Eaton Satsang
Belief
On the journey to realization, one of the greatest challenges we confront is recognizing the extent of how our unquestioned beliefs may impede our understanding of the true nature of reality. A belief encompasses thoughts, feelings, acceptance or inner conviction deem a statement true, or affirm that something exists. It also encompasses trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.
In our daily lives, many beliefs effectively guide our actions, such as trusting a friend's honesty or relying on a stranger's directions. However, within us, there exists a substantial collection of beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, that, though perceived as reflections of reality, can be major obstacles to self-realization or awakening. Recognizing and comprehending these limiting beliefs becomes essential.
Spiritual teachers and sages assert the possibility of knowing greater dimensions of experience. Paradoxically, one must believe (or intuit) the truth of such claims long enough to verify them through direct experience. Through deep inquiry, it becomes evident that confusion and suffering often arise from believing in thoughts that are not true. What is often necessary is to temporarily suspend disbelief (recognizing that disbelief itself is merely a reactive, negative belief) in order to introspect, inquire, or engage in practices that foster self-awareness.
Quotes
The smallest of beliefs will get in the way of an appreciation of what is.
~ Roger Castillo
Belief is a cover up for insecurity . . . if something is real you don't have to believe in it, you know it.
~ Deepak Chopra
Doubt underlies every belief. Doubt brings defense. If you don't believe me, challenge the next person who seems to be stating Truth. When you see them defend it, notice the doubt that is coming to the surface. This is when you know it is a belief. But the real juice is when you can see this in yourself, isn't it? Until then, everyone else has to do it for you.
~ Scott Kiloby
When we know we're ignorant of something, this is knowledge. If we are ignorant of something and believe we are not ignorant, this mistaken knowledge, this belief, functions as knowledge in our experience, even though it is false.
~ A H Almaas
You don't need any methods to get rid of
the wrong ideas you have about yourself.
All you have to do is stop believing them.
~ Annamalai Swami
Most people don’t let go of one belief without grabbing another belief. This one is better, so I’ll take this one now. But to question the one who is holding the beliefs is much more efficient than to question each little belief along the way, because you will see through one but soon another one will pop up. It’s kind of like pulling weeds. . . .
“Uprooting the one who is holding the beliefs is what it is all about. Who is the one who is holding this belief? Who is the one who is struggling? Who is the one who is not struggling? Once you uproot the one who is holding the structure together, then the whole structure collapses. If I pull the root out, then the whole conceptual structure collapses. If you leave a piece of the root, it’s going to come back and start building again.”
~ Adyashanti
You have been brainwashed since you were a small child,
and you have a belief system that you react to everyday.
You say this is good and this is bad
and this is right and this is wrong,
I love this and I hate this.
All part of your belief system, the mind.
Now these roots have been planted a long time ago.
Therefore to get rid of your negative thinking so-to-speak,
you have to dig a big hole to pull out the roots.
You do this by turning away from your problems,
turning away from your situations,
turning away from the world and diving deep within yourself.
Continually, day after day after day, never looking for results.
Never saying, I've been practicing a month now
and nothing has happened.
Remember how many years it took you to be the way you are.
The things that your mind has accepted.
The stuff you've got deep in your subconscious so-to-speak.
It has to come up and gotten rid of.
~ Robert Adams
You believe this mind so completely that you invest all your energy in it until after awhile it appears to be solid and real. We believe the content of our minds to be reality. We completely believe our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs, and our dreams, and we make them solid by continuing to see them and believing them to be reality.
~ A. H. Almaas
Free of all belief we can live fully in trust to what is.
Free from all belief, what is real and true arises effortlessly as it must.
~ Eric Gross
The limiting beliefs that formed in early childhood about yourself, others and life are programmed into your mind at an unconscious level, and define you and determine your experience of life. Until you awaken to a higher level of consciousness, there is no way to be watchful of yourself at the level of mind. The more you are watchful in a spirit of unconditional love and acceptance, the more you will be released from these limiting beliefs.
~ Leonard Jacobson
Belief, any belief, is based on the sense of insecurity.
Only when all belief is given up, are you free to know yourself.
In self-discovery, what you find is the Truth - that Truth which is total, self-evident and which needs no outside support or justification.
~ Ramesh Balsekar
Belief resides within the shadow of doubt. It only functions effectively in direct proportion to the suppression of the doubt that it seeks to override.
~ Tony Parsons
In fact, belief systems are nothing. They are quite easy to let go of. They are just paper tigers! It is better to let them go right now and live happily forever after.
~ Francis Lucille
Beliefs are the unquestioned acceptance of an idea
in the absence of verification and reason.
Beliefs are not facts; beliefs are the escape from facts.
Beliefs are the food of a make-believe world.
Permanent clarity is available to you,
but not if you want to cling to your beliefs.
~ Wu Hsin
Holding on to beliefs limits our experience of life. That doesn’t mean that beliefs or ideas or thinking is a problem; the stubborn attitude of having to have things be a particular way, grasping on to our beliefs and thoughts, all these cause the problems. To put it simply, using your belief system this way creates a situation in which you choose to be blind instead of being able to see, to be deaf instead of being able to hear, to be dead rather than alive, asleep rather than awake.
- Pema Chodron
The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.
~ J. Krishnamurti
Common advice for spiritual seekers when dealing with their beliefs is to question them to see if they hold up to scrutiny, to see if they are actually true. This is the “true until proven false” approach. It can be a long process because we have so many beliefs—and beliefs about beliefs.
A more expedient method is to reject all beliefs right away, without further obedience or trial. Instead of continuing to assume they are true, flip the switch and assume they are lies. Make a clean break of it. This is the “false until proven true” approach. Demand your former beliefs prove themselves to be true in your *direct experience* before possibly admitting them back in. In the meantime, enjoy the exhilaration of “no-belief” and hope it persists. Truth is magnetically attracted to a state of no-belief.
~ Bart Marshall
Nothing you believe is true.
To understand this is freedom.
~ Byron Katie
We literally hypnotize ourselves with our beliefs.
We consciously accept them, focus on them,
and never question their truth because the results look so real.
That’s the nature of beliefs – to hide within the truth.
The interesting thing about our beliefs is
they need to validate themselves.
The way they validate themselves is to present
all sorts of “proof” that they are real.
They will stop at nothing to create the illusion of truth and fact.
Yet, our beliefs are not there to help or hinder us.
They are just following our orders.
The end result is that what we believe we will have,
and what we believe we will become.
~ Dr. Robert Anthony
Observe your thoughts, don't believe them.
~ Eckhart Tolle
The Buddha spoke gently, "Once a person is caught by belief in a doctrine, one loses all one's freedom". When one becomes dogmatic, that person believes his or her doctrine is the only truth and that all other doctrines are heresy.
Disputes and conflicts all arise from narrow views. They can extend endlessly, wasting precious time and sometimes even leading to war. Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path. Bound to narrow views, one becomes so entangled that it is no longer possible to let the door of truth open.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
It is your conscious and unconscious assumptions and beliefs that distort your perception and cause you to see separation and division where there is actually only unity and completeness.
~ Adyashanti
Your mind believes that if things went according to what you believe to be the right way then everything would be fine. This is not the truth. This is a game your mind uses to keep you resisting what is. Essentially, it is a construct created to give you that good feeling that you are right and that you know what is best.
~Jac O'Keeffe
Beliefs provide comfort and security, but no understanding.
They are the comfort and security of a pleasant dream.
In the same way as sleep overtakes you,
true wakefulness will also overtake you.
That is the end of beliefs.
There is nothing for you to do to bring it about
because there can be no "one" to do anything.
A candle in a painting cannot be extinguished by the wind.
A thought arises and the body reacts in accordance with its nature.
It is the Conscious Life Energy that acts
while you imagine that you are acting.
~ Wu Hsin
You don't need any methods to get rid of
the wrong ideas you have about yourself.
All you have to do is stop believing them.
~ Annamalai Swami
What you are thinking and believing is the cause of feelings and emotions.
~ Byron Katie
Belief, any belief, is based on the sense of insecurity.
Only when all belief is given up, are you free to know yourself.
In self-discovery, what you find is the Truth - that Truth which is total, self-evident and which needs no outside support or justification.
~ Ramesh Balsekar
A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It’s not our thoughts, but our attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.
~ Byron Katie
Many of our ideas and beliefs about ourselves and the world are so deeply ingrained that we are unaware that they are beliefs and take them, without question, for the absolute truth.
~ Rupert Spira
The question is, what do you believe?
It's your life. What you believe, what you accept,
becomes your life style.
You create it, you cause it.
This is why everyone sees a different world.
We see ourselves.
It stands to reason therefore, why not see your real Self?
Why not experiment?
Why not begin to believe that you are God?
~ Robert Adams
Be very aware when you hear yourself say, “I believe” or “I don’t believe,” because immediately following those words is a belief. Be very aware when you hear yourself say, “I think” or “I don’t think,” because most likely what will follow that will also reveal a belief.
~ Rhonda Byrne
As long as we believe ourselves to be
even the least different from God, fear remains with us;
but when we know ourselves to be the One, fear goes;
of what can we be afraid?
~ Swami Vivekananda
Belief is a poor substitute for understanding.
To begin to question one's beliefs is to
Begin to understand.
~ Wu Hsin
Religion is any thought that you believe in. It becomes your religion. Like "My kids should not leave socks on the floor" = religion
~ Byron Katie
Beliefs are the unquestioned acceptance of an idea
in the absence of verification and reason.
Beliefs are not facts; beliefs are the escape from facts.
Beliefs are the food of a make-believe world.
Permanent clarity is available to you,
but not if you want to cling to your beliefs.
If you insist on believing, believe this:
I am Conscious Life Energy.
Because I am, all is.
I am vibrant intelligence, by which flowers grow and wounds heal.
In my absence, existence as it is known, ceases.
The world is my manifest expression
and this body is its instrument of perception and action.
In this regard, I am the Knowing of every sensation, feeling and thought.
I am the Author of every action.
~ Wu Hsin
All together we are believing a collective consciousness that we are not what we are. And because we believe it we have to believe in a journey to get back to what we already are.
~ Mooji
The Sages, men of vision, have never asked anyone to believe ANYTHING .
Belief is nothing but a concept.
The Sages have always merely pointed at the Truth, which the disciple must then REALIZE himself.
~ Ramesh Balsekar
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
~ Buddha
You believe in free will.
You believe you make yourself sick.
You believe you choose your own parents.
You believe you can control your dreams.
You believe you can take charge of your life.
You believe there is a child within that you can heal.
You believe you have the power of prayer.
You believe that you can make a difference.
You believe your pain is your fault.
You believe you can do better.
You believe you are responsible.
You believe all sorts of shit.
Ram Tzu knows this...
When God wants you to do something
You believe it's your own idea.
~ Ram Tzu
- Underneath your beliefs, whatsoever the belief, doubt continues. Doubt is at the center, and belief is on the periphery. So your life is basically determined by your doubt, not by your belief. . . . A real seeker is not searching for any belief to console himself. Rather, he is trying to find a deeper center in himself which goes beyond doubt.
- Nobody asks me, "Do you believe in the sun? Do you believe in the moon?" Nobody asks me that question. Nobody asks me "Do you believe in the rose flower?" There is no need, you can see that the rose flower is there, or it is not there. Only fictions, not facts, have to be believed.
- Unless I attack your belief system, your ideology, I cannot be of any help to you . . . No, I am not giving you a new set of dogmas, beliefs, creeds, ideologies-not at all. My function is to take away whatever you have and not give you anything in its place , , , I am not substituting another belief system in you. . . . I want to destroy all that has been forced upon you. . . . once hindrances are removed you will start growing and flowing.
~ Osho
