Knowing and Believing

The difference changes everything.

You are late for work.

The car in front of you is going the legal speed limit.

“What is your problem?,” you hiss to them from the privacy of your own car.

You forget to pick up milk for tomorrow’s coffee on the way home.

Your partner says it is fine, but you hear frustration in her voice.

“I’m trying my best,” you comfort/scold yourself silently from the privacy of your own head.

You wake up in the morning with a full feeling in your throat and a tight, heavy feeling in your chest and stomach.

“This sucks. Life would be so much better if I could get rid of this,” you mutter into the privacy of your toothbrush.

There is a simple difference most of us were never taught to recognize:

~ What is here now - what exists in present moment awareness - is known.

~ What is not here now - the stuff that exists in thoughts - is believed.

All life began by knowing. Simple, effortless, present-moment awareness.

Then along came thought. We were able to create and communicate our conceptual models and applied meanings. Past and future were born.

Over time, we began to believe and trust our thoughts more than our direct experience.

We began to fight, kill, and suffer over ideas, doctrines, and boundaries that only existed on paper.

We banished peace and wellbeing to the shouldiverse.

We have become so convinced that we can know what we believe that some people become angry at the suggestion that there is a difference.

Confusing knowing and believing is the primary source of human struggle, suffering, dissatisfaction, disconnection, and violence.

Recognizing the difference makes a difference.

Recognizing the difference opens the door to exploring the truth of what is happening and who we really are.

While thoughts are part of the human experience, believing them is not required.

Humans have the ability to believe:

~ thoughts for which we have no evidence.

~ thoughts that are not true.

~ in things that do not exist.

~ things that we do not or cannot know.

And we torture ourselves with all of this.

We tend to stick with what we believe, rather than explore what is known.

And we when what is happening is not aligned with what we believe should be happening…

Or, when we believe what is going to happen is not going to be aligned with what we believe should happen…

We stress and suffer with anxiety.

The irony is that we are knowing all the time. We just get confused by what we think about it.

So…you can try to stop thinking. (Good luck with that!)

Or…

You can recognize the difference between knowing and believing, and you can explore what is known.

The coolest part is that this does not take years of practice, specialized knowledge, fancy equipment, or…..belief.

It can be seen in an instant. Right now.

Try this:

Find an object near you that you can hold in your hand.

Hold it. Look at it. Smell it and listen to it if you want to.

This is knowing the object directly. Knowing happens in direct experience.

Now put the object down and turn away from it.

Think about the object. Where is it? What is it called? Where did it come from? How was it made?

All of this is belief. It cannot be confirmed outside of thought.

Go back and forth with the object and experience the difference between knowing and believing.

Now try the same experiment with this moment.

Do not focus on anything in particular.

Just allow open awareness to effortlessly take in what is happening right now.

Thoughts may arise - just let their presence be known without grabbing on to their content.

Now think about this moment. What does it mean? Should it be happening? Is it good or bad? What needs to be different?

And then back to knowing - the effortless, open awareness of what is.

And maybe you might experiment with trusting what you know.