Why does belief matter? Psychologically speaking, why are people prone to believe all sorts of things (miracles, gods, etc), and moreover hold onto these beliefs tenaciously, as if they were more precious than life itself?What is the underpinning? Why do these things matter so much? Does it by any chance have to do with the nature of the Self?
I want to suggest that to BE-lieve is to BE. Again, Descartes said it best: "I think, therefore I am." Now, this isn't to say we are thought-based entities at the end of the day. Vedanta says we transcend the mind in actual fact, so this can't be accurate (my belief, btw). Still, what it is an accurate description of is how we identify in average life: by what we think, and beliefs are perhaps the most expansive, most intricate and most sustaining elements in the mental landscape.
Still though, beliefs are at least one step away divorced from actual fact, from actual reality... They are an image of reality, not reality itself. My belief in my father's love is not my father's love itself... Just as my belief that water will quench my thirst is not the water itself pouring down my gullet... So what gives? Why martyr yourself, or be so insanely attached to your belief, such that you become suicidal without it?
I venture to say that: beliefs, whether they be religious or otherwise, are simply an outgrowth of the ego. The Self is in love with itself, but, channeled as it were through the finite human mind, it latches onto an inaccurate image of itself, and, seeing itself as finite, instead projects itself onto a belief system which is purportedly more expansive, less liable to change than the shifting human body.... Something definite. Something ideal. Something certain - a certainty which mirrors the certainty of I AM.
Science isn't good enough. Not only because it is shifting and can't capture the finality of the Self, (as dogma can) but because it is based itself on something finite and limited (the material world). The Self, being the Self, cannot help but soar over and above even science (though don't get me wrong science can be certainly deep and profound - but it isn't transcendent like religion).
So, what we are really looking at in religion is the ego, or an interpretation of the ego. This interpretation comes closest to defusing it because, we see more closely than ever how we strive with reality. We erect, I won't say fantasy, but an exaggeration of external fact. All in an effort to preserve ourselves, to find the real invulnerability which really is inside each of us as the Self.... And paradoxically, religion only creates another stumbling block to God or the Self: it's clothes are more fantastic, more illustrious than the humble rags of the materialist, thanks to its borrowed splendor reflective of God - all in an effort to point in the direction of truth.... We need to look beyond the clothes, - at Reality pure and simple....
We are all one. We are existence acting the role of an existent.... The universal pretending to be particular..... In actual fact we are all perfect, totally whole, and eternal. We ARE.
No miracles, myths or even persons are needed....
I want to suggest that to BE-lieve is to BE. Again, Descartes said it best: "I think, therefore I am." Now, this isn't to say we are thought-based entities at the end of the day. Vedanta says we transcend the mind in actual fact, so this can't be accurate (my belief, btw). Still, what it is an accurate description of is how we identify in average life: by what we think, and beliefs are perhaps the most expansive, most intricate and most sustaining elements in the mental landscape.
Still though, beliefs are at least one step away divorced from actual fact, from actual reality... They are an image of reality, not reality itself. My belief in my father's love is not my father's love itself... Just as my belief that water will quench my thirst is not the water itself pouring down my gullet... So what gives? Why martyr yourself, or be so insanely attached to your belief, such that you become suicidal without it?
I venture to say that: beliefs, whether they be religious or otherwise, are simply an outgrowth of the ego. The Self is in love with itself, but, channeled as it were through the finite human mind, it latches onto an inaccurate image of itself, and, seeing itself as finite, instead projects itself onto a belief system which is purportedly more expansive, less liable to change than the shifting human body.... Something definite. Something ideal. Something certain - a certainty which mirrors the certainty of I AM.
Science isn't good enough. Not only because it is shifting and can't capture the finality of the Self, (as dogma can) but because it is based itself on something finite and limited (the material world). The Self, being the Self, cannot help but soar over and above even science (though don't get me wrong science can be certainly deep and profound - but it isn't transcendent like religion).
So, what we are really looking at in religion is the ego, or an interpretation of the ego. This interpretation comes closest to defusing it because, we see more closely than ever how we strive with reality. We erect, I won't say fantasy, but an exaggeration of external fact. All in an effort to preserve ourselves, to find the real invulnerability which really is inside each of us as the Self.... And paradoxically, religion only creates another stumbling block to God or the Self: it's clothes are more fantastic, more illustrious than the humble rags of the materialist, thanks to its borrowed splendor reflective of God - all in an effort to point in the direction of truth.... We need to look beyond the clothes, - at Reality pure and simple....
We are all one. We are existence acting the role of an existent.... The universal pretending to be particular..... In actual fact we are all perfect, totally whole, and eternal. We ARE.
No miracles, myths or even persons are needed....
