"...people tell us from the time we are born that the world is such and such and so and so, and naturally we have no choice but to see the world the way people have been telling us it is." (254)
I ripped through the first two Carlos Castaneda books (The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge & A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan), but then I ran into the "Carlos Castaneda is a fraud!" stuff * as I started Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan and it made me stumble. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought (1) these criticisms don't seem valid to me based on my reading and (2) does it really matter? I actually prefer fiction to non-fiction anyway, and if a book brings you enlightenment in some form, what does it matter if it's not "real"? Valis is still the most enlightening book I've ever read, and it is fiction. Mostly.
Anyway, I got back to JtI at low key, then set it aside for a few months. But when I picked it up again, it pulled me right back. So much so that I'm pretty sure that I'm going to Crack open Tales of Power any minute now.
News as it happens.
* See the "Existence of Don Juan Matus"@ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda for the gory details.
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