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In a previous article, I shared don Juan's explication of the first of four natural enemies of a "man of knowledge": Fear. In the same chapter, don Juan explains what follows... "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 rush when he should be patient, or he will be patient when he should rush. And he will fumble with learning until he winds up incapable of learning anything more." And so clarity is not the end. Knowing something with assurance is not the goal. If one embraces the answers that come with a long journey of learning, he or she is forever limited by that knowledge. Carlos asks how an individual can avoid these mistakes, and don Juan replies: "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." I guess I disclose a significant aspect of myself when I say that, to me, this was a life-altering insight. If I live to be ninety, a ninety-year-long-life-direction-changing insight. I have known very smart people who were in love with their answers, wedded to their understanding, absolutely closed to more insights. These people aren't my heroes. I reserve my respect for thinkers who assume that knowledge is the current "best guess." Helpful beyond measure, yes, but certain to be replaced when other minds push beyond the current boundary of the known-unknown. From a young age we're told how things are. Do we stop there? Do we seek new teachers? When breakthrough thinking is published, do we take a close look at it? Are we able to let go of our hard-earned knowledge and replace it with something new? If we can defeat fear and clarity, we can continue the journey of learning, we can remain open to yet more enlightenment and understanding. But then we encounter the third natural enemy....
Article Source: http://www.articledestination.com
Dennis E. Coates is CEO of Performance Support Systems, author of MindFrames, a brain-based personality assessment system (www.initforlife.com) and co-founder of the Train-to-Ingrain alliance (www.train-to-ingrain.com, info@train-to-ingrain.com, 800-488-6463), which delivers a reinforcement-centered approach to learning and development that achieves permanent, measurable improvements in workplace behavior and positive impacts on business results.
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