Great Books

This volume shows the reader the means by which a "man of power" sees, as opposed to merely looking, and how by his concentrated "seeing" he can, indeed must, "stop the world." In it, Carlos Castaneda describes the lessons, the omens, the exercises of the will and body, the arduous trials and tests, the simple yet mysterious demonstrations, the extraordinary visions and experiences by which don Juan, his mentor and friend, prepares him for the task of perceiving things as they are, instead of describing them by the words, conventions and standards of conventional, a priori ideas and language. Here, in the high mountains and in the bright arid desert, Castaneda reaches for power in a series of startling encounters with the unknown--a confrontation with death and the past in the form of an albino falcon, with the twilight wind, with a flesh-and-blood mountain lion, with a mountain fog--and learns the techniques, the concentration, the compassion of the hunter, the man who is "without routines, free, fluid."

WORLD-RENOWNED BESTSELLING AUTHOR CARLOS CASTANEDA'S SELECTION OF HIS WRITINGS ON THE SHAMANS OF ANCIENT MEXICO Near the end of his life, Carlos Castaneda gathered together and reviewed his seminal works on his training as a shaman initiate, recorded in a literary career that spans over thirty years. The result is this groundbreaking collection of quotations -- the essence of Carlos Castaneda, drawn from his landmark volumes including The Teachings of Don Juan, Journey to Ixtlan, A Separate Reality, and Tales of Power. Enhanced with an introduction and original commentary by the author, this powerful work illuminates the shaman's life as never before. Castaneda's words explore how the ancient shamans could literally touch and direct the wheel of time -- a profound yet pragmatic tradition that can be felt even in our day.

Millions of readers worldwide have treasured the visionary brilliance of Carlos Castaneda, who first explore the world of the Yaqui Indian sorcerer in The Teachings of don Juan. Now, at last, don Juan returns in The Power of Silence -- wise, infuriating, capable or working miracles and playing practical jokes, but always seeking the wisdom of the warrior. The Power of Silence is Castaneda's most astonishing book to date -- a brilliant flash of knowledge that illuminates the far reaches of the human mind. Through don Juan's mesmerizing stories, the true meaning of sorcery and magic is finally revealed. Honed in the desert of Sonora, the visions of don Juan give us the vital secrets of belief and self-realization that are transcendental and valid for us all. It is Castaneda's unique genius to show us that all wisdom, strength, and power lie within ourselves -- unleashed with marvelous energy and imaginative force in the teachings of don Juan -- and in the writings of his famous pupil, Carlos Castaneda

Back from the abyss and without don Juan, Carlos Castaneda is faced with the staggering effort of recovering, on his own, don Juan's teachings. In doing so, he understands what don Juan and his cohorts were really doing to him: "They were not teaching me sorcery, but how to master three aspects of an ancient knowledge they possessed: awareness, stalking, and intent. And they were not sorcerers; they were seers." This work deals with the mastery of awareness and with the realization of a new cycle of seers, "warriors of total freedom, ... such masters of awareness, stalking, and intent that they are not caught by death, like the rest of mortal men, but choose the moment and the way of their departure from this world. At that moment they are consumed by a fire from within and vanish from the face of the earth, free, as if they had never existed."

In this book, Castaneda resumes his apprenticeship, determined to go deeper still into don Juan's world, to learn to see beyond the surface realities of life. He continues his dialogue with don Juan, intuitive, wise, demanding, and fierce in his struggle to see and know beyond the vision of ordinary men; and himself, a man of courage and intelligence who submits himself to don Juan's teaching, to enter into another world as a participant rather than an observer. A Separate Reality is a work that is at once the discovery of a hitherto unrecorded body of wisdom and knowledge and the story of a remarkable and shattering personal experience.

The Art of Navigation examines the author's life-transforming association with the enigmatic shaman and anthropologist Carlos Castaneda, from a first encounter in 1980 up to the present, more than a decade after Castaneda's death. Journey with a modern-day shaman's apprentice on his more than thirty year trek across the globe, from hedonistic beginnings towards surrender and awakening, from a focus on magic and power to the emergence of love and compassion. The central theme of this memoir is the art of navigation, which entails living life in the spirit of an enchanting treasure hunt - playful, intuitive, fluid, and fully aware.Starting with a mind-stopping event that occurred shortly after Castaneda's death, the narrative jumps back to follow an action-packed and magical path of discovery through Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Germany, France, Mexico, and the United States. This is the Art of Navigation, an unusual and fascinating spiritual awakening into our essential nature. (edited by author)

In this astonishing work, Carlos Castaneda at last completes the long journey into the world of sorcery that began with his now-legendary meeting with don Juan. Drawn back by the knowledge that the sorcerer's task has not been completed, Castaneda returns to plumb the final, awesome secrets of the sorcerer's explanation of the world-to learn, in don Juan's world and his own, the last lesson of a unique and arduous apprenticeship. For until now don Juan has performed his acts of power in his world, the dry, barren deserts and mesas of his birth, a world in which he seems to exist as naturally as the chaparral and the rocks. Now, in an unexpected encounter, don Juan appears in Castaneda's modern urban world, at ease in a well-tailored suit, demonstrating his lessons of power in the crowded, busy streets, using the city scene, as he uses everything, to unfold the wings of Carlos Castaneda's perception.

Bestselling author Carlos Castaneda introduces readers to the worlds that exist within their dreams.

For us to perceive any of the worlds that exist beside our own, not only do we have to covet them but we need to have sufficient energy to seize them. In this revolutionary book, Carlos Castaneda offers readers the key to this energetic conditioning for the first time, revealing a series of body positions and physical movements that enabled various sorcerers, and their apprentices, to navigate their own sorceric journeys. By sharing this centuries-old wisdom, Carlos Castaneda makes it possible for readers to travel to some of these other realms, which are as real, unique, absolute, and engulfing as our own world. Castaneda offersboth a philosophical history of magical passes and an innovative, easy-to-understand instructional format, complete with more than 450 computer-generated illustrations. Written with humor, clarity, and authority, Magical Passes further illuminates the true meaning of sorcery and magic.

Carlos Castaneda takes the reader into the very heart of sorcery, challenging both imagination and reason, shaking the very foundations of our belief in what is "natural" and "logical." His landscape is full of terrors and mysterious forces, as sharply etched as a flash of lightning on the deserts and mountains where don Juan takes him to pursue the sorcerer's knowledge--the knowledge that it is the Eagle that gives us, at our births, a spark of awareness, that it expects to reclaim at the end of our lives and which the sorcerer, through his discipline, fights to retain. Castaneda describes how don Juan and his party, left this world--"the warriors of don Juan's party had caught me for an eternal instant, before they vanished into the total light, before the Eagle let them go through"--and how he, himself, upon witnessing such a sight, jumped into the abyss.