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Title: Teachings Don Juan : A Yaqui Way Of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 0-671-60041-9 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 03 March, 1985 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.02 (81 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Strange and fascinating!
Comment: I've never read a book like this before. This is some funky stuff! It's so unusual. I've heard it's a pretty famous book, a classic, and I wish I had read it a long time ago. A Native American sorcerer, Don Juan, tries to teach Carlos how to become a "man of knowledge". One step at a time, he guides him how to acquire the ability to perceive the world beyond our so-called "reality". With the help of some particular herbs, Carlos does start to see the world in a strange way, and he is shocked by these unusual experiences, which he cannot make sense of by ordinary common sense. Don Juan tells him that there are four inner obstacles he must overcome in the long process ahead, the first one being "fear". Carlos stumbles at the first obstacle.
If you were glued to this book, you will probably want to move on to read the sequels, (the second one is "A Separate Reality") because in this first book, Carlos doesn't "get it" yet. And if HE doesn't get it, WE won't get it either. This report is about the process of his first struggle, which is only the beginning of a long journey that continues on to his other 7 or 8 books. It's non-fiction, but it's stranger that fiction.
Rating: 3
Summary: good book, but lacks some data
Comment: I read this book when I was 13 years old. I was fascinated by what Castaneda wrote in this book and his other titles. However, what mystified me about this book is the authors reference to certain secrets that a yaqi shaman named don juan knew. For instance in the teachings of don juan, Castaneda claimed that don juan knew certain secrets of plants that would give all kinds of secret knowledge to the one who knew how to use these plants. The jimpson weed for example was claimed by don juan to give infinite power. However, I found out in my twenties, that don juan was nothing more than an indian magician. That is, he used mind altering drugs to blow open the mind of Castaneda. The secrets don juan claimed to possess are not in the plants, but in ones own mind. As such don juans teachings are nothing more than an indian method of gaining enlightenment. Something hindus try to achieve through yoga, ritual magicians through magick, and buddhists and taoists through meditation. The whole book is devoted to the use of natural drugs. Peyote, jimpson weed, magic mushrooms that are detailed in the book, gives one the impression to go out and try these drugs to gain the power and knowledge that is detailed in Castanedas book. Or to go and look for a teacher of shamanism. These drugs are dangerous and there are far safer and saner ways to gain enlightenment such as meditation or ritual magick. But even these can be dangerous, if you dont know what you are doing. Good books and teachers are highly recommended. The mind of a human being contains the godhead, with all the infinite knowledge and power that goes with it. Castaneda should write disclaimers in his books, not only because of the drugs he describes, but because of ignorant people who might try what he describes.
Rating: 4
Summary: Perceptual Possibilities.........
Comment: I must admit that I read "The Teachings of Don Juan" many, many years after his succeeding books. While it was informative and his adventure interesting, there were times however, when it appeared rather "astral", although this is not a judgement. The astral element comes from his perceptions which are only natural on the path of enlightenment. It is merely a stage of transition from being restricted by mass beliefs, and the confronting of (because there is no way around it as we learn to create our reality) "in-organic beings". In-organic beings are no more than "thought constructions" or "thought forms", given life by those who fuel their existance by emotion... (please see "Seth Speaks - The Eternal Validity of the Soul" and note also, the emotional effects which such "beings" had on Carlos Castaneda, particularly in The Art of Dreaming or The Active Side of Infinity). But even Seth states that trips on drugs *could* be useful under supervision, although what often is in the subconscious can be frightening due to "thought-forms" of our own and the mass making. This is called "the dark side of the soul", and is a natrual phenomenon and a learning tool used by various teachers of many cultures (the great masters included), as we learn about objectification and the many identities that cover the essential spirit. It is a necessary step that one must experience as one is being liberated from mere concrete knoweledge into the higher intuitional knoweldge of the soul. Mr. Castaneda was no doubt being given this opportunity with his mentor,who suspended his first attention long enough to experience other (the second attention) perceptual realities. Having done it with drugs initially was not necessarily "necessary" though and this is where we part roads. Not because I judge such measures but because ultimately, drugs are not necessary to have experiences if we in fact do have a soul (which is multi-dimensional). The illuminative properties of the soul enhances perception and expands consciousness. This is often to the dismay of the neophyte however because they wonder how to have such experiences. That is a question noone can truly answer and the timing has to do the intent of the soul itself and it's purposes. Mr. C's books are insightful however because they propose certain disciplines having to do with how one uses their intent and how one perceives the world. His learning and the verbage used to explain such phenomenon are though unfamiliar to most and one must put two and two together which is difficult if new to the path of spiritual studies (it literally takes years). It is simply a different bent put on an old topic that is as ancient as time. One might be better off reading the fundementals of perception and how one creates their experience by studying books by Seth or the great Masters (although the Masters keep certain teachings obscured to the uninitiated and talk in symbols a great part of the time). Never the less, that Mr. C may have dissappeared upon his departing from the world instead of dying in the manner we are accustomed to in this reality, would mean of course that he had transmuted his physical body completely in order to dissappear (or ascend). We won't know the answer to that and meanwhile, I found the need to jump off a cliff in order to "die" or find "life after death", a most cumbersome proposition, unless it was not merely physical but a psychological process which in fact, all spirituality is deduced to. That Don Juan speaks of the light of the soul as some idealistic chimera that is merely there to appease human kind, (I forget which book and his words were quite different), I can assure those who read his books that the universe is not in fact, "out to get you" as it would seem due to his explanations, and we are not "on the way to dying" unless put in the context of the soul and a certain process in which our identity is "cruxified", meaning, expanded and wrent asunder due to the incredible pressure of the soul itself and a greater identity that longs to be housed in a body, thus illuminating it. While reading "A Fire From Within", Mr. C. no doubt has those illuminative moments that were given by the property of the soul. The drug part is inconsequential, but if one can get past the intricate and academic manner in which his message is presented, then one might have a chance to get beyond that to what is basically simple, because all truth, in the end, is always simple. Any complications are egoistic in source but necessary in the telling of a story in which others can relate.
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Title: The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 006092554X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 July, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 006092960X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Magical Passes : The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 0060928824 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Sorcerers' Crossing by Taisha Abelar, Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 0140193669 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Teachings of Don Carlos: Practical Applications of the Works of Carlos Castaneda by Victor Sanchez, Robert Nelson ISBN: 1879181231 Publisher: Bear & Co Pub. Date: May, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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