There is a story that shortly after his enlightenment experience, the Buddha encountered a fortune teller desirous of practicing his art on the former prince. Despite years of training, he was unable to “see” a single thing about the Buddha’s future.
The baffled fortune teller asked him, “Are you a god?”
“No,” the Buddha replied. “I am awake.”
Part of what he was awake to was the variable nature of Thought and Consciousness – that what can seem completely real to us in one moment seems like little more than a dream in the next. This includes every single thought that we have about our capabilities and personality, and every single feeling we feel from inadequacy to indifference.
So whereas most people live out a somewhat predictable pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions, the more we wake up to temporary nature of even the most persistent of our historical thoughts, the less inclined we are to believe them, and the less automatically we will act or not act in accordance with them. Instead, we tap into a deeper part of the mind – what some people call wisdom, or guidance.
Guidance shows up as a kind of “just in time” knowing, pointing us in a direction and gently unfolding a path in front of our feet. Because we can’t see it until it’s there (and it’s not there until we actually need it), most people have never learned to trust it. But if you know that you’ll know when you know, there’s really nothing else you need to know about how you’re going to get from here to there.
How else will you know?
Love Deepak
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