Философская книга.

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to every  other wondrous and dynamic  manifestation of being
-- this world is the warrior's true hunting ground.

Your friend don  Juan teaches what is, how  to know what is,
and  how  to  live  in  accord  with  what  is  -- ontology,
epistemology, and  ethics. Which leads many  to say he's too
good to  be true, that  you created him  from scratch as  an
allegorical instrument of wise instruction.

The  notion  that  I  concocted  a  person  like don Juan is
preposterous.  I'm  a  product  of  a  European intellectual
tradition to which  a character like don Juan  is alien. The
actual  facts are  stranger: I'm  a reporter.  My books  are
accounts of an outlandish phenomenon  that forced me to make
fundamental  changes  in  my  life  in  order  to  meet  the
phenomenon on its own terms.

Some of  your critics grow  quite livid in  their contention
that  Juan Matus  sometimes speaks  more like  an Oxford don
than a  don Indian. Then  there's the fact  that he traveled
widely and  acquired his knowledge from  sources not limited
to his Yaqui roots.

Permit me to  make a confession: I take  much delight in the
idea  that don  Juan may  not be  the "best"  don Juan. It's
probably  true  that  I'm  not  the  best  Carlos Castaneda,
either. Years ago I met the  perfect Castaneda at a party in
Sausalito, quite  by accident. There,  in the middle  of the
patio, was  the most handsome  man, tall, blond,  blue-eyed,
beautiful, barefoot.  It was the early  '70s. He was signing
books, and the owner of the  house said to me, "I'd like you
to  meet  Carlos  Castaneda."  He  was  impersonating Carlos
Castaneda, with an impressive coterie of beautiful women all
around him. I  said, "I am very pleased  to meet you, Mister
Castaneda." He responded, "Doctor Castaneda." He was doing a
very  good job.  I thought,  He presents  a good  way to  be

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