Friday, June 4, 2021

Do you know what you know?



 Do you know what you know?

So to put what is occurring in your life another way, you are now paying greater Attention to your Awareness. It’s one thing to be “aware,” but it is another thing altogether to pay attention to what your Soul is aware of (instead of ignoring it, which most people do most of the time).


Walsch, Neale Donald. The Only Thing That Matters (Conversations With Humanity Book 2) (p. 7). Hay House. Kindle Edition. 


St. Theresa of Avila is reported to have said something along the line of “It is one thing to know. It is another to know that you know. It is a third thing to teach what you know that you know to others.”


In the passage above Neale Donald Walsch seems to be making the same point. It is one thing to be aware, and it is another thing to pay attention to that of which you are aware.


I remember seeing a piece of urinal stall graffiti which said “Be a lert. America needs more lerts.” This is not only funny but very true except that it is not just America that needs more lerts but the whole world.


In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and one way of doing this is to give more attention to that of which we are aware. One person calls this “self -reckoning.” People keep busy to avoid self-reckoning.


Self-reckoning scares people. This is the reason that they disparagingly talk about needing to go see a “shrink” because the therapist will ask them to engage in a process of self-reckoning which can seem judgmental contributing to an experience of shame. Once this fear is overcome usually the opposite occurs when the self-reckoning leads to clarifying understanding, increased confidence, a growing sense of optimism in the goodness of life and an experience of empowerment..


Walsch is suggesting that people pay attention to their awareness either by themselves or with a trusted other.


One of the purposes of religion is to help people pay more attention to that of which they are aware and to make sense of their understanding. Does your church do this for you? Does your church help you discern that which you should pay attention to and what really matters?


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