In the last video, I talked about how it’s so much more comfortable and pleasant to feel like we know what’s going on.
And to feel like we know nothing, we’re confused, and have just no idea what’s happening: that’s a little bit less pleasant and comfortable.
So this drive to have this feeling of having things figured out: it seems like it’s very powerful.
And maybe it’s never more apparent than in the world of all things spiritual.
Because in the spiritual world, and the world of all these topics, they’re outside any kind of empirical, evidential kind of proof.
They’re kind of in what you might call imagination, or might call intuition, some kind of way of perceiving these things that we simply cannot put them to scientific tests, and you know, say whether this is correct or not.
So if you’re a know-it-all on spiritual matters, there isn’t gonna be- there can’t really be anybody who can come along and prove you wrong.
You know, if you’re just like somebody that let’s say you just know everything about like, say, trivia about like math and science and geography and history and all these kind of topics, and you’re like “Oh, you know, it feels great.
I know all these things.
Yeah, I know all these facts.” So you start rattling off these facts, feeling all confident that you’re a really clever person.
And then somebody comes along he’s like he looked it up, like “Oh, you know, like you said that that was the capital city of that country, but you know, according to Wikipedia and the internet, you know, you’re actually completely off.
And you talked about this event happening at this time, but no.
And here, you are clever at math, but you know, the answers you gave, the calculator says something different.” I mean, you can just be shut down.
Being a know-it-all can be quickly brought to an end if you are simply found to be wrong.
Because those kinds of topics: there is kind of a clear answer.
Now, it may still be tricking them to know exactly, what are the correct sources, and you can’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia or whatever.
But there can be kind of a generally agreed understanding that such and such is the capital of this country, and this is the correct answer to this math question, for most questions.
And you can simply be found to be wrong.
But when it comes to a spiritual topic, if you are rattling on about how, you know, the different dimensions, about beings like angels and demons, and if you know exactly what happens after death, if you can describe details of your previous lives and maybe your future lives, if you can describe in very clear and confident detail what is the meaning of life: nobody can come and say “Hey, I looked it up and you’re wrong.” Nobody can easily shut you down.
Somebody can disagree, many people will disagree.
You know, “I think that just sounds crazy.
I don’t believe any of that.” But then, of course, you can just say that you know, “You’re just not perceptive to these subtle details, and you know, not everybody has spiritual vision.
So if you don’t agree with what I’m saying about the angels, about the past lives, future lives, about our heavenly purpose of life or whatever it is…” Now, you could be wrong within a particular religious tradition.
With them, they would say, well, no scholar, no saint or sage within this tradition, they all disagree with what you’re saying.
That’s completely different from everybody in this tradition, so I’ll declare it wrong.
That’s if you’re within a particular tradition.
But if you’re just a spiritual person, and you have all these statements about what’s going on, there is just no way to shut you down.
So the problem with this is that it’s just so easy to fall into that trap of the comfort and joy and pleasure of knowing it all, of having things figured out.
So isn’t it just so comforting to just know exactly how the whole universe is structured, what the meaning of life is, how everything works, how you fit into everything, to have it perfectly explained and wrapped up, and nobody can prove it wrong.
So because of all this, some people completely reject all spiritual topics altogether, because they just consider this is just- there’s no way to know.
And others can remain agnostic about it, and maybe be open to different possible explanations.
But this seems like something to watch out for, and we can certainly see it all over, so many people who have the whole thing figured out.
But the problem with that is, when we think we have things figured out, then we’re not quite so open to learning to go further.
So I always try- I mean, in my case I don’t really know any of this stuff.
It all seems to be unknown to me, and I hope maybe to remain that way, to keep learning.
Since we can never get to the bottom of the whole universe, we can never figure it all out, maybe it’s best that we just continue to know that we don’t know, so that we can keep learning forever.
#knowitall #spiritualknowledge #gurus