| "It is not advisable for you to indulge in focusing
your attention on past events. We may touch on them, but only in reference"
(Tales of Power, p.5)
|
| "The self-confidence of the warrior is not the
self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in
the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks
impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness. The average man
is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to himself.
Perhaps you are chasing rainbows. You´re after the self-confidence
of the average man, when you should be after the humbleness of a warrior.
The difference between the two is remarkable. Self-confidence entails knowing
something for sure; humbleness entails being impeccable in one´s
actions and feelings."
(Tales of Power, p.6-7) |
| "It doesn´t matter what one reveals or
what one keeps to oneself... Everything we do, everything we are, rests
on our personal power. If we have enough of it, one word uttered to us
might be sufficient to change the course of our lives. But if we don´t
have enough personal power, the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be
revealed to us and that revelation won´t make a damn bit of difference."
(Tales of Power, p.8) |
| "I know now that the humbleness of a warrior
is not the humbleness of a beggar. The warrior lowers his head to no one,
but at the same time, he doesn´t permit anyone to lower his head
to him. The beggar, on the other hand, falls to his knees at the drop of
a hat and scrapes the floor for anyone he deems to be higher; but at the
same time, he demands that someone lower than him scrape the floor for
him."
(Tales of Power, p.19) |
| "There is nothing in this world that a warrior
cannot account for. You see, a warrior considers himself already dead,
so there is nothing for him to lose. The worst has already happened to
him, therefore he´s clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by
his words, one would never suspect that he has witnessed everything."
(Tales of Power, p.27) |
| "The world doesn´t yield to us directly,
the description of the world stands in between. So, properly speaking,
we are always one step removed and our experience of the world is always
a recollection of the experience. We are perennially recollecting the instant
that has just happened, just passed. We recollect, recollect, recollect."
(Tales of Power, p. 47) |
| "Don´t throw away your reason yet.....it´s
not time for it. It´ll happen though, but I don´t think that
now is the moment."
"Should I try to find an explanation for what happened, then?" I asked. "Certainly!" he retorted. "It´s your duty to put your mind at ease. Warriors do not win victories by beating their heads against walls but by overtaking the walls. Warriors jump over the walls; they don´t demolish them." (Tales of Power, p. 51) |
| "There are three kinds of bad habits which we
use over and over when confronted by unusual life situations. First, we
may disregard what is happening or has happened and feel as if it had never
occurred. That one is the bigot´s way. Second, we may accept everything
at its face value and feel as if we know what´s going on. That´s
the pious man´s way. Third, we may become obsessed with an event
because either we cannot disregard it or we cannot accept it wholeheartedly.
That´s the fool´s way. Your way? There is a fourth, the correct
one, the warrior´s way. A warrior acts as if nothing had ever happened,
because he doesn´t believe in anything, yet he accepts everything
at its face value. He accepts without accepting and disregards without
disregarding. He never feels as if he knows, neither does he feel as if
nothing ever happened. He acts as if he is in control, even though he might
be shaking in his boots. To act in such a manner dissipates obsession."
(Tales of Power, p. 52) |
| "I never thought that you needed help. You must
cultivate the feeling that a warrior needs nothing. You say you need help.
Help for what? You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that
is your life. I have tried to teach you that the real experience is to
be a man, and that what counts is being alive; life is the little detour
that we are taking now. Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory
and complete."
(Tales of Power, p. 52) |
| "You feel that indulging in doubts and tribulations
is the sign of a sensitive man. Well, the truth of the matter is you´re
the farthest thing from being sensitive."
(Tales of Power, p. 54) |
| "...Have you ever asked yourself, why you in
particular?"
"All the time. I´ve asked you that question hundreds of times but you´ve never answered it." "I didn´t mean that you should ask it as a question that begs an answer, but in the sense of a warrior's pondering on his great fortune, the fortune of having found a challenge. To make it into an ordinary question is the device of a conceited ordinary man who wants to be either admired or pitied for it. I have no interest in that kind of question, because there is no way of answering it. The decision of picking you was a design of power; no one can discern the designs of power. Now that you´ve been selected, there is nothing that you can do to stop the fulfillment of that design." (Tales of Power, p. 55) |
| "You´re in a terrible spot.....It´s
too late for you to retreat but too soon to act. All you can do is witness.
You´re in the miserable position of an infant who cannot return to
the mother´s womb, but neither can he run around and act. All an
infant can do is witness and listen to the stupendous tales of action being
told to him. You are at that precise point now. You cannot go back to the
womb of your old world, but you cannot act with power either. For you there
is only witnessing acts of power and listening to tales, tales of power."
(Tales of Power, p. 56) |
| "A man of power is in control, without controlling
anything."
(Tales of Power, p. 58) |
| The advent of my usual self also meant the advent
of my usual fears. Strangely enough I was less afraid of being afraid than
of being unafraid. The familiarity of my old habits, no matter how unpleasant
they were, was a delghtful respite.
(Tales of Power, p. 60) |
| "You can´t slouch it off with piousness.
Yesterday you told me that you had been driven wild with the idea of the
double. But look at you now. You don´t care any more. That´s
the trouble with people that go wild, they go wild both ways. Yesterday
you were all questions, today you are all acceptance."
I pointed out that he always found a flaw in what I did, regardless of how I did it. "That´s not true!" he exclaimed. "There is no flaw in the warrior´s way. Follow it and your acts cannot be criticized by anyone. Take yesterday as an example. The warrior´s way would have been, first, to ask questions without fear and without suspicion and then let Genaro show you the mystery of the dreamer, without fighting him, or draining yourself. Today, the warrior´s way would be to assemble what you´ve learned, without presumptuousness and without piousness. Do that and no one can find flaws in it." (Tales of Power, p. 75) |
| "When are you going to tell me about it?"
"I don´t know when. You are the recipient, therefore it is up to you. You will have to decide when." "What´s wrong with right now?" "To decide doesn´t mean to choose an arbitrary time,...to decide means that you have trimmed your spirit impeccably, and that you have done everything possible to be worthy of knowledge and power." (Tales of Power, p. 79) |
| "But what actually is an ally, Don Juan?"
"There is no way of saying what excactly an ally is, just as there is no way of saying what excactly a tree is." "A tree is a living organism," I said. "That doesn´t tell me much," he said. "I can also say that an ally is a force, a tension. I´ve told you that already, but that doesn´t say much about an ally....Just like in the case of a tree, the only way to know what an ally is, is by experiencing it." (Tales of Power, p. 83) |
| "....we are luminous beings. We are perceivers.
We are an awareness; we are not objects; we have no solidity. We are boundless.
The world of objects and solidity is a way of making our passage on earth
convenient. It is only a description that was created to help us. We, or
rather our *reason*, forget that the description is only a descrption and
thus we entrap the totality of ourselves in a vicious circle from which
we rarely emerge in our lifetime."
(Tales of Power, p. 97) |
| "You have taken your daily world as a challenge,
and the proof you have stored sufficient personal power is the indisputable
fact that you have found me with no difficulty whatever, at the precise
spot where you were supposed to."
"I doubt very much that I could take credit for that," I said. "I was waiting for you and then you showed up."
he said. "That´s all I know; that´s all any warrior would care
to know".
(Tales of Power, p. 104-5). |
| "A warrior cannot complain or regret anything.
His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good
or bad. They are simply challenges".
(Tales of Power, p. 105).
|
| "the basic difference between an ordinary man
and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge......while
an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse"
(Tales of Power, p. 105). |
| "A warrrior must be fluid and must shift harmoniously
with the world around him, whether it is the world of *reason* or the world
of *will*."
(Tales of Power, p. 107). |