Castaneda asks how to avoid being defeated by clarity. Don Juan responds, “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 (his enlightenment?) is almost a mistake. And a moment will come when he will understand that his clarity was only a point before his eyes. He will know at this point that the power he has been pursuing is finally his. He can do with it whatever he pleases. His wish is the rule. He sees all that is around him. But he has also come to his third enemy, Power!” Fear and clarity (or arrogance) can interfere with obtaining true power. What is Creator’s perspective on Don Juan’s recipe for overcoming the second natural enemy to enlightenment—clarity?

This is truly an apt description of personal vulnerability and failing through temptation. For, indeed, feeling one has reached the pinnacle creates a feeling of superiority in some, and that appeal to power it represents may trigger them to plan and act on such self‑assurance, and cause them to take advantage of their presumed superiority in seeking power over others to presume they have privileges others do not and, at a minimum, to rest on their laurels. The false impression one has attained power through having faulty clarity that is really the inability to see further, that more is achievable and that one is still on a path that is never-ending, is truly the dilemma of being in a state of ignorance while claiming victory and can only lead to false rewards in settling for less, or, more likely, a comeuppance that will cause a person's downfall. But here again, the resource promoted is personal willpower and not seeing this as a healing need that may require outside help, especially from the divine realm. This is a lost opportunity and, in effect, a false reassurance, much like the problem being described, one is being given greater clarity as an enemy to attainment without gaining true clarity about the most powerful and effective means to overcome the pitfall of clarity itself.