The Four Enemies

In your study and development of the mind, you will encounter the Four Enemies of Man. These four enemies are discussed by Carlos Castaneda and Don Juan in his book The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (pp. 83-87).

Sunday, April 15, 1962

1. Fear – fought with knowledge, confidence and will

“And thus he has stumbled upon the first of his natural enemies: Fear! 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.”

2. Clarity – fought with patience, vision.

“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. 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 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.”

3. Power – fought with restraint of the senses.

“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. 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. No, 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.

“He has to defy it, deliberately. He must 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.”

4. Old Age – will.

“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. 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.”