Castaneda and the Warrior’s Spirit - Carlos Castaneda writings

The most difficult thing in this world is to adopt the spirit and attitude of a warrior. It is no use being sad, complaining, feeling unjustly treated, and believing someone is doing something negative. No one is doing anything, and certainly not to a warrior.
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It matters not how we were brought up. What determines our way of acting is the manner in which we administrate our will. The will is a sentiment, a talent, something which lends us enthusiasm. The will is something which is acquired – but it is necessary to fight for it one’s whole life.
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The humility of a warrior is not the same humility as that of a servile man. The warrior does not lower his head to anyone, and nor does he allow anyone to bow before him. The servile man, on the other hand, kneels before anyone he believes to be more powerful, and demands that the people under his command behave in a similar fashion before him.
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The bad thing about words is that they make us feel as if we were illuminated and understanding everything. But, when we turn and face the world, we see that reality is completely different from that which we discussed or heard. A warrior seeks to act, and not waste time in useless conversation.
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The ordinary man thinks that yielding to doubts and worries is a sign of sensibility, of spirituality. Acting thus, he remains distant from the true meaning of life. This type of person loves being told what he should do. Only a warrior can endure the path of knowledge. A warrior does not complain or lament anything, and sees challenges as neither good nor bad. Challenges are simply challenges.
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The world is unfathomable and mysterious, just as we all are. The art of the warrior consists of reconciling the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man.

The Warrior of Light holds the sword in his hands. He is the one who decides what he is going to do, and what he will not do in any circumstances. There are moments when life leads him to a crisis: he is forced to divorce himself from things he has always loved. Then the Warrior reflects. He assesses whether he is fulfilling God’s will or if he is acting through egoism. 

If separation is really the path he must follow, he accepts it without complaining. However, if this separation is provoked by the perversity of others, then he is implacable in his answer. The Warrior possesses the art of the blow and the art of forgiveness. He knows how to use both with equal skill...

from the book “Warrior of Light: a manual” - Paulo Coelho

Life is always changing: we are always changing. We live in a river of change, and a river of change lives within us. Everyday we are given a choice: We can relax and float in the direction that water flows, or we can swim hard against it. If we go with the river, the energy of a thousand mountain streams will be with us, filling our hearts with courage and enthusiasm. If we resist the river, we will feel rankled and tired as we tread water, stuck in the same place.

If we had the patience and a high-powered microscope, we could sit and stare at our hands and watch the river of change flowing through our own bodies right now. We could watch our cells changing and dying and being replaced, over and over and over. From year to year, every one of our cells is replaced. Literally, who we were yesterday is not who we are today. Our skin is new every month, our liver every six weeks. When we inhale, we breathe in elements from other organisms to create new cells, and when we exhale, we send parts of ourselves out into the atmosphere - into the living, breathing universe. “All of us” writes the medical doctor Deepak Chopra, “are much more like a river than anything frozen in time and space.”

“I’ve known rivers” writes Langston Hughes. “I’ve known ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

Am I going to flow with my river nature today, or am I going to swim against it? This is what I ask myself when I get out of bed each morning. And when I go to sleep, I apologize to the river gods for any hard strokes I made against the current, and for splashing about like a drowning person. I pray that tomorrow I may once again know the pleasure of following my own soul down stream, because I’ve know rivers - and once we’ve know rivers - once we have stretched out on the dark waters, trusting the river gods, going in the direction of life, even if its head first towards the rapids - we want to taste that water again; we want our souls to grow deep like the rivers again…

From my favorite book, Broken Open- Elizabeth Lesser