Almost everything we do that we experience as negative, that we tend to think of, maybe a little later, as, “that was wrong, or that was negative, or that was stupid of me, or that was a bad decision,” is usually, quite simply, us not going along with what we somehow already know. Somehow, we know deeper down; somehow, we know off to one side; somehow, we know out here somewhere; wherever it is, somehow, we know and we tell ourselves we don’t. We tell ourselves we have to figure it out, which is a very amazing game we all play with ourselves. We actually don’t admit to ourselves how much we know (notice I’m saying “know” and not “control”).
I would very much like to say to you everyone knows everything—which means, of course, you know everything. You may not be aware of it; you may not access what you know in a particular moment; you may be confused, or there may be some other overlay that prevents you from admitting to yourself or seeing clearly what you know, but if there’s any truth in the statement, “everyone knows everything,” the implications are phenomenal. Does that not have the ring of truth? Even just hearing it, “everyone knows everything,” do you not get a sense, thinking about yourself, that, “Yes, there’s a bunch of stuff that I know.”
I’m not talking about sets of knowledge, but when something has to happen, when a decision has to be made, when life is in the balance, when something important is going on, do we not usually have some kind of sense of what’s right or what’s good or what’s in our best interest or what’s in everyone’s best interest or what’s going to work?
But we tell ourselves we don’t. We don’t trust what some people call the “inner voice.” We simply don’t trust it, which really isn’t anything more or less than we don’t trust ourselves. We don’t trust ourselves as who we are; we don’t trust our Divine nature; we don’t trust our mind; we don’t trust anything that isn’t “the conventional.” We tend not to trust anything that isn’t the conventional way that we’ve come to think of how the mind works, and how people decide, and how people choose.
It’s really all nonsense. When we actually come to the point where we make our choice, or make our decision, all that’s happening (whether we realize it or not) is that we are finally letting ourselves key in to what we already knew.
Everybody knows this, but we don’t make it as important as it really is. That’s all I’m saying to you, that it’s wise to make that understanding far more important, to bring it higher on the priority list of what you pay attention to and what you bring into your consciousness—that it run your life more.
You already know, yet you live day-to-day telling yourself that you don’t know. But here, we’ve been talking now twenty minutes, and everyone is nodding their head when I say, “You know this.” I’m saying: Now really know it—absolutely, once and for all—accept that this is true, that this is how it works for people, and let that inform how you view your own ability to decide and to choose. Accept that you already know everything, not in an egoistic puffed-up, crazy way, “Oh, I know everything,” not a know-it-all, but that somehow, the miracle of life includes that you came here with enough inner “whatever,” that you have a certain inner knowledge and inner knowing that’s there when you need it—is certainly there when you need it most—and that, if you’re anything over the age of twenty-two, you’ve relied on it much of your life.
See that. Admit that. Factor that into how you view how things work, is all I’m saying. But really get it, once and for all! Because if you get it—which means give it some thought after you leave here tonight—and get it once and for all, it will change everything. You will start to automatically trust that which you did not trust before. You will automatically start to feel good about that which was causing you fear before. You will automatically and involuntarily start to relax about what it means to be alive. I promise.
An excerpt from Swami Premodaya’s book ~ Truth Speaks: Answers from the Master, Volume 1
