The Path With The Heart

From Carlos Castaneda: "Don Juan's Teaching"

Don Juan said:

Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind
that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not
stay with it under any 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. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. 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 does not, it is of no use.

Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart the other does not. 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.

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.

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 at liking it.

For me there is only the traveling on paths that have a heart, or 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.

(Don Juan, a Yaqui Sorcerer)