of the work.
So, would I still recommend this book? Yes, I liked it and taking this as a work of fiction does lessen the impact a little, but it was a fun read, at least to me. However, remember that datura is definitely toxic, and knowing that this book is entirely fiction, DO NOT take this book as a guide to consuming such a dangerous plant. Otherwise, this book is interesting as a hero’s journey of a young, educated skeptic into the “non-ordinary reality” of sorcery via the ritual consumption of peyote buttons, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and bits of the deadly datura plant.
“The desire to learn is not ambition,” he said. “It is our lot as men to want to know, but to seek the devil’s weed is to bid for power, and that is ambition, because you are not bidding to know. Don’t let the devil’s weed blind you. She has hooked you already. She entices men and gives them a sense of power; she makes them feel they can do things that no ordinary man can. But that is her trap. And, the next thing, 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.” [pg.161]
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Merton (I found him distasteful in that he hid behind God on every other page and esp. after reading his poem God of Death putting his Islamophobia plain). I do have Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincy still sitting on my reading table. However, I have been universally disappointed by all the previously mentioned works, and as mentioned in the Teachings Don Juan, they failed in that they forgot what they saw and heard while under the influence thus failing to achieve knowledge of the trip. Now, I’m not a big dope fiend but I do occasionally indulge (legally) though I rarely experience out of the ordinary for the commonalities of the experience(s). As for the truthfulness or accuracy of the drug trips in this book, well, there may be room for doubt.Some of my favorite quotes dealing with the trippy part are:
“The difficulty of the ingredients,” he proceeded suddenly, “makes the smoke mixture one of the most dangerous substances I know. No one can prepare it without being coached. It is deadly poisonous to anyone except the smoke’s protégé! Pipe and mixture ought to be treated with intimate care. And the man attempting to learn must prepare himself by leading a hard, quiet life. Its effects are so dreadful that only a very strong man can stand the smallest puff. Everything is terrifying and confusing at the outset, but every new puff makes things more precise.” [pg.69]
And:
[…] I told him I could see in the dark.
He stared at me for a long time without saying a word; if he did speak, perhaps I did not hear him, for I was concentrating on my new, unique ability to see in the dark. I could distinguish the very minute pebbles in the sand. At moments everything was so clear it seemed to be early morning, or dusk. Then it would get dark; then it would clear again. Soon I realized that the brightness corresponded to my heart’s diastole, and the darkness to its systole. The world changed from bright to dark to bright again with every beat of my heart.
I was absorbed in this discovery when the same strange sound that I had heard before became audible again. My muscles stiffened. [pg.98]
Lastly:
The sound of my voice did not project out, but hit the roof of my palate, bounced back in to [sic] my throat, and echoed to and fro between them. The echo was soft and musical, and seemed to have wings that flapped inside my throat. Its touch soothed me. I followed its back-and-forth movements until it had vanished. [pg.96]
This work purports (more on that later) to be a “true” record in the form of a young anthropologist student’s (Carlos Casteneda’s) diary documenting his time spent learning as an acolyte of a Yaqui (a Native American ethnic group in Mexico where this story takes place) shaman named Don Juan in the text. For the most part, this book is very readable, and the narrative moves at a good pace. This is not a boring book granted most of the action is contained in the shamanistic drug trips of its protagonist culminating in a “battle” with a disguised witch. I enjoyed the first section of the book.
The second section, however, is not really good reading, it’s an analysis of the previous text and the logical structuring of the basis of Don Juan’s teachings. It is somewhat interesting but can be skipped as the tone of this last part of the book is whiplash from vibrant descriptive content to a very dry scholarly and analytical blandness. Don’t get me wrong, it does help to clarify some aspects of the previous section, but it does detract a little from the reading experience of the first three-fourths of the book.
Are there tidbits of wisdom in this book? A few, I guess.
“Is the smoke the best possible ally for everybody?”
“It’s not the same for everybody. Many fear it and won’t touch it, or even get close to it. The smoke is like everything else; it wasn’t made for all of us.” [pg.68]
There’s even a little advice for the majority of people on the internet:
“No! I’m never angry at anybody! No human being can do anything important enough for that. You get angry at people when you feel that their acts are important. I don’t feel that way any longer.” [pg.72]
I might share a little personal sentiment here in the context of the net.
And then hilariously (and smartly):
I followed him. He walked around the house, making a complete clockwise circle. He stopped at the porch and circled the house again, this time going counterclockwise and again returning to the porch. He stood motionless for some time, and then sat down.
I was conditioned to believe that everything he did had some meaning. I was wondering about the significance of circling the house when he said, “Hey! I have forgotten where I put it.” [pg.77]
Would I recommend this book? Well, first, this book is considered entirely fictional for good reason which I was aware of when I dove in. However, I still found the main text of the book (the first section) compelling and interesting. This is despite the book being nowhere near factual when it comes to anything concerning the Yaqui people of Mexico. The shamanistic beliefs represented in the narrative are (admittedly by the author) based on Toltec shamanic beliefs (according to Wikipedia). There are also several other books published that refute the anthropological truth of the work.
So, would I still recommend this book? Yes, I liked it and taking this as a work of fiction does lessen the impact a little, but it was a fun read, at least to me. However, remember that datura is definitely toxic, and knowing that this book is entirely fiction, DO NOT take this book as a guide to consuming such a dangerous plant. Otherwise, this book is interesting as a hero’s journey of a young, educated skeptic into the “non-ordinary reality” of sorcery via the ritual consumption of peyote buttons, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and bits of the deadly datura plant.
“The desire to learn is not ambition,” he said. “It is our lot as men to want to know, but to seek the devil’s weed is to bid for power, and that is ambition, because you are not bidding to know. Don’t let the devil’s weed blind you. She has hooked you already. She entices men and gives them a sense of power; she makes them feel they can do things that no ordinary man can. But that is her trap. And, the next thing, 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.” [pg.161]
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1968
Physical description
9 inches
ISBN
0520217578 / 9780520217577
Local notes
FB With a new commentary by the author, which summarizes Don Juan's teachings.
Other editions
The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda (Paperback)
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Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution by Terence McKenna