In this volume is the third and fourth books of Carlos Castaneda: the cult classic "Journey to Ixtlan," for which the author received a PhD in anthropology, and the magical "Tales of Power."
About the book "Journey to Ixtlan"
He who has stepped on the Path of the Warrior, the path with heart, will never become an ordinary citizen again. Don Juan reveals to Carlos the aspects of this Path — the art of being unattainable, erasing personal history, the concept of "death as an advisor," accepting responsibility for one's actions. In "Journey to Ixtlan," we first meet the allies — fearsome non-organic beings that a sorcerer with enough personal power can turn into indispensable helpers. Heed the advice: for a more accurate understanding of the Teachings of the Toltecs, begin your acquaintance with it through the book "Journey to Ixtlan," and only then return to the first two, for it would be too sad, on one hand, to be frightened by an inaccurate description of the Path and dismiss it, and on the other — not to get acquainted with the most important provisions of the Teachings that are captured in the first two books.
About the book "Tales of Power"
From the most magical, most incredible book of Castaneda "Tales of Power," you will learn that the familiar picture of the world is just a tiny island of tonal in the infinite, unknowable, and indescribable world of magic — nagual. In this book, the story of Castaneda's direct teaching by Don Juan concludes. The end of the teaching is an incomprehensible leap into the abyss. Carlos and two other students of Don Juan and Don Genaro, forever bidding farewell to the Teachers, jump from the top of a dining mountain. That very night, the Teacher and the Benefactor left this world forever. Quotes: "What you are doing at this moment could well be your last act on earth. There is no force in the world that could guarantee you that you will live at least one more minute." "And I realized that the life I was leading was not worth living. So I changed it." "People usually do not realize that at any moment they can throw away anything from their lives. At any time. Instantly." "People have been telling us since the moment of our birth that the world is this and that and everything is like this and that. We have no choice. We are forced to accept that the world is exactly as it is described to us." "The only truly wise advisor we have is death. Every time you feel — as often happens to you — that everything is going terribly and you are on the brink of total collapse, turn left and ask death if this is so. And your death will answer that you are mistaken and that besides its touch, there is nothing that really matters. Your death will say: 'But I haven't touched you yet!'" "We either make ourselves miserable (unhappy) or we make ourselves strong — the amount of effort expended remains the same." "The warrior is always cheerful because his love is unchanging. And his beloved — the Earth — embraces him and showers him with unimaginable gifts. Sadness is the lot of those who hate this Earth, which provides shelter for all living beings." "The sunset is a crack between worlds. It is a door into the unknown."
About the author
Carlos Castaneda can be confidently classified as one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. The only certainty about him is that he is the author of many bestselling books and the founder of Cleargreen, a company that now owns the rights to Castaneda's creative legacy. Everything else is no more than speculation, if not to say — conjecture. Castaneda carefully maintained the "secret of personality," practically did not give interviews, and categorically refused to be photographed (however, by coincidence, several photographs of Castaneda do exist). He even denied that he had ever been married, although Margaret Runyan, author of a memoir about this man, claims that Castaneda was her husband. In other words, the true biography of Carlos Castaneda was known only to him; the lot of everyone else is to try to reconstruct it. Carlos Cesar Arana Castaneda (presumably, this is his full name) was born on December 25, 1925, in São Paulo, Brazil. In 1951, he emigrated to the USA, and in 1960 an event radically changed the life of Carlos Castaneda and thousands of his followers — Castaneda, then a student at the University of California, came to Mexico for "field materials" for his thesis and met Don Juan Matus, an Indian from the Yaqui tribe. Don Juan became Castaneda's spiritual teacher and imparted the secret knowledge of his tribe to his pupil for twelve years. With Don Juan's permission, Castaneda began to record his words; thus, the first of Carlos Castaneda's globally known books — "The Teachings of Don Juan. The Way of the Yaqui Indian," published in 1968, was born. This book instantly became a bestseller — as did the subsequent ones.