The Nature of KnowingRe: Post #742
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We’ve all gone down dead end streets. Since I have a “road atlas” full of personal dead ends, I would like to describe one of the longest, most time-consuming and least fruitful of those. None of My comments are personal, but I recognize this “path” because of the referenced post. Forget Reincarnation. The belief or disbelief in it means nothing, either way. We don't know anything for sure. Every scientific understanding is named a “theory”. Yet, we design bridges, travel through space, and use the internet without any proof or knowing. I can't prove the sun will come up again tomorrow to start another day, that the next switch I flip will turn on a light, or that My vehicle will start the next time I turn the key. Yet, I live comfortably in this world without being able to confirm knowing any of these things. Cognitive Dissonance is defined as “experience which doesn't match expectation”. Only the ego has expectation. Get rid of the ego and none of the nasty results of failed expectation can occur. Hold onto expectation and the nasty results must continue. One definition of insanity is "to keep doing the same things while expecting a different outcome." Having expectations produces cognitive dissonance, guaranteed. We have to be insane to expect otherwise. The point of life is to find what is authentic inside. We must not confuse authenticity with ultimate “Truth”. These are not related concepts. We only have a human mind with which to know. To think we have the ultimate “Truth” carries with it the necessary arrogance that there is no greater mind in the universe than ours. Being authentic is not related to knowing anything but ourselves. Being authentic, the only source of happiness, is about being honest with ourselves regarding our reactions to the experiences of life. Anyone who has ever believed in Santa Claus has already believed lies to learn life’s lessons effectively. Putting knowledge of Truth and being authentic together is as artificial as putting "religious right" and "authenticity" together. We believe what we MUST believe to learn what we must learn. Believe nothing and we can learn nothing. Believing nothing is very comforting for perfectionists since then we never make a mistake by believing anything that is later found to be untrue. Believe something, and we have the opportunity to learn what we need to learn which forces us to let go of each belief as each experience teaches us something new. Since expectation is a function of the ego, the decision we all have to make about our lives is "Is the purpose of life to have accurate expectations or to be authentic and therefore happy?" This is a mutually exclusive choice. Good luck to anyone who expects to be the first in history to answer "both". The biggest human trap is to pretend we can understand through psychology. The spirit, and Truth, do not conform to such human theories, nor can they be explained with those theories. To experience, then try to classify and explain, and then further institutionalize what was learned is not spiritual. Psychology is very effective at curing the mentally sick, at getting past egotistic patterns that lock us, unnaturally, into a prison that isn't healthy for us. There is a big difference between getting un-sick and growing spiritually. The question about cognitive dissonance is a question about how getting un-sick will make one grow into authenticity. There is no more correlation than "How does overcoming the mumps further my authenticity?" One doesn't relate to the other, and trying to make them relate is a dead end that is useless and futile to pursue. Our health and growth will be measured by how rapidly we change our beliefs so we can grow, and how easily we relinquish the old beliefs that no longer serve us to make room for the next belief. There is no Santa Claus, AND I bless My parents for My thinking that there was. I am both proud that I believed in Santa, and unashamed and unapologetic that I no longer do. I now have room for another productive belief, true or not. With no greater reason than experience I KNOW the sun will come up tomorrow, I don’t just “believe” that it will. I don’t care whether I’m right or wrong. My life is going to be far more productive because I act as though it is a “sure thing” despite all the legitimate arguments that it is not. However, if the sun fails even one day to come up, I will quickly change My KNOWING and dramatically adjust My life to accommodate the new experience. That’s the nature of belief, and knowing. All My love,
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