the adventures of don juan carlos castaneda

One makes for a joyful journey as long as you follow it, you are one with it. Both paths lead nowhere but one has a heart, the other doesn't. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good if it doesn't, it is of no use. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. This question is one that only a very old man asks. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Look at every path closely and deliberately. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy it does not make you work at liking it.“Anything is one of a million paths. A path without a heart is never enjoyable.

At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.

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. One makes you strong the other weakens you.īefore you embark on any path 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.

The adventures of don juan carlos castaneda