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A Path With a Heart
A path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you
must not stay with it under and conditions. To have such
clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you
know that any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to
oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart
tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to
leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look
at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times
as you think necessary. This question is one that only a very
old man asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I
was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to
understand it. Now I do understand it. I will tell you what it
is: Does this path have a heart?
All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths
going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I
could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not
anywhere. My benefactor's question has meaning now.
Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it
doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one
has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful
journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The
other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong;
the other weakens you...
A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to
work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with
heart is easy; it does not make you work a liking it... Before
you embark on it you ask the question: Does this path have
a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you
must choose another path... The trouble is nobody asks the
question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken
a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that
point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the
path....
For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart,
on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the
only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And
there I travel, looking, looking, breathlessly.
- Carlos Casteneda
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