The Teachings of Don Juan.

[Guest guest]

I am going to teach you the secrets that make up the lot of a man of

knowledge. You will have to make a very deep commitment because the

training is long and arduous.

A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with

fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge

or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes

it will live to regret his steps.

When a man has fulfilled those four requisites there are no

mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his

acts lose the blundering quality of a fool's acts. If such a man

fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and

there will be no pitiful regrets over that.

* * *

A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the

hardships of learning, a man who has, without rushing or without

faltering, gone as far as he can in unraveling the secrets of power

and knowledge. To become a man of knowledge one must challenge and

defeat his four natural enemies.

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 stumbled upon the first of his natural enemies:

fear! A terrible enemy--treacherous, and difficult to overcome. It

remains concealed at 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 and 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.

It is not possible for a man to abandon himself to fear for

years, then finally conquer it. 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.

Therefore 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. It happens

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

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 be patient when he

should rush. And he will fumble with learning until he winds up

incapable of learning anything more. 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.

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 anymore. 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, but he will never lose his clarity or his power.

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.

Once one of these enemies overpowers a man there is nothing he

can do. It is not possible, for instance, that a man who is defeated

by power may see his error and mend his ways. Once a man gives in he

is through. If, however, he is temporarily blinded by power, and then

refuses it, 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.

He has to come to realize that 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 be, 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 cruelest 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

though, 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.

 

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.

This question is one that only a very old man asks. 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.

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.

 

Before you embark on any path 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. 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.

I have told you that to choose a path you must be free from

fear and ambition. The desire to learn is not ambition. It is our lot

as men to want to know.

The path without a heart will turn against men and destroy

them. It does not take much to die, and to seek death is to seek

nothing.

 

For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a

heart, on any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the

only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And

there I travel--looking, looking, breathlessly.

 

Continued..

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