I already know that

Have you ever been to a class or a lecture where, after the first five or ten minutes or so, you were thinking “I already know that.”?
And if you have, did you notice how you, as soon as you had allowed yourself thinking that, started listening with just a little bit less focus; finding yourself a little bit less involved in the process of the class or lecture…

The interesting thing is that our thoughts truly set us up for how we encounter pretty much anything in life. The moment we think the thought that we already know what is being presented, we close ourselves to any new information the class or lecture might have given us because in reality we aren’t listening anymore. We have decided that we already know it, and therefore there is nothing to be gained from this interaction, so we checked out.

The perspective that comes from the totally opposite direction would be that everything in our lives happens for a reason. This means that we were in this class for a reason…

Now, in all fairness, the reason might not be the information given. It may be the opportunity of meeting someone who is at the same event… Yet in order to find out the true reason for being right there at that very moment, we need to be focused and alert.

The question it brings up though is why we assume that we ‘already know it’.
Why do we permit ourselves to think a thought ~ and even be aware of it ~ which lets us ‘check out’. A thought that takes our focus away from the moment, bringing it inward for us to ponder things that may have happened that day or that week. To think about situations that might need solutions in our lives; or about whether we are on the right path. Perhaps if we even would like to change the direction of the personal path we are walking.
And all this against the backdrop of this class or lecture continuing.
But we already know it, so we don’t have to listen…

It is a mechanism we all use every once in a while. Perhaps more so if we are told to attent a meeting we didn’t really want to attent in the first place; but even events that we have signed up for on our own accord are not entirely exempt from this. A lot depends on the words used, the examples given; and of course our state of mind.

If our minds are too busy, too full to take in new information, we won’t truly listen or be with what is going on around us. Yet if we have decided to be right there at that very moment, chances are that there is something there for us…
Something worth listening to with an open mind.