A trap I know!

 A mantra we hear all the time is – “I know!” This phrase is fundamental to the maintenance of suffering in the world...it’s that serious!

 It encapsulates the conceit of I, as we do not want to appear “not to know”.

 There are three aspects to our existence, and we have to be very clear in our understanding of the difference between: thoughts, the knower of thoughts, and knowing itself. The conceit is in the knower, the claimer.

 All too often (and this includes Buddhists) we may hear or read information, learn it, and assume that “we know”. This creates a very subtle obstacle to knowing.

 If information is captured by a knower, then this becomes a belief, an opinion. All knowledge points to knowing. Awareness. Pure being without comment. If we miss this pointing out, we stay in the realm of concepts, and suffer.

 The proof of this created suffering is being with someone who ‘appears’ to know. We can either be respectful and just listen, or create a competition, nod and say,

“I know, I know.” In doing this, we have stopped listening, and are mentally accusing the person of lecturing. The question is…who is feeling this threat? It’s the knower of course! The problem is that that very annoyance has actually become hatred, creating a huge obstacle in ‘our’ mind!

 Anything that appears before us – good bad, pretty, ugly – is merely an appearance to…knowing! It’s all the same.

It’s only a knower that judges.
It’s the knower that feels superior
about what it knows:
elitism separates us.
A knower can have no compassion
as it is too busy puffing itself up.

 However,
saying all this,
you really do know!
Knowing is what you are.
And, that’s been the joke all along…

😉