The Power of Silence: Further Lessons of don Juan

Simply baffling! The Power of Silence is inexplicable in every sense. The work of Don Juan and Carlos Castaneda is inordinate, mellifluous, and strangely real. To say what is going though my head when I read this book is a skill I have yet to develop. The only thing more haranguing than reading this book would be living it. Truly, a great work.I can't exactly say what it's about. What happens in it is no more clear. Sorry for the weak review, but to give this a proper go would require a highly skilled sorcerer and even then...

The Power of Silence draws you into the nagual's world and makes you certain you belong in it. You definitely want Castaneda to find you in a bus station and begin your training right away, even if you have to go live in a motel room decorated in dingy green and give away all you have. This book is a great source for defining your relationship with intent and understanding why you want to pursue it constantly, which is the Warrior-Traveler's journey.This book, unlike many of Castaneda's writings pretending that the protagonist never reaches the goals of his teacher, informs us that the protagonist does, in fact, connect with the divine and is sent home to write about it (as if don Juan Matis is really Carlos Castaneda). He does this through the power of silence---as death---essential for many of the stubborn to fully understand Intent.This is not a book that informs you that if you are not breathing properly and mediating every single day, you are destined to fail. Anyone who has connected with the divine can tell you that it certainly helps to breathe properly and also to meditate daily, but most of us rarely meditate or breathe properly, and yet after that very first momentous connection we can forever after connect to Intent without aid of any such luxury as daily silence or meditation (it can be done anywhere at any time). It only takes the first time to discover this, and some deliberate practice after that (helped by teaching others). Connection is part of the soul (already there), so much that is ritual loses its appeal when replaced by the reality of divine association.This book is, ultimately about how to achieve that goal. It is Carlos Castaneda's how-to-walk-in-the light instruction manual. For this reason, it has little of the early darkness, not even many references to the dark. The book itself walks in the light through seemingly casual conversation. Yet, it is not casual and it is not silent. It is loud. It is insistent. It is shocking--in a less terrifying way than the typical Castaneda.Conversationally, "The Power of Silence" addresses 4 principles, 4 cores, 21 techniques, 2 bridges, 2 sides of folly, death/life, exponentials of all of these--and more. Together, they add up to a very pleasant set of step-by-step instructions, comparatively. In the end, the book achieves one more goal--that of being both the end and the prequel to don Juan's (and Julian's) ascendance. It also moves beyond this duality by offering definitions and clear examples of the Nagual teaching arts---for your future. As any student of Castaneda knows, teaching is required of all Nagual sorcerers.Beware. There is also a warning about achieving the ultimate goal, though it is so brief you could miss it. Don't forget to read to the very last word and don't forget to take Julian's final instruction to heart. If you don't get it on the first reading, make sure you go back and read it again sometime after you reach the ultimate goal. It'll make all the difference.

This book changed the way I saw life in general and it has left a profound mark on me. I have since reading this book bought four more of his and this one by far has been the most powerful. It is a powerful read, but I would advise to not take it literally and use it as a guide to do further research into the spiritual (or literal, depending on your beliefs) world that Castaneda enters.

I read the whole set of these in high school, during the middle ages, and still own them but now that I am 55 I have found that some sort of dust mixed with old ink seems to have caused the type to shrink to the size of those little fold out booklets which accompany prescriptions. So it also seemed my eyesight and strange propensity for misplacing things, as well as my utter forgetfulness that I had the brilliant idea to have them purchased to my Kindle. I don't often loose that for some reason and can greatly enlarge the type! My Bookcases are overflowing with books that are particularly beloved to me but which have evidently, over the decades, suffered the same shrinking type disease that Castaneda so that I not only cannot remember, but can know now, to my great relief I can read them all over again, remembering nothing except that they were wonderful!

Insightful yet protected truths. If you desire authentic truth it provides that. Plenty to ponder.4 stars because it ends just a bit too abruptly ... but maybe that’s the plan.I rarely read a book twice. This one will be an exception. My intention is to read it again immediately.

I was turned on to Carlos Castaneda when I was very young and I thought it was thought provoking and magical. His other book: the teachings of Don Juan, a yagui way of knowledge, opened the way to higher thinking. It's not for fast reading but being in tune with the ideas. Great author!

It is the most interesting thing that I had not heard or read anywhere about this particular volume before..it is again very curious that why everybody that is after spiritual wisdom does not talk about Don Juan more often..

This entire book is about moving your “assemblage point”, so that you may interact directly with “the spirit”. That’s the entire book, repeated over and over again. This would be very meaningful if there were any evidence at all that Castaneda actually met a nagual, or Don Juan, but since Castaneda’s work has been exposed as a fraud, and no one really follow his teachings, this book is kind of meaningless. I read Castaneda for captivating, spell binding fiction, and this is not spell binding.