Should we have beliefs? Should we build up a network of thoughts about how we should be, or how the world should be?
This is something I’ve been thinking about – the difference between all the different systems of personal development I’ve investigated, from western psychology, popular psychology, and self-help, to eastern philosophy.
This is something many systems of personal development recommend - building up your beliefs about yourself or the world. There are a few ways of going about this; one of the most popular would be the use of affirmations.
These beliefs can be about anything and everything. How easy or hard money is to come by, how attractive a person believes themselves to be, how much respect and care they deserve – these are just some examples.
Let’s start with a relatively simple one, though. Ruby, a shy girl, wants to ask her crush out on a date. Many will say that her beliefs will influence the results. If she thinks she is attractive, if she believes the boy likes her – it will influence her confidence, and reduce her nervousness. This in turn means it is likelier that he will agree.
On the other hand, if she is shy, or believes that nobody will want to be seen in public with her, then her reduced confidence will mean that she will mess up her request for a date. Or she might not even find the courage to approach him, and therefore have no chance at all. Or maybe she’ll go on a date, but unconsciously sabotage herself.
In this case, then, it is obvious how many would want to develop a good set of beliefs.
However, a good belief could also backfire. If Ruby thinks that she is an attractive woman, and that every male would be honored to go out with her, what could happen? Conceit, pride, arrogance, or perhaps you could think of some other downfalls.
Some brands of psychology, then, recommend flexibility. Instead of a set of rigid beliefs – I deserve a quality boyfriend, or I don’t deserve love at all – they recommend a preference. I would prefer to be with a lover, but it is okay if I am alone. I am attractive, but not everyone would see me as their type.
And there is another reason for this flexibility – our emotional distress. Our beliefs cause our distress. This might sound very silly, but it actually happened to me.
I once fell into the trap of pride. As I improved my self-esteem and my appearance, almost everyone I came across treated me with more respect. But one day, at a busy bar, I was standing there waiting for service, and got none. People who had been waiting for shorter periods of time got served before I did. After about fifteen minutes standing there, I started to get quite annoyed and just gave up.
Childish, I know. And it is the reason psychologists recommend flexibility. But what I noticed was – I was actually more annoyed than I would be when I believed I didn’t deserve much respect.
It got me thinking – what if, it’s better not to have any beliefs at all?
Unhappiness is caused by our thoughts and beliefs. The world is as it is, and if we accepted it as such – there would be no distress. The problems arise when we have beliefs about how the world should be.
And the greater the disparity between the world and our beliefs, the greater our distress. To use a crude analogy: Ruby’s boyfriend has cheated on her. She believes, with all her heart, in monogamy – 100% conviction. This means her suffering is also a 100%. Christine’s boyfriend has also cheated on her, but her conviction in monogamy is only 80%, and therefore her suffering is only 80%.
What if, you had no beliefs? What do you think will happen to you? Will you be offended? Would you be annoyed?
What about the impact on your life? If you don’t believe you are attractive or unattractive, what are your chances of “making sexy time” with that special guy or girl? (Sorry I rented Borat
If you don’t have any beliefs about how much respect you should or shouldn’t get, how will your social interactions go? If you don’t believe that money is easy to come by, or hard to come by – would you be rich or poor?
I would love to hear what you think.
This is a new type of blog post – most of my previous posts have been rather detailed dissections. But I’m going to try a few new types, and this is one of them. For example, this post:
What do you think of these factors? This is not to say I’m abandoning my old style of posts, they will still be coming, but I’m just going to mix in a few of these more relaxed posts from time to time. They take a fraction of the time to write, too.
For the past few weeks I’ve been exchanging notes with Stephen Hopson of Adversity University. I know I say this a lot of all the bloggers I mention, but it’s really true - there are so many wonderful people I’ve met in blogging. Stephen is no different - he’s a brilliant man and got a really big heart to go with it. He’s also recently interviewed me for his blog, which you can read here.
Next, I was recently a guest blogger for the equally awesome Ririan Project. I’d like to say thank you to Ririan, who’s a fantastic guy and well worth your support. You can find my guest post, on (you guessed it) emotions right here on Finding True Joy and Removing Your Sorrows. Thank you so much Ririan, once again!
Compassion is a huge topic, you didn’t think it was over, did you? Subscribe to stay up to date!
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This is a tough one…
I have to start out with “I believe,” ironically enough.
I believe that it would be nearly impossible to suspend all beliefs. And yet, this is perhaps the key to inner peace. From what I can tell from people who have achieved momentary peace, accepting everything as it is, without placing your own judgments on it (especially not good/bad judgments) seems to bring about a moment of peace. Once you achieve that moment of peace, of course our first reaction is to label it as good, which disrupts the peace.
Of course, I’m basing this on what other people have said… I have yet to suspend my beliefs enough to say one way or another. By the time people read this, it’s third-hand information… my interpretation of someone else’s interpretation of an event that can only be understood while within that event, so take it with a grain of salt.
Right now, I’m pursuing a belief in honesty… This means that I have to believe what my senses tell me before I believe what my (strangely twisted) logic tells me. I have to be honest, it is hard… I’m finding faults that I never knew I had, as well as qualities that I used to be ashamed of or that I constantly downplayed. It is a humiliatingly empowering experience to say the least.
As far as the new type of blog post… I enjoy it. It’s a good thing, in moderation. I do wish it were longer, and that it included more of your personal opinion (with it clearly labeled as an opinion), but I can definitely see why you left your opinion out at this step. I’ll be waiting to see your opinion after a few more comments have gone through.
I’m hoping that this ‘break’ in the compassion series doesn’t push back the next post… I believe (there’s those two dangerous words again) that a reader contribution post should be an ‘extra’ post, not a replacement for a regular post.
Albert:
Thank you for the wonderful link love to Adversity University and the complements that went along with it. It’s greatly appreciated. You also have a beautiful heart! One day we shall meet.
Part I of my interview with you is already live at my blog. Simply click on to my name and you’ll see it there in all its splendor!
Albert,
I do “believe” it is physically impossible to have “no beliefs” and to hold to a concept of being “beliefless” would still be a “belief.”
There are schools of thought (Zen/Advaita) that advocate that who you think you are (the “self” or ego) is nothing but belief. We are thus, nothing but skin-encapsulated belief containers.
To completely detach from all belief would be to dissolve the concepts that compose YOU. Pretty darn impossible, I would think (however, for some that might be a lovely thought, in fact, I have been considering this as of lately). LOL.
However, some traditions even ascribe to the idea that the world is nothing but a belief system and yes, manifested even on a physical level. Even theoretical physics seems to be concluding that the “quanta” or packets of energy that compose the universe has as its foundation - THOUGHT! Think of the physical implications of that! Did we simply “think” all this up?
However, I do agree that having as few beliefs about your “self” as possible does equate with a significant reduction of personal suffering. With less of your “self” or ego to have to maneuver and manipulate into the world that might be quite liberating, at least, that’s what I’ve heard.
Thanks
Mike S
I think the key is in something you said… having beliefs about “the way things should be”.
There’s also something of a fuzzy line between the way you expect things to be and the way you believe they should be.
Expectations are built from past experience, logically predicting that similar input will produce similar output. It moves from expectation to belief when you consider anything that deviates from it to be “wrong”.
There is also a difference in the degree of openness of your beliefs… closed beliefs, where you are not willing to consider anything that conflicts, are generally the ones that cause suffering, while open beliefs, where you believe it unless something comes along which contradicts it and seems convincing, are much less likely to cause suffering.
That being said, everyone has beliefs, as Mike S said… you have, at the very least, a belief that you have no beliefs. Perhaps even beyond that belief, you have a belief that you are you, an entity with the ability to have beliefs.
PS - I’m glad I subscribed to your articles… you really consistently challenge my thinking, and make me think about why I think what I think (meta-thinking?).
I really liked your idea that our distress is created when our reality doesn’t reflect what we would like unless, our expectation is different as mentioned by Jason.
In that regard, it seems perfectly reasonable and ideal to not have these beliefs or at least limit them, staying neutral or indifferent.
The thing I’m curious about is wouldn’t that work the other way around too. We also derive some sort of happiness (or is it merely satisfaction?) when our reality do reflect our expectations. Wouldn’t removing what we expect also be removing that? Some would see it purely as a case that you don’t care.
Thanks for your articles!
The way I see it is our minds are designed to create stories/beliefs about how things work. That doesn’t mean we can’t step back and see what those beliefs are and change them if they’re not working for us. That, in turn, means we have to know what our values are. Researchers have studied people whose logical parts of their mind work fine, but the emotional part is damaged. They can’t make decisions, because you can’t make decisions without some criteria for choosing.
I was talking to a fellow once and he said, “You don’t have a strong sense of identity, do you, Jean?” Yes and no. I don’t define myself too narrowly, but on the other hand, I do notice that open, questioning attitude is a recurring pattern. It’s not a matter of pride, something that I cling to. It’s just what I’m noticing when I’m in the observing consciousness mode.
As you might guess, Albert, I love this format…shorter posts, trying to generate a discussion and community.
Holy cow guys, very awesome and detailed responses, I’m loving it.
Adam, Mike S, and Jason, I don’t know if there is a proper method to removing a belief (would love any info), but right now it might be just a case of, as Mike S said, believing that you have no belief. Still, from what I’ve experienced, it’s pretty cool
Right now, though, I am leaning towards practicality - simply the psychological method of adapting a flexible belief, like Jason said.
Kai, regarding your statement that when we do get some pleasure when our expectations are met, what if we have no expectations at all, and any positive outcome is considered a plus! So even the slightest happy outcome will be considered a good outcome, and we will rejoice in it.
Jean, that’s a fantastic way of putting it. I couldn’t find the words for it, and you’ve done it for me. Taking a step back and seeing what is going on is exactly what I was looking for.
I also agree that the ego, is pretty much just a giant belief. In fact, it’s all of our beliefs just stuck together into one gigantic one that we call “me”. Would love to hear more about the universe being composed of thought, though! Awesome stuff!
Don’t worry, my normal boring drag-on-far-too-long posts are still coming, but I enjoy the break these shorter posts give me, as they take a fraction of the time to write. And I really love the wisdom you guys have.
And lastly, Stephen, thanks again for the interview, I’ve updated the post to reflect the new info.
Sorry for the haphazard reply, I don’t know how to handle such posts, it’s my first one
Albert,
If you want to know a bit more about the universe being composed of thought you might like reading the blog Mike S writes. Truly best read from the beginning, as one thing builds on the next. You might already be doing so, so I didn’t really have to tell you. The info you’d like is there, presented in gradual fashion while you take it all in. Let Mike guide you to specific posts he thinks best exemplify this for you and anyone else that may be interested.
Your post is really a great idea to bring all kinds of beliefs to the awareness of others. Pun intended. Just having a little fun…couldn’t resist.
Albert,
Great discussion and I just wanted to add one last little “food for thought.”
Albert, I like how you described the ego as composed of “all our beliefs just stuck together into one gigantic one that we call ‘me’.” I think that’s a pretty good representation. So where does that leave us as far as which beliefs should stay and which should go?
I “believe” that there are only two primary states of mind that we gravitate toward - love or fear. Every “emotion” you can name originates from one of these two chief states of mind. Thus, if I hold to beliefs that result in the state of mind we refer to as love and sift out beliefs that maintain fear I can experience “joy.” And ain’t that what its all about!
I contend that every personal development website, including yours, has this magnanimous and noble motive in mind, identifying ways and means of dwelling in the mind state of “love” (joy, compassion, kindness, etc) and stripping away beliefs that result in fear (hatred, discrimination, greed, etc).
In addition, I “believe” that fear is what requires our attention because love is our natural state and, when not suffocating in fear, easily and effortlessly rises to the top. It’s what we are!
I think this is similar to what Jason has stated with regard to closed or open beliefs. It has also been referred to as expansive or contracted beliefs.
Of course, all of this isn’t new and its been around for centuries, however, western mind seems to have distorted this simple and pure concept with it’s demand for scientific proof.
Thanks for the forum,
Mike S
@ Barbara: Thanks for that, I’ve been on Mike’s site, but like you said I was a bit confused about where to start. I was just jumping around at the titles that took my fancy. I’ll know where to start now
Glad you like posts like these.
@ Mike S: Loving your contributions, and the two states. Eckhart Tolle described pretty much the same thing - the primordial fear, or the pain body and the joy body. Maybe we need to do away with every single belief, if that’s possible. Thanks for participating, you’ve contributed a lot to this blog.
Albert - Thought provoking article as usual, as are the comments.
My thoughts: Beliefs should be based as much as possible on facts, not just those we personally perceive, but also upon the words of the wise who have taken the time to delve deeply into the nature of “the way things are.” And they should be taken as provisional, not blindly clung to, until we come to experience the reality for ourselves.
The word gnostic means one who knows, that is, one who has direct interior experience. This is beyond mere sensory knowledge, and to obtain such knowledge one has to have an active “interior” life, a life of prayer and meditation.
I believe we should become “gnostics” in this sense.
As to self-concepts, we should concentrate on what we are in our inner being, which is eternal, and try to make our outer self conform to the high inner ideal.
Loving the discussion.
As for practical thoughts on “getting rid of beliefs” - I think Jean touched on it with her mention of “observing consciousness mode”. What gives a belief its power, I think, is the degree to which we are unconscious of its status as a belief (or, conversely, the degree to which we think our experience of the world is the “way things are”).
So that exercise - of holding up your experience to something like the following question: how much of what I’m feeling right now would be different if I believed something else? - at least has the potential of removing some distress. It could remove some joy, too, and people can make the choice about which aspects of their beliefs (i.e. the ones that facilitate feeling good vs. the ones that facilitate feeling bad) they want to release.
I suppose that among the many gifts we have as humans, one of them is the potential for transcending our experience. On the other hand, another of those gifts is embracing our experience, no matter how painful or joyful.
Hi Albert,
This is really an excellent discussion. Thank you for creating this forum.
I like your factors for your new blog, well thought out.
The process of manifestation says that our thoughts lead to our feelings which lead to our actions which leads to our results.
We always act in direct accordance with our BELIEFS. You can say you think one way, but if your actions don’t reflect what you say, they aren’t your beliefs.
Beliefs are the most essential part of your total being, your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
Some beliefs may simply be that most of what happens in our lives is beyond our control, to accept whatever happens in our life and use it as a learning experience to grow from.
The one thing we do have complete control over is our minds and our thoughts, and the beliefs we accumulate determine everything in our lives, in every area of our lives.
All the best,
Jeff
Wow…loving the discussion too. Very intelligent contributions from everyone. Please keep it up!
Hi Albert,
Great post - dropped right into it from your comment on my blog.
Your first line had me laughing - “Should we have beliefs?” - I get the intent, but on a more literal level it seems obvious that we should, because we have, until we don’t
Also a great point on “good beliefs” - as I continue my own exploration of my beliefs and suffering, primarily using Byron Katie’s The Work, I am seeing that there is no such thing as a “good belief” - by definition a fixed belief is limiting, fear-based / fear-inducing.
What I find interesting in all of this is not to make any of it bad - unless I do, in which case I try to look at that - as that is a belief system in itself, e.g. “I shouldn’t have beliefs”, “I need to get rid of the self”, “I should be better than I am”.
I haven’t taken a look at any of your other postings yet, but intrigued to see how this links into compassion, as in my experience compassion and beliefs don’t tend to go hand in hand.
Also the difference between compassion - seeing someone suffering and feeling love for them - and empathizing - seeing someone suffering and projecting my fears and beliefs onto them about how terrible that must be for them.
As I am learning, it’s not so much the beliefs as the attachment to them that seem to cause the suffering - as you point to in your example about monogamy.
Again, what I am finding interesting is that often the only clue that a limiting belief is in operation is that I am feeling stress, anxiety, sadness, anger or some other emotion like that - then it is my job to check out what thoughts or beliefs are there at that point in time that I may not have been conscious of.
Byron Katie talks about living her life in a state of constant meditation, which I take to mean continuously aware and questioning of her own beliefs - and I could be wrong about that
With love,
Jon
Hey Jon, thanks for stopping by, mate!
Hmm…very good statement, “we should, because we have, until we don’t” - anything else is self-violence, as my friend Takuin at Takuin.com always says.
Heh, nope this has got nothing to do with compassion, in fact I wanted it this way because I wanted a break from compassion.
Definitely, I’m finding that every thought, every action (unless we’re “enlightened”, perhaps) has its roots in an emotion, and each emotion comes from a belief / need. Thanks for the insight, and hope you have fun digging around
I need beliefs in my life because it helps me make quality decisions. I’ve tried to make them as simple and efficient as possible, but they aren’t perfect. My acceptance of my inability to make perfect choices has helped me become more flexible. By adjusting on the fly I’ve become a happier person.
The layout of this blog post was well done, easy to get the information that I needed.
PS Thanks for your comment on my blog.
Albert, to deny the existence of having beliefs in my point of view, is equivalent to denying one’s humanity. You mentioned that “…the greater the disparity between the world and our beliefs, the greater our distress.” I’m a firm believer in the oneness of our thoughts and the environment, meaning the world in which we see and behave is a conscious representation of our fundamental thoughts. Instead of the disparity that cause our distress, I would see it as the perception of the situation that results in the trauma.
In the case of 2 girls, Ruby has 100% conviction on monogamy but if she sees as “a blessing in disguise” for her to know about the deed before they got really committed, she may not even be hurt that much at all. Maybe much lesser than Christine.
Cheers,
Ellesse
Awesome discussion you’ve begun, Albert!
I agree with many of the previous comments that we can’t just do away with beliefs altogether. The way I see it (believe? hee hee), our belief system is the mental frame of reference that we use to navigate through life.
I don’t think any belief is “negative” or “positive.” Our belief system develops itself in order to serve us, based on our life circumstances. As we evolve and grow (hopefully, anyway), we may outgrow our beliefs and need to adopt new ones.
I think of beliefs as tools. It’s silly to get attached or insistent on a mere tool. If it’s not the right tool, then obviously a new tool is needed. If my beliefs are not in alignment with my circumstances, then they need to shift and change.
Problems arise when we get attached to our beliefs and identify with them. As long as we acknowledge them for the mental constructs that they are, we can use them as helpful tools through which to create the reality we desire. So, in my belief system, there is no need to do battle with my belief system :-)I just check on it from time to time, to see if it needs a revision.
Blessings,
Andrea
I really enjoyed this post, not only for its format (great format, by the way), but for the questions you posed. To have no expectations and just see what is. There’s something to that!
This post felt like a massage for my mind - thank you!
Thankyou for such a challenging and interesting post Albert. I recently read your article “The elusive Key to Emotional Mastery Part 2 - accessing the deepest issues” and the examples you gave from your life experience of the power of beliefs in your life took me to a new level of understanding. I was able to look at the suffering in my own past and felt a sense of freedom and self empowerment from realising the nature of the beliefs that lead to the suffering. One aspect that struck me about beliefs is their transitory nature and the necessity to be able to “let go or modify” at the right time as an essential part of our personal journey. I believe that meditation and/or other practices which separate us from the ego self may help to do this.
I also like to think of the rise and fall of countless civilizations over the course of history and how these civilizations were made up of people who held beliefs in themselves and their world so dear and yet everything was stripped away as their world fell apart. There is something to learn from history and from the gradual challenging of our beliefs that we face on a daily basis. Perhaps it is an essential part of our spiritual awakening that all our personal and cultural beliefs are challenged so that we may be able to let go of temporary beliefs and embrace those which are universal. It can be a painful process or one which we choose consciously and encourage in our everyday practices and readings.
Looking forward to reading more on the topic.
cheers Johanne
Another thought. Beliefs can bind, and beliefs can free.
I talked to a woman yesterday who belonged to an energetic healing circle. She said the members of the circle would get together to explore various aspects of healing and inner work. They decided that they wanted to try to revive that “anything is possible” attitude that they had when they were children.
They decided to try levitation as an experiment.
She said they would get a volunteer to lie on a treatment table, while six of them would encircle the person and each touch the subject with two fingers, and will the person to levitate. (For brevity, I omit other aspects of their inner work.)
Lo and behold, in time they had success! They would effortlessly lift certain subjects above their heads with only two fingers each. They found that the skepticism or openness of the subject would effect the degree of failure or success.
Once they had the person in the air, though, they never were able to let go, and they found that if they began to think, “Good Heavens, how in God’s name are we doing this?!”, that the subject would begin to get heavy.
Belief can have amazing effects. To quote Shakespeare, “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio.”
How dull must be the lives of the incredulous!
I love Andrea’s description of beliefs as tools - there’s one for every job - it helps me to clearly see that when I have the wrong tool for the job in front of me that it makes life very messy
Everyone I was wowed to see again, the depth and wisdom of the responses here. I really don’t know what to say, but thanks for supporting!
@ Everyone: Now I’m curious - what are your recommended methods for installing a new belief / removing old ones?
@ Important note: My email has recently been taken over by spammers, I believe. They’re using my servers to send out lots of email. If you don’t get email responses from the automatic comment subscription update thing, or from my email, please don’t fret - I’ve contacted support. They’re a bit slow this time, but I have faith in them
@ Karl: Flexibility seems to be a practical choice, I agree. Thanks, and you’re welcome. Just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing, I’ve been staying away from reading other blogs for a while.
@ Ellesse: Great point. I never thought of it that way. One question that raises, though - what causes her perception of the event? What makes Ruby see it as A) Cheating or B) Finding out before she got committed?
@ Andrea: Very insightful as always. What are your favourite ways of installing / removing a new belief?
@ Megan: Thanks!
Not having any beliefs is something a lot of traditions espouse, and I just wanted to ask my readers - I learn so much from them. Glad you like the format too, I will throw a few more in, then. And looks like this really is building a community.
@ Johanne: Thanks for the stories. I believe (heh) that beliefs are okay, if we can’t shake ourselves free of them, we might as well stick good and compassionate ones in. The danger arises, when we try to impose them on others. That’s how arguments and even wars start.
What would you say are the universal beliefs we should embrace?
@ ReddyK: Wow…I’ve never heard of levitation (for real) before. That really opened my eyes. I remember trying to bend spoons with my mind and the help of a few websites a few months back on a lonely, sad, cold, night (heh heh). didn’t work, so I thought it was all a bunch of rubbish. Looks like I’ll have to try it again, then.
@ Jon: I agree, as I said to Johanne, since it’s quite rare not to be free of beliefs, might as well install good ones. Though I’m still exploring complete freedom.
I think that we should have belives-because what are we without them?
It appears that many human beings grow up to be conditioned to fit into a particular type of society. They attend schools to “become” something or someone when ironically, they often forget what they truly are at the core.
I sense that each of us is fundamentally a spiritual being made of energy. We share a collective consciousness, an internal understanding of things. Yet, during human existence, this becomes highly susceptible to ego– that is, expectations, aspirations, self-interest, and perception which all fragment the original whole. It is part of our journey to find our way back to the Source through deconditioning and rediscovering the power of unconditional love and forgiveness.
@ Verena: This is a very interesting question. What would we be without beliefs? This is one of the most shocking answers I’ve ever read, from some traditions - we are simply nothing. And far from being something scary, this realisation of nothingness is said to be enlightenment. Unless I misunderstood what they’re trying to say. Hmm…
@ Liara: Thanks for stopping by. I really enjoy your insight, and agree with the power of love and forgiveness.
Albert, re your question, it’s inevitable that hurts will definitely set in initially. That’s basically everyone’s first reaction to a “crisis” : shock, disbelief, anxiety. He will even ask “why me?”. But the real test comes after the emotions dies down. And how the person infer from this experience draws the line. Between trauma or revelation.
One will likely revert to her prime point of belief. If she’s believes that there’s always a opportunity behind every adversity, she will choose to interpret events borrowing other people’s take on the situation and deriving their own conclusions on it. At the end of the day, it’s still back to beliefs. Borrowing other people’s thoughts (& beliefs) to reconstruct your own.
I don’t have any specific belief installation / uninstallation procedure per say, but being a buddhist, my way of connecting with my inner self is through chanting and reflection. It never fails to let me see the crux of my issues.
Cheers,
Ellesse
Albert,
As to spoon bending, we knew Marcel Vogel, the inventor of the florescent bulb and also the major component of computer chips. He was also adept at psychic, inner work. He could gather a bunch of kids together and have them bending spoons in no time at all. They had not yet learned that they couldn’t bend the spoons, you see.
By the way, you have so many great discussions going at once that I can’t keep up!
Hello there! Great discussion =)
I thought I’d mix up the soup a little by throwing in a stand for ‘no beliefs’. I would assert that it is perfectly possible (and indeed, much less effort) to have no beliefs whatsoever.
First, we have to ask what we mean by ‘belief’. We can, of course, use logic and definitions to assert that belief is a necessary component of existence (ie. if we believe we have no beliefs, that’s just another belief’). You could apply this to the last sentence of my first paragraph. (Isn’t that just another belief?) But all we’re doing here is playing circular games with our words, and our words usually do a pretty inadequate job of describing reality.
We all have our own definitions of what a belief is, but it’s interesting to note that most people’s definitions, if they look carefully enough, include the idea that belief must contain some element of doubt (else we’d posit it as fact, not belief). If we look at any of our beliefs, we’ll probably find that the reason we don’t assert that they are facts is that we’re open-minded enough to realize that our ideas about the world don’t necessarily represent ‘eternal truths’, or ‘God-given facts’. Based on this, it doesn’t take much to see that basically everything we think or assume about the world is in actuality belief.
Is there anything that’s not belief? What if we simply pay attention to our bare perceptions – to what we are actually experiencing right Now, without the necessity of including any belief? What we find is that we have something we might call ‘perception’. Sort of like a video playing in our heads (the video is undeniable, but the ‘in our heads’ part is pure belief. Can you see what I am describing here?)
Sit in meditation for a few moments and pay attention to what is really going on. What do we discover? Just this perception. We can say that this ‘perception’ is sensory input, or we can say that it is composed of thoughts or feelings –but by taking that small step, we’ve again opened the door to belief. (What evidence do we have that we have senses? What is a thought or memory but a current perception?) Even this word – perception – invokes the idea of a perceiver and perceived, which is delving into more arbitrary belief. If we truly look, all that exists is this ‘video’, if you will.
Now, if we start applying belief to what I’m describing here, it gets horrifying. All we have is ‘video’? This sounds like a horror story. But if we actually attend to this pure perception, we discover something amazing – that the world is just fine as it is (including ourselves). We don’t have to spend all this time trying to moderate our beliefs, because they’re all just arbitrary anyway – none of them is based on any more ‘fact’ than any other, and all of them have the potential to create positive and negative repercussions, essentially creating the wheel of samsara and a life of karma.
We think this up-and-down method of living is ‘just the way things are’, but it’s simply not so. Pure perception opens the door to discovering a totally new way of life.
We all have direct access to this discovery. It’s right here in front of us. And the feeling of finally letting go of all belief is one of great relief. It’s as if we’ve been walking through a wilderness with all the items we thought necessary – our backpack and our machete and all our extra ‘stuff’ we think we need to survive in this wilderness. This is analogous to the filters, walls, and defense mechanisms we think we need to survive in this world. But when we throw all that equipment off, we find that the trees are full of fruit, the temperature is just right, and that all our pains and aches were just from trying to carry so much all the time.
Whew!
We may think we need our beliefs, or that they can do us some good, but it’s not until we can attend to pure perception – and see beliefs for what they really are – that we can discover that beliefs are just another fruit on the tree of the wilderness we call ‘reality’. Yummy, if we’re not making them into backpacks and machetes.
Sweetwater,
Kenton
@ Ellesse: Hmm good point. I wonder if the initial hurt, though, could be avoided simply by having the right beliefs / no beliefs. But definitely, I see what you’re saying - how you handle it afterwards is also vitally important. From what I gather so far from this discussion thread, there are essentially two perspectives to this: the practical / psychological, and the metaphysical / spiritual. It’s interesting to watch how the two are being discussed here within the one thread. Thank you for your valuable contribution.
@ ReddyK: I’ll check out Vogel now, never heard of him. You got so much knowledge I love it!
@ Kenton: Thanks for adding that gem mate! Wow that is an awesome and detailed description of what I was trying to say, far better than I can. It’s really eye-opening as well, taking “no belief” to a deeper level than I have been practicing. I still was operating at the level of “perceiver” and “perceived.”.
I feel a bit guilty that all I can muster is one paragraph to a long and detailed post, but I can’t think of anything else I can say. Wow. Thank you again.
Hi Albert - and friends,
Great site, great discussion. This is my first visit / post here. So if you don’t mind I’ll introduce myself. I’m a JourneyTM Practitioner in Brisbane, Australia and I also run an online bookstore specialising in spiritual and personal growth books.
When working with clients to change a belief, I usually ask the following questions:
1: What is the old belief that you may have been carrying?
(It’s amazing the crazy beliefs that we take on, but here’s an example: “I need to look a particular way for people to like me”)
2: Is it true?
(Most people will say: No! Not necessarily , but even if they are not sure, or think it might be ‘true’, I still have the next question:)
3: Does it serve you?
(No! It doesn’t. Even if it did once, for a short period of time - as is the case with some beliefs - it doesn’t now.)
At this point I say: Would you like to get rid of it then?
(usually the person is relieved at that possibility and says Yes!)
In the context of a Journey process, we are normally asking these questions in the presence of a “campfire” of healing and transformation. So I ask them if they would like to chuck the old belief in the fire. They say Yes! And imagine doing just that.
The final question is: What is a new and more supportive belief that you could take on about yourself and about your life that would serve you?
(And they come up with one - for example “I can be myself. I can look the way I want to look. What other people think is their problem.)
Yay! I can feel the liberation of getting rid of an limiting beliefs, just writing about it!
The last thing I would like to share is a quote I read years ago, by Buckminster Fuller (I think?) “Truth is a Tent”
I think what he means by this is that beliefs are a useful framework. They serve us for a time. But they are meant to be flexible. They are meant to be able to move when you move. Not like a house, where you spend months building it, and you have to stay by it, no matter what.
Actually - one more thing (this is a juicy topic!) I think there is a Buddhist and also an Advaita perspective that all beliefs should be questioned, but there is one belief / thought that is different to the others…
For example, the thought “I want to Awaken” (based on the belief that there is such a thing as “Awakening”) . I think the idea is not that this belief is not to be questioned at all. It’s just that this belief is a vehicle that will take you a very long way, beyond any other belief in fact. When you arrive at the door of that final destination, you have to let that one go as well. And what lies beyond it is the realm of the Great Mystery.
Hope that makes sense!
Hey Yollana, welcome, and good to have you here. Your process sounds fascinating. I’ve been working with simply throwing away my emotions, sometimes because I can feel them as energy, but have never thought about throwing away a belief entirely. Is it a once off thing, do you think, or is it a slower process?
For example, with my old anger, there was quite a lot to let go off, and it took me a while, instead of just dropping it in one swoop. Your method seems to just throw it away in one action.
And your other comment is very penetrating as well. You just made me realise that I also have beliefs about the state of awakening, which is a bit of stunner. Once I get home and have some free time I’ll have to meditate on this. Thank you so much!
Well, it’s 2 sides to e coin isn’t it? The hurt may gone. But so is the joy. Doesn’t that make us robots? Just joking. Indeed Albert, I must really applaud you for the amazing efforts you’ve made in this very well written article and of course, your ability to incite such thoughtful discussions! Enjoyed it thoroughly!
Cheers,
Ellesse
Hi Albert,
Thanks for your reply.
Fascinating stuff - beliefs about awakening. That can both bring us closer to and keep us separate from, the full magnificence that we are.
In the approach I use, feelings and beliefs are different things, and are treated differently.
Beliefs are thoughts (that you tend to have over and over again, right?). They are not found in the body, or anywhere in particular. Perhaps you would say they are found in the mind. But where is that exactly? Hard to find, I think.
So, in my work, I have no problem in “just dropping them” if they don’t serve.
As ken said: “they’re all just arbitrary anyway – none of them is based on any more ‘fact’ than any other, and all of them have the potential to create positive and negative repercussions”. So I figure you might as well have a framework that has more positive, rather than negative, repercussions. (And yet I also see what ken is saying - why not have none at all? At one level of being, I agree with him.)
At another level of being, I think beliefs or concepts can be useful for living. Yet it is good to hold them lightly. And it is good to have concepts that are wholesome for you and your life.
Going back to the belief-change, whether the (unwholesome) beliefs come back or not depends on the process. I normally undertake this belief-change in the context of a full Journey process (see http://www.thejourney.com or my own website http://www.discoverthedifference.com.au).
So some of the other aspects of The Journey which may help to make the belief-change more complete include: identifying the experience/s or memory/ies that gave rise to that belief, accepting your own feelings around it, forgiving yourself and others involved for the misunderstanding, and recognising that you have the resources to deal with such a situation better in the future. These elements create the context for a true and lasting belief change.
Feelings are different to thoughts. They are felt in the body. They are a signal of either an immediate experience that we need to respond to, or an experience in the past that we haven’t resolved. Therefore, unlike some schools of thought, I believe that feelings are useful. Not to wallow in. Not to dump all over someone. Not to suppress. Just to feel.
So, if you have had trouble getting “rid of” anger, for example, I would suggest that you stop trying. Next time anger comes up, just allow yourself to feel it. This is such a radical suggestion, most of our social training is to do anything but that. However, my experience is that if you allow yourself to fully feel what you are feeling, without suppressing or dispelling it, then it naturally and easily gives way to another feeling, and another, until you find yourself resting in peace.
I hope that helps
@ Ellesse: Moved this convo over to email
@ Yollana: Now you got me on Amazon and on your website (too bad you’re not in the same part of OZ), and now I’m thinking of getting the book . Powerful stuff.
My anger was just an example, I’ve made a lot of progress in it, but it took a few weeks of dedicated meditation to get rid of it. I was surprised to find that there was a faster method. And yes, that’s exactly how I did it, just fully feeling it
thank you for opening my eyes to the journey, looks so exciting. I think I’ve seen it in my local bookshops, I’ll check it out next time I’m there and pick up a copy.
thanks again.
Wonderful blog. And so heartfelt (makes it wonderful). Just to chime in, I can tell you that the patients I’ve had who are the most anxious are those who don’t have beliefs. So if we add a variable to the anxiolytics, I’d add beliefs.
Thank you Therapy Doc - that is very interesting! They don’t have beliefs, so they are anxious? How do you know they don’t have beliefs? Wow, this is awesome discussion. I appreciate your perspective.
Hi Albert
Hope all is well.
If we did have no beliefs then we would at least by default have one… ourself.
Solipsism is a new word I found
This may not be relevant but it certainly is amusing
http://www.nassauweekly.com/vi.....php?id=691
Dean
“There was a young man who said: “God,
I find it exceedingly odd
That this sycamore tree continues to be
When there’s noone about in the quad.”
Hi Albert,
Love your blog. Here are some thoughts: A simple test to see if beliefs have any merit or really should be considered of any consequence is to ask “Is it true?” of any beliefs one has. Very quickly, you get into a place where the only possible answer is “I don’t know.” You simply cannot know if a belief is true, which explains why they are “beliefs” and not knowledge.
Given that beliefs can never be known to be true, why would anyone want to keep them? Personally, I choose knowledge over beliefs. You can have all the beliefs you want, but that will never make them true.
@ Dean: Thanks for the link Dean, that guy sounds like some sociopathic serial killer…couldn’t get to the end of the interview, heh!
@ Tom: Thanks Tom! That is a very interesting and thought provoking comment. But one thing - how do you know knowledge are not just beliefs that you get from books / experience / etc? What is the difference between knowledge and beliefs?
i didn’t take the time to read all the comments, so i hope i’m not repeating myself too much.
coming from a mostly buddhist orientation, it seems to me that beliefs, especially entrenched beliefs, are probably more a hindrance than a help. as someone else here said, beliefs are mental constructs and i guess they’re useful as long as we recognize them as such - only we have a hard time doing that!
i wrote a post about this a few weeks ago. the difficulty, of course, comes the deeper we dig. for example, i don’t know where i would be without the belief that my husband loved me or that financial planning is a good idea.
re feedback: i really like this post. i was actually just thinking of emailing you and asking you about the sometimes a bit teachery tone that your posts take. (of course that’s the same with a lot of personal development blogs - but maybe it bothers me a bit more with you because there is so much value in what you say. hmmm … i guess i have some beliefs around that …
this post here has a freshness and authenticity that i really enjoy.
Isabella, thank you for the comments. Your addition is awesome.
And especially re: the tone I have taken. That is especially appreciated. It struck me sometimes that I could have fallen into the trap of pride… it is something that I have to watch out for.
If anyone detects anything in me, please let me know! My writing is a reflection of me, and I would love to know any unconsciousness I have, especially from my readers.
Hey Albert,
Thanks for your comments. Here is how I would define knowledge: you know something when you don’t have to think about it to decide whether you know it or not. A little obtuse, I know, but that is the real sense of it. When you know, you KNOW. If someone says, “Albert, are you a man?” the answer is so undeniably obvious to you that you actually want to look at the questioner with a sense of “duh, what planet are you from?”
I guess a better way to define knowledge would be the utter obviousness of it. Beliefs, on the other hand, require thought, require evidence, need proving or disproving. Beliefs just aren’t obvious. You can usual tell if you are stepping on someone’s beliefs because they will get defensive. If you step on someone’s knowledge, they are more inclined to look at you as if you are crazy.
Yes, I’m still fleshing out my own definitions for these things. I can more feel and sense the difference. I hope all the above made sense. Have a great day!
Hi Tom, thank you for the insights. I get what you mean about knowledge vs. beliefs. But we can take beliefs to an extreme level, as Kenton explained in his contribution above.
For example - how do we know that we were not born yesterday, and that all our memories were just implanted in us? As many spiritual teachers also say, we have a fake distinction in perception.
If I look at a cup, I think there is a triad - me, the cup, and the act of perception. What if it’s just the one thing?
Even the “are you a man?” question can be open to interpretation. I have a penis, so I am a man. What if you are asking it in terms of boys vs. men? Is it an age thing? What if you are questioning my courage?
If I reach out and pick up a pencil, we might think that we are the ones controlling our actions and picking up a pencil. What if it was a hypnotic suggestion implanted last night? What if I’m hallucinating and there is no pencil? What if I am asleep and it’s just a dream?
Would love to hear what you think, this is a fantastic conversation!
I think I’m carrying around a lot of negative beliefs about the world around me. I believe that my wife has been a terrible, irresponsible person and that my children are doomed to fall far short of their real potential, and this picture of the future is tearing me apart. I believe that my financial burdens could become enormous and insurmountable, and this fear is eating at me.
I believe that most people are indifferent to my suffering, or might even take shadenfreudish pleasure in it.
I believe that the universe is empty of an overarching spiritual power that is concerned for the well-being of individuals. This pushes me to believe in the absolute importance of individual responsibility and foresight, which I don’t see in so many people.
Hey Big Toe…thanks for your contributions. Have you tried dropping these beliefs? What do you think will happen if you do?
Al,
No, I haven’t… I’m scared of not preparing thoroughly enough for bad future situations, and scared of not trying hard enough to ward them off by telling the relevant players how obviously dire things are. In part, I want to be “right”, and I want to “win” the arguments, but I am also very truly scared of the future.
I read a lot here, and saw the recommendation to drop the beliefs, or to consider how I’d feel if I believed differently. …I’m not there yet. I need to work through clearing my head, quieting the steady din of negativity, anger, and fear of the future. I want to try meditation tonight… I used to be OK at it, and used to be able to slip into a lucid dream almost regularly… but its been a while.
So, what if I believed differently? I’d have a much more positive, and curious, and accepting attitude about my present circumstances, and about what the likely future will bring. ,,,But I’ve got a lot of pride invested in the current beliefs that I’ve got!
Thanks for writing back, and writing in general!
That’s a very good idea, perhaps you could try clearing your emotions with the emotional mastery series too…I’ve found that they are the factory behind your noisy thoughts so to speak.
Once you’ve handled fear and anger and all that, then you can decide if you wanna let go of your beliefs, you’ll probably find that your beliefs have been dropped as well, together with your neg emotions.
Please keep in touch and let me know how you get on!
Beliefs are necessary until we are ready to avail ourselves to the path of meditation and/or contemplation. Meditation and contemplation take us slowly beyond the mind and in this way we can experience Truth for Itself. However, until we can reach this level of spiritual maturity, affirmations and beliefs are useful foundations for the mind, indeed.
Hey Keith - that is brilliant, I never thought of it that way. That we should use it up to a certain stage…I was thinking too “either / or”.
We should have beliefs, I think that is the best way to be sane and care for others, and also to remain tolerant.
We need to believe in life and humanity.
Thank you GBTY
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