The 4 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. Ever 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 what can he do to overcome his fear?'
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.
'Does it happen at once, or little by little?'
It happens little by little, and yet the fear is vanquished suddenly and fast.
Once a man has vanquished 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. 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 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 ip 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 to 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 for as long as he lives, but he will no longer learn, or yearn for anything.
He must defy his clarity and use it only to see, and wait patiently and measure carefully before taking new steps. 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 anymore. This will not be a mistake. It will be true power.
He will know that the power he is pursuing for so long is finally his. He can do with it whatever he pleases. His wish is the rule. He sees all that is around him. Yet 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 enemy closing in on him. And suddenly, without evening knowing it, he certainly have lost the battle. His enemy will have turned him into a cruel, capricious man.
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.
‘But what if he is temporarily blinded by power, and then refuses it? ‘
That means 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.
‘Is it possible a man may abandon himself to fear for years, but finally conquer it?’
No, that is not true. If he gives into fear, he will never conquer it because he will shy away from learning and never try again. If he tries to learn for years in the midst of his fear, he will eventually conquer it because he will never have really have abandoned himself to it.
‘How can he defeat his third enemy?’
He has to defy it, deliberately. He has to come to realize the power he has seemingly conquered is in reality never his. He must keep himself in line at all times, handling faithfully and carefully all that he has learned. 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 before 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 through, he then can 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.
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