Everybody Knows: A Spiritual Anthem for Awakening

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking 
Everybody knows that the captain lied 

Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows strikes a hauntingly familiar chord. It’s a song that carries the weight of truth, unveiling the fractures in our shared reality. Yet beneath its raw honesty lies something even more potent: a call to awaken, to see clearly, and to embrace the profound alchemy of truth and transformation.

From the very first line, “Everybody knows the dice are loaded,” Cohen invites us to step into radical clarity. This isn’t just a lament for the broken systems we live in; it’s a challenge to recognize them for what they are. Awakening begins with seeing—not with rosy optimism or denial, but with an unflinching gaze at the way things truly are. And in that moment of seeing, there is power. When we stop pretending that the dice aren’t loaded, we reclaim our ability to choose a different way forward.

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Awakening Through the Cracks

The refrain “Everybody knows” reverberates like a mantra. On the surface, it points to a collective awareness of corruption, inequality, and the inevitability of the status quo. But on a deeper level, it speaks to something even more profound: the inner knowing that lies dormant within each of us. Cohen’s lyrics remind us that we already know the truths we need to face. The question is, will we allow ourselves to see them fully?

Awakening is not about escaping the shadows but about embracing them. Cohen’s “Everybody knows” becomes a spiritual anthem precisely because it doesn’t shy away from the darkness. Instead, it acknowledges it as part of the whole. It’s through the cracks—through the fractures in our illusions—that the light begins to pour in. As Cohen himself wrote in another song, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” The cracks aren’t flaws to be fixed; they are the openings that allow transformation to happen.

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A Mirror for the Human Condition

Cohen’s unrelenting honesty holds up a mirror to the human condition. Lines like “The poor stay poor, the rich get rich,” and “The captain lied,” strip away the illusions we cling to. But this isn’t cynicism for its own sake. It’s an invitation to stop looking away. To awaken is to face these truths—not with despair, but with a willingness to see clearly and to act from a place of integrity.

In many ways, Everybody Knows echoes the spiritual concept of the Dragon—that force which reveals what no longer serves us by bringing it to the surface. Cohen’s lyrics pull no punches; they force us to confront what we’d rather avoid. And yet, in doing so, they offer a gift: the possibility of transformation. By acknowledging what “everybody knows,” we can begin to transcend it.

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The Urgency of Now

One of the song’s most striking lines is “Everybody knows that it’s now or never.” This isn’t just a commentary on the state of the world; it’s a spiritual wake-up call. Awakening doesn’t happen someday; it happens in the now. Cohen’s urgency is a reminder that the moment of choice is always present. Will we stay asleep, or will we rise into awareness?

Awakening is often uncomfortable because it demands that we let go of our illusions. It requires us to face not only the cracks in the world around us but also the cracks within ourselves. But as Cohen’s song suggests, this discomfort is not the end of the story. It’s the beginning of something deeper and more authentic.

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A Sacred Anthem for Transformation

Ultimately, Everybody Knows is more than a song; it’s a spiritual anthem for awakening. It’s a reminder that the light and the dark are not separate but intertwined. It’s through facing the darkness that we find the light, and through acknowledging what’s broken that we discover what’s real.

Cohen’s refrain, repeated again and again, is a call to courage. “Everybody knows” isn’t just an observation; it’s an invitation. It asks us to go beyond surface knowing and into the deep, transformative knowing that comes from fully allowing the truth to surface. It asks us to embrace the cracks, to let the light in, and to step into the fullness of who we are.

And so, as we listen to Everybody Knows, may we hear not just the weight of its truth but the hope within it. May we let it remind us that awakening is possible, even inevitable, when we stop running from what we already know. And may we allow the song’s unflinching honesty to guide us into our own sacred transformation.

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“Everybody Knows”

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded 
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed 
Everybody knows that the war is over 
Everybody knows the good guys lost 
Everybody knows the fight was fixed 
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich 
That’s how it goes 
Everybody knows 
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking 
Everybody knows that the captain lied 
Everybody got this broken feeling 
Like their father or their dog just died 

Everybody talking to their pockets 
Everybody wants a box of chocolates 
And a long stem rose 
Everybody knows 

Everybody knows that you love me baby 
Everybody knows that you really do 
Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful 
Ah give or take a night or two 
Everybody knows you’ve been discreet 
But there were so many people you just had to meet 
Without your clothes 
And everybody knows 

Everybody knows, everybody knows 
That’s how it goes 
Everybody knows 

Everybody knows, everybody knows 
That’s how it goes 
Everybody knows 

And everybody knows that it’s now or never 
Everybody knows that it’s me or you 
And everybody knows that you live forever 
Ah when you’ve done a line or two 
Everybody knows the deal is rotten 
Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton 
For your ribbons and bows 
And everybody knows 

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming 
Everybody knows that it’s moving fast 
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman 
Are just a shining artifact of the past 
Everybody knows the scene is dead 
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed 
That will disclose 
What everybody knows 

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble 
Everybody knows what you’ve been through 
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary 
To the beach of Malibu 
Everybody knows it’s coming apart 
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart 
Before it blows 
And everybody knows 

Everybody knows, everybody knows 
That’s how it goes 
Everybody knows 

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows 
That’s how it goes 
Everybody knows 

Everybody knows

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“You teach best what you most need to learn.”

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