Carlos Quotes Don Juan Mateus:

“What put you and me together,” he went on, “was the intent of infinity. It is impossible to determine what this intent of infinity is, yet it is there, as palpable as you and I are. Sorcerers say that it is a tremor in the air. The advantage of sorcerers is to know that the tremor in the air exists, and to acquiesce to it without any further ado. For sorcerers, there’s no pondering, wondering, or speculating. They know that all they have is the possibility of merging with the intent of infinity, and they just do it.”

It happens – in the life of a Teacher and Student – that the two meet surreptitiously, sometimes with an omen or foreshadowing, but most often with a magic wind, or a door opening that ushers in a certain, unmistakable fragrance.

“In the life of a Warrior, it is extremely natural to be sad for no overt reason. It is said that man as a luminous being senses his final destination whenever the boundaries of the known are broken.

A mere glimpse of the eternity outside the cocoon is enough to disrupt the coziness of our inventory. The resulting melancholy is so intense that it can bring about death.”

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“There is nothing more lonely than eternity. And nothing is more cozy for us than to be a human being. This indeed is another contradiction – how can man keep the bonds of his humanness, and still venture gladly and purposefully into the absolute loneliness of eternity? Whenever you resolve this riddle, you’ll be ready for the definitive journey.”

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“Who cares about sadness?  Think only of the mysteries; mystery is all that matters. We are living beings. We have to die and relinquish our awareness. But if we could change just a tinge of that, what mysteries must await us! What mysteries!”

– Don Juan Matus, The Fire From Within

“The difficulty,” says Castaneda, “is to learn to perceive with your whole body, not just with your eyes and reason. The world becomes a stream of tremendously rapid, unique events. So you must trim your body to make it a good receptor.  The body is an awareness, and it must be treated impeccably.”

Seeing is an operation – one of the many steps on the way to knowing the energies that comprise the true self.  In his early apprenticeship, Carlos was inducted into this world by means of hallucinogenic substances.  Later his teachers, Juan Matus and Genaro, beckoned him into this world on his own accord – a exercise in testing his impeccability and his art of “saving energy”, two of the admonishments he was given for the life of a warrior.

“A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the hardships of learning, a man who has, without rushing or faltering, gone as far as he can in unraveling the secrets of personal power.”

~ Don Juan Matus – from Journey to Ixtlan