Sense of live

Carlos Castaneda

The Fire From Within – Regardless of how one feels about the New Age movement, it is clear that, as Einstein observed, “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” Reading Carlos Castaneda gave me an appreciation for people who take seriously the complexities of the mind, the universe and their infinite dance. Carlos Castaneda, in this book, seems ready to acknowledge that the fact of other ways of perceiving the world seems to mean that there are rational and non-rational ways which intertwine with each other. Having said that, Carlos Castaneda lovers will enjoy the many characters, stories and esoteric teachings that really coalesce in this book unlike in any other. We finally understand who La Catalina really is; we go deeper into the teachings on the Eagle; we get to here more about the interplay between Don Juan and Don Genaro, and we see Carlos Castaneda opening up a bit too. It was not until I read this book that I realized how hard it was for Carlos Castaneda to lose his “self-importance,” and what a difficult task this is. As for the Don Juan philosophy, he was apparently descended from the ancient Toltec shamans of Mexico, and has inherited the deep universal knowledge of the old Mesoamerican mystics. This is quite convenient for Carlos Castaneda, because the religion of the Toltecs is not very well understood by modern archaeologists and anthropologists, so Carlos Castaneda took the opportunity to construct it himself. But he still could have given us something more creative than the warmed-over Buddhism and Taoism that he actually delivered, with a few motifs from stereotypical Native American mythology thrown in. Don Juan’s teachings don’t get any deeper than typical Eastern concepts of “seeing” and “awareness” of the deep mysteries of humanity. Even the core concept of not being obsessed with oneself is borrowed directly from the most basic Buddhist stereotypes. Meanwhile, Carlos Castaneda keeps harping about how emotionally overwhelming all of his sessions with Don Juan were, but he can’t write anything stronger than stock new age gibberish like “I marveled how easily my emotional states could escalate to nearly unmanageable heights or drop to nothing.” Wow that’s real deep, man.

From amazon (comment)

Books of Carlos Castaneda

Carlos Castaneda