A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness. He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as grounds for regret but as a living challenge.

The quote is from Carlos Castaneda; I found it on The Toltec Path website. I read two or three of Castaneda’s books when I was much younger, his second book ‘The Journey to Ixtlan’ is the one that turned me on to him. Castaneda presents himself as a student of anthropology who becomes the apprentice to a Yaquai sorcerer called Don Juan who teaches him ‘the way of the warrior’ using hallucinogenic plants to shift his perception of reality and teachings about the way of the warrior to help him deal with any reality.

 

 

Castaneda has been accused of making up the story of his adventures with Don Juan. But for me that’s not important. I was never very interested in the story. What interests me is the aphorisms that appear in the story and that constitute Castaneda’s teaching. I do not know where these aphorisms come from, but they are profound. They light the path to enlightenment and are worth meditating on.