Carlos Castaneda – Quotes by Don Juan Matus – Door to the Infinite (Tales of Power) – part III

A warrior is always prepared. To be a warrior is not the same as just wanting to be one. It is, primarily, a never ending fight that goes on until the very last moment of our lives. No one is born a warrior, as no one is born a rational being. We are what make us one or the other. Take control!

Each one of us is different, and thus the details of our fights are different. All in all, the steps followed in order to reach the double, our energy and dream body are the same, especially the first steps which are varied and insecure.

Do you see? — Don Juan Said (using Don Genaro’s first experience with the double as an example), all of us go through the same doubts. We are afraid of being mad.

Something inside the warrior is always aware of all changes. It is precisely the objective of the warrior to encourage and maintain this awareness always. The warrior cleans it, polishes it and keeps it functional.

It is very important that you notice. You notice things when you think you should; a warrior’s condition, however, is to notice everything always.

He was right. I had to admit that there was something within me that registered and was aware of everything that I did. And therefore it had nothing to do with my own normal awareness. — It is an inner voice that tells us what is what.

Look out! A warrior never lowers his defenses. If you continue so happy or unhappy in this way, the rest of the little energy that you have will run out. Be yourself. Doubt everything. Be apprehensive. A warrior dies with great difficultly. His death has to put up a fight if it wants to take him. A warrior does not surrender.

The key to everything is in our inner dialogue. When a warrior learns to stop it, everything becomes possible. A warrior knows that the world will change as soon as he stops the inner dialogue, and he must be prepared for this monumental shock.

The world is this and that way, and so and so only because we say that it is this way. If we stop saying to ourselves that the world is such and so, then the world will cease to be such and so. At this moment, I don’t believe that you are ready for this monumental thump on the head and therefore, you should start undoing the world at a slow pace.

Your problem is that you confuse the world with what people do. Yet, in this you are not alone. We all do this. The things that people do are shields against the forces that surround us, what they do as people gives us comfort and makes us feel secure, what people do is very important in itself, but only as a shield. We never learn that the things we do as people are only shields and we let them dominate and disrupt our lives. Actually, I would say that, to humanity, what people do is greater and more important than the world itself.

The world is everything that is enclosed here… life, death, people, allies and everything else that surrounds us. The world is incomprehensible. Never will we comprehend it; never will we unveil its secrets. So then, we have to treat it as it is, simply a mystery!

But the common man does not do this. The world is never a mystery to him and when he reaches old age, he is convinced that he doesn’t have anything else to live for. The old man did not exhaust the world, he only tired out what people do. But, in his stupid mix up, believes that the world doesn’t hold any more mysteries for him. What a sad price to pay for our shields!

A warrior knows this mix up and learns to treat things right. The things that people do cannot, under any circumstances be more important than the world. And so the warrior treats the world as an unending mystery and what people do as an enormous craziness.

A warrior does not complain or regret anything. Life if a never ending challenge and the challenges cannot be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges. The basic difference between a common man and a warrior is that a warrior accepts everything as a challenge, while a common man accepts everything as either a blessing or a curse.