The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge Read online

  'Look here,' he said. 'I have cut all the branches above the fork made by two or more leaves and the stem. Do you see? They are all the same. I have used only the tip of each branch, where the leaves are fresh and tender. Now we must look for a shaded place.'

  We walked until he seemed to have found what he was looking for. He took a long string from his pocket and tied it to the trunk and the lower branches of two bushes, making a kind of clothesline on which he hung the branch tips upside down. He arranged them along the string in a neat fashion; hooked by the fork between the leaves and the stem, they resembled a long row of green horsemen.

  'One must see that the leaves dry in the shade,' he said. 'The place must be secluded and difficult to get to. That way the leaves are protected. They must be left to dry in a place where it would be almost impossible to find them. After they have dried, they must be put in a bundle and sealed.'

  He picked up the leaves from the string and threw them into the nearby shrubs. Apparently he had intended only to show me the procedure.

  We continued walking and he picked three different flowers, saying they were part of the ingredients and were supposed to be gathered at the same time. But the flowers had to be put in separate clay pots and dried in darkness; a lid had to be placed on each pot so the flowers would turn mouldy inside the container. He said the function of the leaves and the flowers was to sweeten the smoke mixture.

  We came out of the canyon and walked towards the riverbed. After a long detour we returned to his house. Late in the evening we sat in his own room, a thing he rarely allowed me to do, and he told me about the final ingredient of the mixture, the mushrooms.

  'The real secret of the mixture lies in the mushrooms,' he said. 'They are the most difficult ingredient to collect. The trip to the place where they grow is long and dangerous, and to select the right variety is even more perilous. There are other kinds of mushrooms growing alongside which are of no use; they would spoil the good ones if they were dried together. It takes time to know the mushrooms well in order not to make a mistake. Serious harm will result from using the wrong kind — harm to the man and to the pipe. I know of men who have dropped dead from using the foul smoke.

  'As soon as the mushrooms are picked they are put inside a gourd, so there is no way to recheck them. You see, they have to be torn to shreds in order to make them go through the narrow neck of the gourd.'

  'How long do you keep the mushrooms inside the gourd?'

  'For a year. All the other ingredients are also sealed for a year. Then equal parts of them are measured and ground separately into a very fine powder. The little mushrooms don't have to be ground because they become a very fine dust by themselves; all one needs to do is to mash the chunks. Four parts of mushrooms are added to one part of all the other ingredients together. Then they are all mixed and put into a bag like mine.' He pointed to the little sack hanging under his shirt.

  'Then all the ingredients are gathered again, and after they have been put to dry you are ready to smoke the mixture you have just prepared. In your own case, you will smoke next year. And the year after that, the mixture will be all yours because you will have gathered it by yourself. The first time you smoke I will light the pipe for you. You will smoke all the mixture in the bowl and wait. The smoke will come. You will feel it. It will set you free to see anything you want to see. Properly speaking, it is a matchless ally. But whoever seeks it must have an intent and a will beyond reproach. He needs them because he has to intend and will his return, or the smoke will not let him come back. Second, he must intend and will to remember whatever the smoke allowed him to see, otherwise it will be nothing more than a piece of fog in his mind.'

  Saturday, {? Sunday} 8 April 1962

  In our conversations, don Juan consistently used or referred to the phrase 'man of knowledge', but never explained what he meant by it. I asked him about it.

  'A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the hardships of learning,' he said. 'A man who has, without rushing or without faltering, gone as far as he can in unravelling the secrets of power and knowledge.'

  'Can anyone be a man of knowledge?'

  'No, not anyone.'

  'Then what must a man do to become a man of knowledge?'

  'He must challenge and defeat his four natural enemies.'

  'Will he be a man of knowledge after defeating these four enemies?'

  'Yes. A man can call himself a man of knowledge only if he is capable of defeating all four of them.'

  'Then, can anybody who defeats these enemies be a man of knowledge?'

  'Anybody who defeats them becomes a man of knowledge.'

  'But are there any special requirements a man must fulfill before fighting with these enemies?'

  'No. Anyone can try to become a man of knowledge; very few men actually succeed, but that is only natural. The enemies a man encounters on the path of learning to become a man of knowledge are truly formidable; most men succumb to them.'

  'What kind of enemies are they, don Juan?'

  He refused to talk about the enemies. He said it would be a long time before the subject would make any sense to me. I tried to keep the topic alive and asked him if he thought / could become a man of knowledge. He said no man could possibly tell that for sure. But I insisted on knowing if there were any clues he could use to determine whether or not I had a chance of becoming a man of knowledge. He said it would depend on my battle against the four enemies — whether I could defeat them or would be defeated by them — but it was impossible to foretell the outcome of that fight.

  I asked him if he could use witchcraft or divination to see the outcome of the battle. He flatly stated that the result of the straggle could not be foreseen by any means, because becoming a man of knowledge was a temporary thing. When I asked him to explain this point, he replied:

  'To be a man of knowledge has no permanence. One is never a man of knowledge, not really. Rather, one becomes a man of knowledge for a very brief instant, after defeating the four natural enemies.'

  'You must tell me, don Juan, what kind of enemies they are.'

  He did not answer. I insisted again, but he dropped the subject and started to talk about something else.

  Sunday, 15 April 1962

  As I was getting ready to leave, I decided to ask him once more about the enemies of a man of knowledge. I argued that I could not return for some time, and it would be a good idea to write down what he had to say and then think about it while I was away.

  He hesitated for a while, but then began to talk.

  'When a man starts to learn, he is never clear about his objectives. His purpose is faulty; his intent is vague. He hopes for rewards that will never materialize, for he knows nothing of the hardships of learning.

  'He slowly begins to learn — bit by bit at first, then in big chunks. And his thoughts soon clash. What he learns is never what he pictured, or imagined, and so he begins to be afraid. Learning is never what one expects. Every step of learning is a new task, and the fear the man is experiencing begins to mount mercilessly, unyieldingly. His purpose becomes a battlefield.

  'And thus he has tumbled upon the first of his natural enemies: Fear! A terrible enemy — treacherous, and difficult to overcome. It remains concealed et every turn of the way, prowling, waiting. And if the man, terrified in its presence, runs away, his enemy will have put an end to his quest.'

  'What will happen to the man if he runs away in fear?'

  'Nothing happens to him except that he will never learn. He will never become a man of knowledge. He will perhaps be a bully or a harmless, scared man; at any rate, he will be a defeated man. His first enemy will have put an end to his cravings.'

  'And what can he do to overcome fear?'

  'The answer is very simple. He must not run away. He must defy his fear, and in spite of it he must take the next step in learning, and the next, and the next. He must be fully afraid, and yet he must not stop. That is the rule! And a moment will come when his
first enemy retreats. The man begins to feel sure of himself. His intent becomes stronger. Learning is no longer a terrifying task.

  'When this joyful moment comes, the man can say without hesitation that he has defeated his first natural enemy.'

  'Does it happen at once, don Juan, or little by little?'

  'It happens little by little, and yet the fear is vanquished suddenly and fast.'

  'But won't the man be afraid again if something new happens to him?'

  'No. Once a man has vanquished fear, he is free from it for the rest of his life because, instead of fear, he has acquired clarity — a clarity of mind which erases fear. By then a man knows his desires; he knows how to satisfy those desires. He can anticipate the new steps of learning, and a sharp clarity surrounds everything. The man feels that nothing is concealed.

  'And thus he has encountered his second enemy: Clarity!

  That clarity of mind, which is so hard to obtain, dispels fear, but also blinds.

  'It forces the man never to doubt himself. It gives him the assurance he can do anything he pleases, for he sees clearly into everything. And he is courageous because he is clear, and he stops at nothing because he is clear. But all that is a mistake; it is like something incomplete. If the man yields to this make-believe power, he has succumbed to his second enemy and will fumble with learning. He will rash when he should be patient, or he will be patient when he should rash. And he will fumble with learning until he winds up incapable of learning anything more.'

  'What becomes of a man who is defeated in that way, don Juan? Does he die as a result?'

  'No, he doesn't die. His second enemy has just stopped him cold from trying to become a man of knowledge; instead, the man may turn into a buoyant warrior, or a clown. Yet the clarity for which he has paid so dearly will never change to darkness and fear again. He will be clear as long as he lives, but he will no longer learn, or yearn for, anything.'

  'But what does he have to do to avoid being defeated?'

  'He must do what he did with fear: he must defy his clarity and use it only to see, and wait patiently and measure carefully before taking new steps; he must think, above all, that his clarity is almost a mistake. And a moment will come when he will understand that his clarity was only a point before his eyes. And thus he will have overcome his second enemy, and will arrive at a position where nothing can harm him any more. This will not be a mistake. It will not be only a point before his eyes. It will be true power.

  'He will know at this point that the power he has been pursuing for so long is finally his. He can do with it whatever he pleases. His ally is at his command. His wish is the rule. He sees all that is around him. But he has also come across his third enemy: Power!

  'Power is the strongest of all enemies. And naturally the easiest thing to do is to give in; after all, the man is truly invincible. He commands; he begins by taking calculated risks, and ends in making rules, because he is a master.

  'A man at this stage hardly notices his third enemy closing in on him. And suddenly, without knowing, he will certainly have lost the battle. His enemy will have turned him into a cruel, capricious man.'

  'Will he lose his power?'

  'No, he will never lose his clarity or his power.'

  'What then will distinguish him from a man of knowledge?

  'A man who is defeated by power dies without really knowing how to handle it. Power is only a burden upon his fate. Such a man has no command over himself, and cannot tell when or how to use his power.'

  'Is the defeat by any of these enemies a final defeat?'

  'Of course it is final. Once one of these enemies overpowers a man there is nothing he can do.'

  'Is it possible, for instance, that the man who is defeated by power may see his error and mend his ways?'

  'No. Once a man gives in he is through.'

  'But what if he is temporarily blinded by power, and then refuses it?'

  'That means his battle is still on. That means he is still trying to become a man of knowledge. A man is defeated only when he no longer tries, and abandons himself.'

  'But then, don Juan, it is possible that a man may abandon himself to fear for years, but finally conquer it.'

  'No, that is not true. If he gives in to fear he will never conquer it, because he will shy away from learning and never try again. But if he tries to learn for years in the midst of his fear, he will eventually conquer it because he will never have really abandoned himself to it.'

  'How can he defeat his third enemy, don Juan?'

  'He has to defy it, deliberately. He has to come to realize the power he has seemingly conquered is in reality never his. He must keep himself in line at all times, handling carefully and faithfully all that he has learned. If he can see that clarity and power, without his control over himself, are worse than mistakes, he will reach a point where everything is held in check. He will know then when and how to use his power. And thus he will have defeated his third enemy.

  'The man will he, by then, at the end of his journey of learning, and almost without warning he will come upon the last of his enemies: Old age! This enemy is the cruellest of all, the one he won't be able to defeat completely, but only fight away.

  'This is the time when a man has no more fears, no more impatient clarity of mind — a time when all his power is in check, but also the time when he has an unyielding desire to rest. If he gives in totally to his desire to lie down and forget, if he soothes himself in tiredness, he will have lost his last round, and his enemy will cut him down into a feeble old creature. His desire to retreat will overrule all his clarity, his power, and his knowledge.

  'But if the man sloughs off his tiredness, and lives his fate through, he can then be called a man of knowledge, if only for the brief moment when he succeeds in fighting off his last, invincible enemy. That moment of clarity, power, and knowledge is enough.'

  4

  Don Juan seldom spoke openly about Mescalito. Every time I questioned him on the subject he refused to talk, but he always said enough to create an impression of Mescalito; an impression that was always anthropomorphic. Mescalito was a male, not only because of the mandatory grammatical rule that gives the word a masculine gender, but also because of his constant qualities of being a protector and a teacher. Don Juan reaffirmed these characteristics in various forms every time we talked.

  Sunday, 24 December 1961

  'The devil's weed has never protected anyone. She serves only to give power. Mescalito, on the other hand, is gentle, like a baby.'

  'But you said Mescalito is terrifying at times.'

  'Of course he is terrifying, but once you get to know him, he is gentle and kind.'

  'How does he show his kindness?'

  'He is a protector and a teacher.'

  'How does he protect?'

  'You can keep him with you at all times and he will see that nothing bad happens to you.'

  'How can you keep him with you at all times?'

  'In a little bag, fastened under your arm or around your neck with a string.'

  'Do you have him with you?'

  'No, because I have an ally. But other people do.'

  'What does he teach?' 'He teaches you to live properly.'

  'How does he teach?'

  'He shows things and tells what is what [enzenna las cosas у te dice lo que son].'

  'How?'

  'You will have to see for yourself.'

  Tuesday, 30 January 1962

  'What do you see when Mescalito takes you with him, don Juan?'

  'Such things are not for ordinary conversation. I can't tell you that.'

  'Would something bad happen to you if you told?'

  'Mescalito is a protector, a kind, gentle protector; but that does not mean you can make fun of him. Because he is a kind protector he can also be horror itself with those he does not like.'

  'I do not intend to make fun of him. I just want to know what he makes other people do or see. I described to you all that Mes
calito made me see, don Juan.'

  'With you it is different, perhaps because you don't know his ways. You have to be taught his ways as a child is taught how to walk.'

  'How long do I still have to be taught?'

  'Until he himself begins to make sense to you.'

  'And then?'

  'Then you will understand by yourself. You won't have to tell me anything any more.'

  'Can you just tell me where Mescalito takes you?'

  'I can't talk about it.'

  'All I want to know is if there is another world to which he takes people.'

  'There is.'

  'Is it heaven?' (The Spanish word for heaven is cielo, but that also means 'sky'.)

  'He takes you through the sky [cielo].'

  'I mean, is it heaven [cielo] where God is?'

  'You are being stupid now. I don't know where God is.' 'Is Mescalito God — the only God? Or is he one of the gods?' 'He is just a protector and a teacher. He is a power.' 'Is he a power within ourselves?'

  'No. Mescalito has nothing to do with ourselves. He is outside us.'

  'Then everyone who takes Mescalito must see him in the same form.'

  'No, not at all. He is not the same for everybody.'

  Thursday, 12 April 1962

  'Why don't you tell me more about Mescalito, don Juan?' 'There is nothing to tell.'

  'There must be thousands of things I should know before I encounter him again.'

  'No. Perhaps for you there is nothing you have to know. As I have already told you, he is not the same for everyone.'

  'I know, but still I'd like to know how others feel about him.' 'The opinion of those who care to talk about him is not worth much. You will see. You will probably talk about him up to a certain point, and from then on you will never discuss him.' 'Can you tell me about your own first experiences?' 'What for?'

  'Then I'll know how to behave with Mescalito.' 'You already know more than I do. You actually played with him. Someday you will see how kind the protector was with you. That first time I am sure he told you many, many things, but you were deaf and blind.'