The Art of Knowing
Hope — Believe — Know
Deepak Chopra teaches that answers to all your questions in life lie in three areas of choice: you hope, you believe, or you know that you have the correct answer. There’s a huge gap between each of these: I hope, I believe, and I know. This is true of everything that happens in your awareness.
Someone says, “I haven’t done much to prepare for retirement, but I hope I have enough saved.” Another person says, “I followed my brother’s advice, so I believe I have a good money strategy for retirement.” The third person says, “I have a detailed financial plan which I constantly update using professional advice, so I know it will sustain me for a long, uncertain retirement.”
These are very different statements, and we find ourselves confused because we don’t differentiate between “I hope,” “I believe,” and “I know.” We act as if they are all the same and fail to see where things truly stand.
Your life path takes you from a state of uncertainty (I hope) to a somewhat firmer state of security (I believe) and eventually to true understanding (I know). Your life journey begins with hope, grows stronger with faith, and becomes solid with knowing.
A Little Bit About My Journey to Knowing
“I awoke, only to see that the rest of the world is still asleep.” — Leonardo Da Vinci
For me, one aspect of awakening is to ‘know’ something. Not hope or believe — but to truly know. And sometimes, in the process, I don’t know how I know. I just do. This is not an arrogance that says, “I know everything, and you don’t.” Nor am I asking anyone else to accept what I know.
When I experience a ‘knowing,’ my body resonates in a particularly positive way. I just ‘know’ from somewhere deep within me. It’s a conscious state that reaches the deep essence of who I am — somewhere beyond ego, thought, or emotion.
When we depend on others for information, we often neglect our inner guidance system. While it may serve us to be occasionally guided by others, the best answers to our grand questions about the ‘all of existence’ are always found deep within our essence.
As I seek to uncover the truth of what is happening in the world and the cosmos, my personal process for ‘knowing’ guides me through the misinformation (information thought to be accurate but isn’t) and the disinformation (information purposely given to mislead). And I’m happy to report that my process for ‘knowing’ has served me well.
How do I know the truth?
“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed by the masses.” — Plato
For me, truth always feels a certain way. When I truly know something, the following has occurred:
- I didn’t accept other people’s opinions. I found out on my own.
- I adjusted my core beliefs as new credible information presented itself.
- I didn’t give in too quickly. I kept exploring beyond false persuasions.
- I was determined to find the truth. Half-truths left me dissatisfied.
- I didn’t let fear or discouragement — by me or others — influence me.
- I went beyond logic into the realms of intuition, insight, and wisdom.
- I paid attention to and trusted my internal guidance system.
- What I truly know grew from the inside and made my outside better.
Regarding intuition
I never distrust my intuition. When something seems to light the way, I move in that direction. If it drains my life energy, I move away. I have discovered that my body can pick up on bad energy vibrations. If a feeling deep inside me says something is wrong about a person or situation, I pay attention and trust it. Click here for a related article.
The right path to ‘knowing’ feels satisfying and straightforward. Consider how good it is to truly ‘know’ something rather than just hoping or believing. Consider applying what you ‘know’ to those areas where you have doubts or where only hope and belief exist today.
Some Rules that apply to the Art of Knowing
I’m amazed at how many people — despite all that they may have learned and think they know — still have strong opinions about things they actually know very little. So here are some rules regarding ‘knowing’:
1. Be wary of disinformation and misinformation
The speed at which data moves these days is mind-boggling. Breaking news flashes worldwide in milliseconds, and is then edited, reconstructed, and repackaged depending on its intended audience, and sent out again.
There is so much misinformation and disinformation that it can often be impossible to determine what is true and what is not. My default position is to be cynical about others’ motivations and critical of claims that are too good to be true or are oversimplified.
2. Dive beneath the surface
As part of my efforts to be conscientious, one of the first things I do is research a supposed ‘knowing’ and attempt to ascertain the veracity of the argument or claim.
Social media is basically a platform for the instant sharing of information from many different sources. We are inundated with information about many things. But most people don’t take the time to go below the surface. Many people know just enough to be complacent — or even dangerous.
3. Don’t make sweeping judgments without proper backup
Many people with only surface knowledge of a subject tend to make sweeping judgments that are not backed up by facts or science. Instead, they are based on various biases they possess as part of their worldview that has been ingrained in them since childhood.
The more we know, the more complex it all becomes — and the harder it is to predict outcomes. The less we know, the easier it is to make snap judgments because the problem appears simple.
4. Don’t accept inaccuracy
Since we began to seriously question the honesty of the media — especially when ‘truth’ has become politicized with the intentional attempt to degrade public trust in institutions — the value of accuracy has skyrocketed. If accuracy isn’t valued, then how will the truth ever be?
Often, people who operate with inaccuracies are corrected on social media as being wrong. Many of them have no graceful way to turn their boat around. So, they either scuttle the ship and admit defeat or revert to excuses, misdirection, and fallacies to defend their position.
5. Pay heed to circular logic
Socrates said that the only true wisdom was in knowing you know nothing. Since then, some have argued, “There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know.” Others have claimed, “There are unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don’t know.” Such ruminations feel like circular logic wherein: If A, then B — and if B, then A.
The problem with circular logic is that the founding premise is typically a fallacy. As someone once said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
6. Maintain a constant state of open-minded curiosity
When a person proclaims ‘what is’ without a solid foundation of accurate information to back up the proclamation, then that person will likely not seek any new evidence that could change one’s mind and, therefore, one’s course of action.
An open-minded, curious intellectual should only proceed along one path regarding what they think they know. They should proceed intuitively, using up-to-date, accurate information — or what one might call an ‘educated guess.’ Then, continue forward by assuming everything is open for discussion.
That doesn’t mean there are no absolute truths — but even our 3D reality is subject to constant reconsideration. The laws of physics, for example, are not supposed to change — but our understanding of them seems to keep evolving. Click here for my article regarding “The Funky Physics of Reality.”
Think of everything we thought we knew but were wrong about a thousand years ago. Or even a hundred years ago. Then ask yourself what we will be wrong about in the next 100 years — or a thousand.
The more open you are to possibilities, the less shocked you will be when the unexpected comes along.
