More from Don Miguel Ruiz
A Review of "The Voice of Knowledge"
With "The Voice of Knowledge", Don Miguel Ruiz continues to lead us more deeply into the depths of our inner universe, allowing us to see more clearly if we but look.
"The Four Agreements" is written in such a way that we seem, almost instantly, to remember what we are being told; to immediately understand. "The Voice of Knowledge" is a bit trickier than that but also, I think better for that. It too is a revelation. A book that one picks up and immediately feels the clicking of light-bulbs over the head. But they are not neccessarily shades of light we are comfortable sitting in. It is a book of questions. Some people are not comfortable with questions, particularly when they are questions they seem to somehow remember, just as the Agreements are answers we somehow remember.
Don Miguel speaks in his first book of the voice in our head, how sometimes it is telling the truth, sometimes lies and that one of the most important things we must do is learn to tell the difference. There, it is almost an aside, something touched upon but not explored in but so much depth.
"Voices in our head! Does he mean crazy people? Who hears voices?" You may ask. Well, in a sense, yes. It is not insanity per-se but illusion to listen to the voice that lies. The voice that, as he describes in this book, tells us a story that is not true. "What voice" you doubtless still insist. Well, our own, but it comes from somewhere deep within us, a part of us that transcends our daily awareness, so it is seperate too.
It is hard to explain, something that really only Don Miguel can explain I think. If I tell you more, you'll start to think I'm hearing voices. I am not yet a master of dispelling illusion so cannot dispel it here. Just trust that there is a voice (you hear it when you are thinking), that it is more than you yet you and that you can choose to allow it to guide you, or to confuse you.
One of many striking things Don Miguel explains in this book, is that life is a story we are telling ourselves. You are the star, the voice of knowledge is the narrator. Voice of knowledge, that sounds great right? Not so much. Think about what you know, how you learned it, what you have built your story upon. The perceptions of others. Knowledge is not truth, basically.
Now, that's a big statement, I spent years arguing it as a Religious Studies and Philosophy major. I never was able to 'win' one of those arguments even in my one graduate class, ironically, the theory of knowledge. "How do we know we know anything?" My professor asked. Don Miguel seems to answer, that is not the right question. Knowing is nothing. Not knowing is everything.
Bringing it down to earth here, (which is what he does a far better job of doing in his book than I am doing in this review), he explains in his clear, direct style, how to stop telling yourself a story with an unhappy ending. How to make your life what you want it to be instead of what you have learned it should be.
Within this tiny volume you will find great wisdom. And by applying this wisdom, which is very simple actually, you can stop sabatoging yourself, stop beating yourself up, dispel whatever negativity you have accumulated. It's true. And, as he says, "We are born in truth, but we grow up believing in lies...one of the biggest lies in the story of humanity is the lie of our imperfection."
"The Four Agreements" opens a door for us. "The Voice of Knowledge" opens our ears and our eyes. Which, another very wise man once said, was a very important point we overlook we too often, "have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear". (Don Miguels' books, by the way, are inclusive of and wonderful companions to wisdom books of all faiths).
