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If you had to live the rest of your life on a deserted island and if you were allowed to take with you the works of only one writer, which writer would that to be? For me, the answer is Carlos Castaneda, who wrote twelve books about his long apprenticeship to don Juan, a Yaqui Indian sorcerer. I’ve read most of the books several times, and the wisdom I’ve gained from them over the years has guided me in countless ways. Understandably, many people are turned off by Castaneda’s stories about hallucinogenic plants, which are featured in some of the early books. Indeed, some readers have concluded that the author was encouraging people to try this path to enlightenment. But to me, the psychotropic plant story element was always beside the point. In fact, Castaneda confirms this in his final book (The Wheel of Time, 1998), in which he editorializes about his first book: “Later on when I questioned [don Juan] about his emphasis on those elements, and why he wasn’t using them anymore, he admitted unabashedly that at the beginning of my apprenticeship, he had gone into all that pseudo-Indian shaman rigmarole for my benefit.” Flabbergasted at this trickery, Castaneda asked his mentor what he should do with all the notes he took. “Write a book about them!” don Juan said. “I am sure that if you begin to write it, you’ll never make use of those notes, anyway. They are useless, but who am I to tell you that? Find out for yourself. But don’t endeavor to write a book as a writer. Endeavor to do it as a warrior, as a shaman-warrior.” I believe that’s been Castaneda’s approach all along, and that’s how I read the books—as philosophical novels. I read the novels as I was trained to read them, interpreting them for theme and significance. The tales of his apprenticeship and his relationship with don Juan are fun to read, but for me the payoff isn’t the story. It’s the lessons. I read Castaneda’s fiction as if I’m the apprentice and he’s the shaman, and his sorcery is to tell amazing stories that invite the reader into a territory where truth resides. For example, in Castaneda’s first novel (The Teachings of Don Juan, 1968) Carlos the apprentice participates in a peyote ritual that lasts several days. Towards the end of that experience, he has a vision in which his personal songs come to him. “I sang feverishly until I could no longer voice the words. I felt as if my songs were inside my body, shaking me uncontrollably.... I kept on singing my songs. I knew they were individually mine—the unquestionable proof of my singleness.” Afterwards, he asks don Juan what the songs mean. His teacher replies, “Only you can decide that.... If I were to tell you what they mean, it would be the same as if you learned someone else’s songs.... You can tell who are the phonies by listening to people singing the protector’s songs. Only the songs with soul are his and were taught by him. The others are copies of other men’s songs. People are sometimes as deceitful as that. They sing someone else’s songs without even knowing what the songs say.” In the story, Carlos learns his own songs, but the discovery has nothing to do with ingesting peyote. It has to do with asking difficult questions. Who am I? What am I to do in my brief life? What song will I sing? In my experience, most people are singing someone else’s song. I respect their need and choice to do so, but to be your own person you have to go your own way.
Article Source: http://www.articledestination.com
Dennis E. Coates is CEO of Performance Support Systems, author of MindFrames, a brain-based personality assessment system (www.initforlife.com) and co-founder of the Train-to-Ingrain alliance (www.train-to-ingrain.com, info@train-to-ingrain.com, 800-488-6463), which delivers a reinforcement-centered approach to learning and development that achieves permanent, measurable improvements in workplace behavior and positive impacts on business results.
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