Humans believe so many lies because we aren't aware. We ignore

Don Miguel Ruiz, the sage of the Toltec tradition, warns us with piercing clarity: “Humans believe so many lies because we aren’t aware. We ignore the truth or we just don’t see the truth. When we are educated, we accumulate a lot of knowledge, and all that knowledge is just like a wall of fog that doesn’t allow us to perceive the truth, what really is.” In these words, he reveals the paradox of human existence: that we may drown in knowledge yet starve for truth, that our eyes may be clouded by the very ideas we cling to, and that awakening requires not more accumulation, but clarity and awareness.

The meaning of this teaching is both humbling and unsettling. Ruiz reminds us that humans are easily trapped by illusions. We accept traditions, dogmas, and assumptions handed to us from birth, rarely questioning whether they conceal the truth rather than reveal it. Even education, that great treasure of humanity, can become a prison when it fills us with so many opinions, theories, and explanations that we mistake the fog for the sky. We begin to believe not what is, but what we have been taught to see. And in doing so, we become blind to the deeper reality—the living, breathing truth that exists beyond all words.

The origin of Ruiz’s wisdom lies in the ancient teachings of the Toltecs, who believed that humans live in a dream—caught in illusions of fear, judgment, and false belief. He inherited this philosophy and reshaped it for the modern world, showing that the fog we live in is not merely ignorance, but the dense wall of stories and concepts we have accepted without awareness. He speaks not against knowledge itself, but against its misuse—when it hardens into unquestioned belief, when it hides the direct perception of what is real.

History gives us many examples. Consider the trial of Galileo. The scholars of his day were filled with knowledge, armed with Aristotle and centuries of Church teaching. Yet their knowledge became a fog, blinding them to the simple truth revealed by the telescope: that the earth moves around the sun. Their education was vast, but their awareness was dim. And so they clung to lies, persecuting the one who dared to pierce through the mist. Here we see Ruiz’s warning embodied in the fate of a man who saw clearly what others refused to perceive.

But there are also brighter testimonies. The Buddha, born into luxury and surrounded by teachings of his time, stepped beyond the walls of knowledge to see suffering with his own eyes. His awareness, awakened beneath the Bodhi tree, pierced through the fog of illusion. He realized that liberation was not in doctrines or accumulated learning, but in seeing reality as it truly is. His life demonstrates that when we set aside the lies we have accepted, we open ourselves to the clear vision of truth.

The lesson for us is urgent: do not mistake knowledge for truth. Knowledge is useful, but it can become a veil. Truth is direct, immediate, alive—it is the awareness of the present moment, the ability to see things as they are, not as they have been described. We must cultivate not only the mind but also the clarity of perception, the humility to admit when what we “know” is only a fog.

So what must you do? Be vigilant against the lies you have inherited. Do not be satisfied with secondhand truths—seek direct experience. Use education as a tool, but do not let it become a cage. Practice awareness: see, listen, question, and be still enough to perceive beyond the fog of accumulated knowledge. Learn, but do not cling; study, but do not mistake words for reality. Above all, seek the truth that cannot be shaken by opinion or covered by illusion.

Thus remember Ruiz’s words: “Humans believe so many lies … all that knowledge is just like a wall of fog that doesn’t allow us to perceive the truth.” Let them awaken you from slumber. For the task of life is not only to learn but to awaken—to pierce the fog, to dissolve the lies, and to see reality as it is. And in that vision, you will find freedom.