Today’s questions are based on dialogue between anthropologist and author Carlos Castaneda and his mentor Don Juan Matus. This dialogue is found in Castaneda’s first book, The Teachings of Don Juan. Don Juan talked about becoming a “man of knowledge.” He said, “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.” Many people have also said that “knowledge is power.” We have heard that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but is knowledge of power as hazardous as power itself? What can Creator tell us?

Indeed, the two are not the same. Knowledge of power is a process and product of learning. It is the implementation that can lead to consequences, either good or bad, as the case might be, but the two are intricately intertwined. The purpose of learning is to gain power, to gain mastery over one's own physical body in being able to move about reliably and adroitly without accident or injury to carry out many manipulations of things in the environment needed for daily living, and to have knowledge within of how to conduct oneself in the company of others to engage in interpersonal relationships for many varied purposes, and to hold one's own through having a foundation of awareness and knowledge about common cultural things and influences so one does not feel like an outsider and lost in the company of others, not understanding what is even being talked about, let alone having something to contribute to be seen as a member of the circle in equal standing. The very acquisition of knowledge is a key to participating in life, for without it a person will be sidelined by their incapacity. But all knowledge comes with responsibility. If one acts on information that is incomplete, the odds will go up of making a mistake. If their actions are not in divine alignment but simply based on knowing things that represent an opportunity to exploit others, or take unfair advantage of a situation to benefit the self that comes at an expense to others, such uses of power through knowledge will always incur a karmic penalty that will come back to haunt the perpetrator of these misdeeds, whether big or small. So we would like to see a full definition here be that knowledge is ideally that body of awareness that adds to completion of the being in ways that will help them remain in divine alignment in all they do, so rather than pursuing knowledge as a means to gain power, that knowledge is pursued as a means to attain enlightenment, being the fullest possible expression of the soul, in a balanced way that helps the self with no harm to others and helps others with no harm to the self.