Castaneda had a theory that religions have to do with mountains and since mountains in Castaneda’s world is jealous to each other we have these infinite wars between different religions.
"Our planet stinks of religious massacres. Have you ever thought why? (Carlos asked).
- It has to do with mountains? I ask.
One thing to know before you gives your heart to mountains. They are powerfully jealous of each other. Pledge loyalty to one and it expects you to be faithful. Followers of religions believe that they following the one God. They are wrong. History tells them that they are wrong, the Bible tells them they are wrong, but they are slaves to their partial understanding and believe what they want to believe.” /…/
“Don’t think mountains have let people go. Never think that. They have roused us with their prophets, stirred us with their myths, hidden themselves in our religions the way they hide themselves in cloud. They divide peoples of the world among themselves, and set them at each other’s throats.
I stay quiet for a while. “Buddhism”, I suggest after some thought. That doesn’t fit your theory. (says Goodman) The one religion without a God. You’re right. And where did it start? On a mountain? Uniquely, no, it didn’t. The Buddha found his enlightenment under a tree. That doesn’t mean that mountains haven’t done their best to take Buddhism over. Mountains of the Far East are clustered with Buddhist shrines. The slopes and peaks of Tibet are stacked with ridiculous Buddhist mythology. No matter what sect, chose your flavor of Buddhism, study real hard, and then see which jealous mountain god you’ve attached yourself to.
But remember this feeling about Buddhism. Remember how it started under a treewhen you move your story down from the Andes to the Amazon. Until the new American churches based around ayahuasca, no religion ever came out of the jungle. You can’t separate the jungle religions from their trees, you see. And that’s enough of my talking. Here endeth my sermon on the mount, Come, Martin."
I was Carlos Castaneda. Martin Goodman 2001, pp 55-56.
