The infinite knowledge and wisdom of our “true self” is revealed when we surrender the egoic mind that pretends to know so much.  Most egoic thoughts are conditioned responses based on programming.  By stepping back to observe and question those thoughts their lack of validity will be revealed. 

The ego is very tricky and it doesn’t readily admit that it “doesn’t know.”  However, every one of us possesses the free will to question our thoughts, decide what is true, and choose appropriate responses.  This ability to observe and evaluate our programmed thoughts comes from another part of our mind that is intelligent and rational.   This aspect of the mind can be called “higher mind” or “true self.” 

Life is a great mystery and we actually know much less about the past, present and future than our egoic thinking mind would have us believe.   Surrendering the ego’s sense of knowing will unleash the deeper knowledge and intelligence inside of us.  This inner wisdom guides our lives in exquisite ways while revealing the endless depths of the true self and eventually divulging that the source of our inner wisdom is love. 

Taking time to observe and then question our thoughts is the necessary first step.  Our thoughts can be readily evaluated by asking questions like, “Is this absolutely true?” and “Do I know that for sure?”  By doing this we will recognize how many of our thoughts are not really needed and that most of them are not true and therefore cannot be trusted.  The ego relentlessly offers assumptions, hypotheses, conjecture, and opinions which has little to do with the objective truth of the reality at hand.

At this time, much of the world is experiencing an increased manifestation of confusion, chaos, and turmoil which serves to heighten the ego’s need to know what is happening and why.  It is important to remember that the ego’s perspective is typically highly speculative and theoretical.  The ego pretends to know “what is happening in the world”, “why things are happening”, “the solution to the world’s problems” and “how things should work out.”  Just a bit of reflection and investigation plainly reveals the incredible arrogance of the ego-mind in believing that it understands, much less controls, a world of infinite variety and complexity. 

Self-inquiry exposes how much we don’t know as well as the extreme prevalence of false believes and assumptions manufactured in our conditioned mind.  For goodness sake, we don’t even have control over what our next thoughts will be, and we certainly don’t have control of the outcome of our intentions and behaviors. 

The truth of reality is only known through direct experience and not through thoughts about reality.   When experiencing the world through the lens of the “true self”, we accept things exactly as they appear in the here-and-now.  From this perspective we surrender our need to know and simply trust that we will know exactly what we need to know at the precise time it needs to be known. When thoroughly trusting the moment-to-moment unfolding of all experiences, without believing the ego’s ongoing narrative, we feel more real and an endless depth of intimacy, relevance, and meaning emerges in relation to ourselves, others, and the entire universe. 

• Oct. 30, 2020