Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan - A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

I became totally disinterested in the action. As I listened the voice became more complex. What I thought to be a voice was more like something whispering thoughts into my ear. But that was not accurate. Something was thinking for me. The thoughts were outside myself. I knew that was so, because I could hold my own thoughts and the thoughts of the 'other' at the same time.

At one point the voice created scenes acted out by the young man, which had nothing to do with my original question about the lost objects. The young man performed very complex acts. The action had become important again and I paid no more attention to the voice. I began to lose patience; I wanted to stop. 'How can I end this?' I thought. The voice in my ear said I should go back to the canyon. I asked how, and the voice answered that I should think of my plant.

I thought of my plant. Usually I sat in front of it. I had done it so many times that it was quite easy for me to visualize it. I believed that seeing it, as I did at that moment, was another hallucination, but the voice said I was 'back'! I strained to listen. There was only silence. The Datura plant in front of me seemed as real as everything else I had seen, but I could touch it, I could move around.

I stood up and walked towards my ear. The effort exhausted me, and I sat down and closed my eyes. I felt dizzy and wanted so vomit. There was a buzzing in my ears.

Something slid on my chest. It was the lizard. I remembered don Juan's admonition about setting it free. I went back to the plant and untied the lizard. I did not want to see whether it was dead or alive. I broke the clay pot with the paste and kicked some dirt over it. I got into my car and fell asleep.

Today I narrated the whole experience to don Juan. As usual, he listened without interrupting me. At the end we had the following dialogue.

'You did something very wrong.'

'I know it. It was a very stupid error, an accident.'

'There are no accidents when you deal with the devil's weed. I told you she would test you all the way. As I see it, either you are very strong or the weed really likes you. The centre of the forehead is only for the great brujos who know how to handle her power.'

'What usually happens when a man rubs his forehead with the paste, don Juan?'

'If the man is not a great brujo he will never come back from the journey.'

'Have you ever rubbed the paste on your forehead, don Juan?'

'Never! My benefactor told me very few people return from such a journey. A man could be gone for months, and would have to be tended by others. My benefactor said the lizards could take a man to the end of the world and show him the most marvellous secrets upon request.'

'Do you know anybody who has ever taken that journey?'

'Yes, my benefactor. But he never taught me how to return.'

'Is it so very difficult to return, don Juan?'

'Yes. That is why your act is truly astonishing to me. You had no steps to follow, and we must follow certain steps, because it is in the steps where man finds strength. Without them we are nothing.'

We remained silent for hours. He seemed to be immersed in very deep deliberation.

Don Juan asked me if I had looked for the lizards. I told him I had, but that I couldn't find them. I asked him what would have happened if one of the lizards had died while I was holding it. He said the death of a lizard would be an unfortunate event. If the lizard with the sewed-up mouth had died at any time there would have been no sense in pursuing the sorcery, he said. It would also have meant that the lizards had withdrawn their friendship, and I would have had to give up learning about the devil's weed for a long time.

'How long, don Juan?' I asked.

'Two years or more.'

'What would have happened if the other lizard had died?'

'If the second lizard had died, you would have been in real danger. You would have been alone, without a guide. If she died before you started the sorcery, you could have stopped it; but if you had stopped it, you would also have to give up the devil's weed for good. If the lizard had died while she was on your shoulder, after you had begun the sorcery, you would have had to go ahead with it, and that would truly have been madness.'

'Why would it have been madness?'

'Because under such conditions nothing makes sense. You are alone without a guide, seeing terrifying, nonsensical things.'

'What do you mean by «nonsensical things»?'

'Things we see by ourselves. Things we see when we have no direction. It means the devil's weed is trying to get rid of you, finally pushing you away.'

'Do you know anyone who ever experienced that?'

'Yes. / did. Without the wisdom of the lizards I went mad.'

'What did you see, don Juan?'

'A bunch of nonsense. What else could I have seen without direction?'

'You told me, don Juan, that the devil's weed tests men. What did you mean by that?'

'The devil's weed is like a woman, and like a woman she flatters men. She sets traps for them at every turn. She did it to you when she forced you to rub the paste on your forehead. She will try it again, and you will probably fall for it. I warn you against it. Don't take her with passion; the devil's weed is only one path to the secrets of a man of knowledge. There are other paths. But her trap is to make you believe that hers is the only way. I say it is useless to waste your life on one path, especially if that path has no heart.'

'But how do you know when a path has no heart, don Juan?'

'Before you embark on it you ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path.'

'But how will I know for sure whether a path has a heart or not?'

'Anybody would know that. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.'

'How should I proceed to ask the question properly, don Juan?'

'Just ask it.'

'I mean, is there a proper method, so I would not lie to myself and believe the answer is yes when it really is no?'

'Why would you lie?'

'Perhaps because at the moment the path is pleasant and enjoyable.'

'That is nonsense. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.'

Don Juan suddenly changed the direction of the conversation and bluntly confronted me with the idea that I liked the devil's weed. I had to admit that I had at least a preference for it. He asked me how I felt about his ally, the smoke, and I had to

tell him that just the idea of it frightened me out of my senses.

'I have told you that to choose a path you must be free from fear and ambition. But the smoke blinds you with fear, and the devil's weed blinds you with ambition.'

I argued that one needs ambition even to embark on any path, and that his statement that one had to be free from ambition did not make sense. A person has to have ambition in order to learn.

'The desire to learn is not ambition,' he said. 'It is our lot as men to want to know, but to seek the devil's weed is to bid for power, and that is ambition, because you are not bidding to know. Don't let the devil's weed blind you. She has hooked you already. She entices men and gives them a sense of power; she makes them feel they can do things that no ordinary man can. But that is her trap. And, the next thing, the path without a heart will turn against men and destroy them. It does not take much to die, and to seek death is to seek nothing.'