Stuffed Full of Knowledge

From the time we’re born, we’re trained to learn from others — to stuff knowledge and information in to our mind.  So it seems logical that learning or reading about truth or freedom would cause us to find freedom.  But when we stuff more knowledge into our already crowded minds, we get a memorized version of the truth.  Reading about how to get free doesn’t make us free.  Talking about freedom doesn’t get us there.  Taking purposeful actions or rituals that demonstrate our knowledge of freedom doesn’t free us.

That’s why Jesus said to pray in private.  Initiation is a private thing that we all essentially do alone.  If we don’t find freedom through the mind by discriminating and letting go of our false beliefs, we’ll just believe the illusion again and again.

Telling you that reading doesn’t do the job when I’m a writer isn’t good for business.  But it happens to be the truth.  I write to make the journey to freedom faster, easier, and less lonely; I want to prompt you to let go.  Ultimately, I want to lose you as a reader or client because you’ve arrived.

The process of letting go perfects our discrimination so we can’t ever fall again.  The knowing and freedom that come from the process of letting go is pure.  We get our own insights.  We find our own unique perspective of truth.  Once we find freedom in this way, we won’t ever lose it.  Thus, free ones were considered immortal because death to the initiate was believing the illusion.

Freedom 

Ideally, we’d hear the truth, wake up to freedom, and live happily after.  However, our false minds have controlled our life and our bodies for a long time.  Our false self is a worthy opponent.  And, let me tell you, false selves love when we layer truth on top of it’s bullshit because it knows we won’t be letting go anytime soon.  Our mask will be shining too brightly.  When we layer truth on top of falsehood, we project the falsehood on to others so that we have a strong air of superiority and confidence.  We’re positive and their negative; we’re good and their bad.  We’re right and their wrong.

One must remember that the term con man came from the notion of the confidence man.  He looks like a True Self, speaks like a True Self, acts like a True Self, but he isn’t a True Self.  All of our problems in the world come from our inability to discriminate between the con man or woman and the True Self; this is especially true when we read.  We’re trained as young children to believe what we read, to hold on to it by memorizing it, and to be able to spit it back on command.  We’re trained to become con artists ourselves as we come to think our knowledge and expertise is who we really are.  Once we recognize this, we start to see through the trap of reading and learning.

Since we’ve been trained to believe we can’t let go, new information we read or learn goes on top of old information.   The old beliefs go into a mental storage vault that psychologists label the unconscious.  If we don’t like the info in our vault, we’ll often see it in others as projection.  We’ll think our job is to fix them.  But our real job is to empty our own vault.

In truth, there’s NO such thing as an unconscious mind.  We see the world that we hold within our mind.  If we’re bothered by something we see, hear, or read, our emotions remind us to let go.  Our emotions let us know that we’re contributing to the problem that we see in another or in the world with our beliefs.  When we let go, we either won’t notice the problem anymore or we’ll comfortably expose it and drain it of its power.  We won’t be inclined to fix it or treat it as real or true.

Reading and Learning

For a long time, reading was my escape.  I felt good when I read things that validated how I wanted the world to be.  But at some point, I realized that the reading wasn’t changing me at the core.  It was changing my facade.  It changed my conscious mind but didn’t clear out my unconscious.   I had to find out how to let go of my false mind, my unconscious.  That was the answer for me because I didn’t just want the truth, I wanted to eliminate my inner falsehood.  I wanted freedom.

People often ask me for recommended books to read, and I rarely answer their question.  Reading on the path to freedom isn’t about learning or putting more facts or truth in our mind.  It’s about provoking us to let go.  It’s about exposing beliefs that hold us away from freedom.  I can’t say what book will do that for you; but you’re True Self knows.

Treat reading as anything else.  Trust your inner initiator and read what you’re inspired to read.  But always read with your body, not your intellect.  Feel as you read so that you can notice when memories, beliefs, or emotions arise.  When they do, stop and follow them to the cause.  Let go of whatever arises in your mind.  In this way, reading helps expose our beliefs.  Reading decreases the size of our false mind.  Reading provokes letting go.

If you find yourself feeling validated or inspired by what you’re reading, ask yourself what belief was validated.  If you find yourself sad, angry, or depressed, look for the causal belief.  Once people start reading this way, they all say the same thing.  “All that stuff I used to think was so amazing and inspiring, now looks empty.”  Likewise, they’ll often find insights and truth in strange places.  They’ve stopped hoarding beliefs and knowledge and have begun to find their own true wisdom.