Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy and vain. To be a warrior one needs to be light and fluid.
Carlos CastanedaRead
My benefactor told me that my father and mother had lived and died just to have me, and that their own parents had done the same for them. He said that warriors were different in that they shift their assemblage points enough to realize the tremendous price that has been paid for their lives. This shift gives them the respect and awe that their parents never felt for life in general, or for being alive in particular.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the sacrifices made by previous generations and the deep respect that warriors develop for life because of this awareness.
Carlos Castaneda emphasizes the idea that our existence comes at a significant cost, borne by our ancestors who lived and died for us. In recognizing this tremendous sacrifice, particularly as warriors do, we gain a profound respect for life itself, which contrasts with the often unappreciative attitude that others may hold. This awareness transforms our perception of being alive, instilling in us a sense of honor and responsibility towards our own lives and the lives of those who came before us.
Themes
SacrificeLifeRespectWarriorsAncestorsAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech, a speaker might use this quote to remind students of the sacrifices made by their families.
More from Carlos Castaneda
All quotes βOnly as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.
Carlos CastanedaRead
It doesn't matter what one reveals or what one keeps to oneself. Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we don't have enough personal power the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and it won't make a damn bit of difference.
Carlos CastanedaRead
Beware of those who weep with realization, for they have realized nothing.
Carlos CastanedaRead
All paths lead nowhere, so it is important to choose a path that has heart.
Carlos CastanedaRead
All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. However, a path without a heart is never enjoyable. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy - it does not make a warrior work at liking it; it makes for a joyful journey; as long as a man follows it, he is one with it.
Carlos CastanedaRead
Similar quotes
Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live. There is no other reality than present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.
Alan WattsRead
If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress.
Malcolm XRead
We've placed a lot of emphasis in this country on the idea of people's rights. That's how it should be, but it makes no sense to talk about rights without also talking about responsibilities.
Randy PauschRead
Outside speech, the association that is made in the memory between words having something in common creates different groups, series, families, within which very diverse relations obtain but belonging to a single category: these are associative relations.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
Give a thing a name and it will somehow come to be.
George R. R. MartinRead
By what aberration has suicide, the only truly normal action, become the attribute of the flawed?
Emile M. CioranRead