This comes from the comments on the post, Question and Answer (or Question and Question?) Part Two.
Would you say you believe in gravity or something like that? What I am trying to determine is whether there may be beliefs which you are not aware of, which exist in the mind below the level of conscious thought. I wonder it is actually possible to live completely without belief.
I do not believe in gravity, but that is only because of the word “believe”. Why should I believe in gravity? I use the word “believe” meaning, a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing. It seems that belief implies attachment.
Why should I attach myself to the “idea” of gravity? Gravity is a fact. I can drop my pen, and it consistently falls downward. Not once has it gone against gravity.
Other than a need or an interest in the specific details, I do not need to be told anything about gravity. It is there, and I can observe it. The same with the Sun. Why should I waste energy setting up a belief or a system telling me that the sun will rise tomorrow? If I believe it or not, it will be there. And if it isn’t, I won’t know the difference because I’ll be dead (you too!).
That is why I have said before that it seems like I am being picky over trivial semantic details. But that is not the case.
Some people use the word “belief” to mean any thing factual. I don’t use it that way. 2 + 2 = 4. That is a fact. Why should I believe it? There is a great deal of energy invested in beliefs.
I am not exchanging one thing for another. I am not saying, I don’t believe this because I believe THIS instead. There is no difference there. Having a belief would seem to imply that something is right, while something else is wrong. If you believe something, you exclude something else. Otherwise, how could there be any belief? So, if that is the case, belief has conflict built right into it.
{ 12 comments }
I never stopped to think about it before. From your definition of belief, it definitely plays into the idea of duality.
Belief is everything and everything IS, because it is believed. One does not need to explain beliefs since in the actions belief is revealed. It is only a “fact” because of belief.
You can extract ALL belief from the existence of gravity and you would float away into space (don’t believe, me try it!), of course why would we? There are certain “facts” that MUST be believed in order to maintain the fixation on the separate “self.” Belief keeps the illusion firmly in place.
However, there is a famous “master” who once said that “you have the power to move mountains if you only knew.” Contrary to popular opinion, I take this literally as a direct “pointing” to the power of belief.
I do agree 100% that belief demands conflict and this is clearly reflected in the “world.”
Thanks,
mike S
Thanks Mike.
I am not exactly sure what you mean.
It seems you are explaining perfectly the self and the illusions that keep it alive.
You could also say that belief keeps the self firmly in place. And since the self creates the belief, it is easy to see that belief is also part of the illusion.
Facts are independent of belief. If the weather is cold outside, then that is all there is. There is absolutely no need to believe it. Why is it necessary? I can feel the cold on my face. I don’t need to believe it, because it is easy to observe.
I may be warm inside my house. Outside it may be cold. But there is no need to put energy toward it. If it is winter, I will dress accordingly, but it has nothing to do with belief.
Forgive me if I have misunderstood what you have said. Perhaps if we look at the meaning of the word, it will become clear.
Belief means, a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing. Why should one believe anything that is observable?
If you go into the etymology of the word it means, mental acceptance of something as true. But there is nothing here that accepts or rejects.
Knowledge tells me that 2+2=4. But Takuin doesn’t accept the answer as true. It just is. It very well may be true, but it has nothing to do with what I think about it. (Also, because it is not accepted does not mean that it is rejected. There simply is no activity involved. It just is as it is.)
Again, sorry if I misunderstood what you meant.
Thank you for your comments.
Nice blog. Self-reflection can encourage the senses to perceive differently. In the event you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend a book called ” A Course in Miracles.” I refer to it under book recommendations on my blog. It can assist you to examine the reasons behind your perception and empowers you to decondition yourself as you choose.
I second what Mike said. Perhaps I can explain this better.
Beliefs determine the functioning of reality. A belief must be adopted before you can experience it. When you do, it will function as fact. Let me repeat that, if you are not truly believing in something, you will not experience it.
One of the things I have observed is that you often mix belief and judgment interchangeably.
Judgments are a subset of beliefs that filter how someone perceives an object or experience (This movie is bad. He is nice. Soda tastes good). They color your perceptions and can prevent you from seeing what is. They comprise a large portion of the self and aren’t particularly useful.
Beliefs comprise a much larger space. From the dictionary, “confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof: a statement unworthy of belief”. The space that most people tend to be interested in is more of a personal space than beliefs in gravity, or the sun. Determining how reality will interact with them or people will interact with them or what events will occur. Beliefs act like a filter that select specific experiences out of the multitude possibilities of existence.
Let’s take a few examples:
The Law of Attraction. This is a belief that if I think about certain things I will attract them into my life. Is it a fact? Not necessarily, but I can try it out and see if it produces the results I want.
Business. “I am a great businessman.” A person who believes this will seek out the information necessary to succeed, have opportunities come his way, meet the right people, etc.
“I can never succeed in business.” This person will manage to find a way to fail no matter what. Someone will tell him a good idea, he’ll forget it. He’ll piss off his employees, etc.
Want to test this out? Repeat to yourself “I’m happy” several times mentally. Then do the same with “I’m sad”
How does one change a belief? You simply decide that it is so. If there are no conflicting beliefs, you will begin to experience that belief. You may have experienced this where you decided that you wanted to speak to someone and within a few moments they call you on the phone.
Beliefs only create conflict when you choose your beliefs because you think they need to conform to an objective reality. When you recognize that the beliefs create the reality and not the other way around, what need is there to be attached to a particular belief – you can change beliefs at will. If I want guidance one day, I choose to believe in God, pray, and chances are I will find guidance. Later, I choose to not to believe in God, my prayers will likely not be answered. In recognizing that it’s my faith which validates the belief, rather than the actual existence of God I no longer need to assert to another person that God does or does not exist. Rather I can recognize that both beliefs can be true.
Beliefs can add momentum to the self, when they add self definition. “I am a 40 year old banker from New York who has an ailing back and an awful wife.” Stripping this off takes the person back to the core definition “I am” or even a no self state. However, that doesn’t mean the banker can’t be served by a belief like “I provide good service to my customers”. They key is for him to recognize that he is not really a banker, that it is just the role he is playing (just as Takuin can say “I am a blogger” but realize that is just an idea in a fictional self”).
One further clarification. Each person has their own beliefs. So one person can have a belief “Japanese companies make good cars” while another believes “Japanese companies make bad cars”. Each will find plenty of evidence to support his own conclusion (research reports, reliability, etc). Which one is right? Both are, because the belief is creating the evidence.
Hampton,
Great to see you again.
I think we are saying the same thing, but the words we use are different.
In order to have belief, there needs to be the entity that believes. If the entity is not there, where is belief?
This is a case where we are probably saying the same thing with different words. Beliefs determine one’s perceived reality, which is nothing more than an image, which is not reality.
I use reality to mean the world as it is; not how it is perceived. But all of this will be covered in the new A to Z series.
One can only judge from a center of some sort. Without the identity, without belief, there is no judgment. I didn’t mean to use them as entirely interchangeable.
Belief covers reality as it is (like a blanket). If one believes something is better than something else, can they really see the thing, or do they only see their belief about the thing?
Without belief there is no judgment. There must be an idea that something is better or worse before a judgment is made. Judgments are dependent upon the past.
If I am a Mac user, I might think PCs are awful. (and vice-versa) If I decide that is true, how do I know it? How can I know that one computer is better than the other? Only through what has come before (the decisions made in the past).
The projected belief says that one is better than the other for whatever reasons. But the only reality is, they are perfect the way they are. There is no before or after; only what is now.
If one computer malfunctions, or perhaps one is better suited for certain tasks, then that is all. It does not make one machine better than the other. They are both complete and whole and beyond one’s ideas of them.
If I need a certain set of applications that are only available on a Mac, then I can go and get a Mac. It isn’t a big deal or require a belief that one is better than the other.
Don’t get me wrong. There is no judgment here that says this is right, and someone else is wrong. Takuin sees no before or after. That is just how things are.
It can’t be helped.
But I think we speak of the same things.
You might say: beliefs create the reality.
Takuin might say: beliefs create an idea of reality, and not reality itself.
It is just a difference in the way we use the word reality.
@ Hampton
One more thing. I noticed that there is no link to a website for you on your comment. If you don’t have a blog, you should probably think of starting one. You write very well on the subjects you speak of.
I’d certainly be happy to drop a link or two your way if you ever decide to start one.
@ Liara
That is creepy. Someone just invited me to an ACIM meeting in Tokyo. I couldn’t go this time, but I may attend next month. If I do, I’ll let you know how it goes.
And thanks for letting me know about the book.
Takuin
Thank you for your suggestion. I really would do well to have a blog.
You are still mistaking judgments for beliefs. Beliefs extend beyond the domain of what is better / worse. They determine what is. If my belief is that I operate a successful business, what is will consist of a large number of customers in my store.
Another clarification, judgment requires no reference to the past. I need no comparison to decide that PCs are better than Macs. I simply decide it is so in this moment now because I choose to. I require no evidence, no comparison to switch my judgment to one that Macs are better than PCs. When most people say better, my feeling is that they are saying it is better suited to the tasks that they are doing.
Here are a few beliefs that are not judgments:
I will receive a phone call from a friend tomorrow.
My car never breaks down.
UFOs sent from another planet exist.
I am afraid of snakes (whether there is anything to
If I do 5 things towards my goal a day, I will eventually reach my goal
These sorts of beliefs determine what is. That is to say, what is being seen now or experienced now is the product of the belief that you have at this moment now. So if I have the belief “my car never breaks down” and I am in my car right now, it will be working properly.
Judgments filter what is and create an image on top of what is. Even to say that what is is perfect is a judgment. What is simply is what is.
We could go on and on about the words we use. You use the word belief to mean one thing. I use the word belief to mean something else. That is all.
I can’t say you are wrong, because you are not. If you believe that beliefs determine what is, then that is what is. I will stand behind you 100%
Takuin just happens to use the word differently.
I am not capable of thinking you are wrong. If I say, “You are wrong!” how do I know it is true? It can only be due to what I already know. I cannot say something is wrong unless I have an idea of what is right.
If I have the idea that I am right, and you challenge me with something against that idea, what happens?
Here are some questions that arose.
Can what is be filtered? If it is, does it cease to be what is?
If there is no reference to the past, can there be a judgment?
If there is no reference to the past, can there be belief?
Can one decide what is better without a reference?
I am not saying that any of this is or isn’t, by the way.
It is really just a difference in how we use the word. Belief means this; belief means that. Either way, it really doesn’t matter.
A word can only point to something, but never fully capture it (in the sense we are talking about).
The word perfect (or any other word, for that matter), is a judgment only if there is an idea or concept of perfection. I just used the word to indicate the state of an object through awareness. Nothing more. (Not that there is a state other than what is.)
This is the problem with language pointing at something beyond what is known. I am still not sure if there is a way around it.
I feel that your pointing to the “past” is correct since all thought is judgment based on past/future interpretations. Thought “presses” one into either the past or the future and this is how we become “contained.”
Present thought is No-Thought, or the complete cessation of thinking, and this is freedom and why so many seek to attain the “NOW.”
When the “container” is empty, freedom is experienced.
Thanks,
mike S
@ Mike Well said. It is a past/future interpretation (or belief in one’s own imagery) that keeps us dull and drains our energy; energy that is required for awareness.
And of course the future is just the past in different clothes.
Comments on this entry are closed.