Beliefs
Scriptures reiterate that it is the mind which is the cause of our freedom and also our bondage.
In one sense, our beliefs are nothing but rules by which we live. Beliefs, most of which are not ours in the true sense, but are what others have made us believe as truths. Most of our beliefs are what we picked up during our lifetime from what we heard or read or saw on the tv. Early in life even before the mind has become capable of deciding for ourselves, we have been told by our parents and teachers and friends things which we have blindly accepted as truth . At that age we are not capable,nay, permitted to put the matter to the litmus test of truth. More often than not , these well meaning instructions and truisms are something that they themselves had not put to the test. Socrates the greek philosopher clearly instructed his students not to accept anything till they found the truth for themselves , even his own instructions. Blindly believing in anything ,without analysing or verifying the truthfulness to our satisfaction will lead to becoming dogmatic.
Many of our strong beliefs are formed early in our lives.Oncestart believing in something , our subconscious takes over and starts to filter our perceptions with a view toreinforce our belief. Any information that repudiates our beliefs are conveniently over looked or discarded as untruthful. Over a period of time these beliefs create our habits and thence it becomes our character. We alll have been brainwashed into believing things about religion,good and bad, people of different ethnic groups etc. In fact almost everything. Most of them are not true. They are just opinions of other people which we made into our own.Many of these beliefs are counter productive. They tend to make our lives to be limited . We loose our ability to be open thereby missing out on many new experiences.
We cannot change the way we behave until we change our beliefs. We have to learn to introspect and become aware of our thoughts and actions. The next step is even more difficult. We have to identify the belief that drives the action. The cunning mind will try to rationalise and give several good reasons but we have to persist till we are able to identify the REAL reason , which will lead us to our underlying beliefs.
The next step is fairly simple. It is to test the veracity of the belief. Is it true. Could it be wrong. How can we be sure. Can wefind away to settle it one wayor another . It needs enormous motivation and commitment. Think it is too difficult? Nobody said that transformation is easy!
In one sense, our beliefs are nothing but rules by which we live. Beliefs, most of which are not ours in the true sense, but are what others have made us believe as truths. Most of our beliefs are what we picked up during our lifetime from what we heard or read or saw on the tv. Early in life even before the mind has become capable of deciding for ourselves, we have been told by our parents and teachers and friends things which we have blindly accepted as truth . At that age we are not capable,nay, permitted to put the matter to the litmus test of truth. More often than not , these well meaning instructions and truisms are something that they themselves had not put to the test. Socrates the greek philosopher clearly instructed his students not to accept anything till they found the truth for themselves , even his own instructions. Blindly believing in anything ,without analysing or verifying the truthfulness to our satisfaction will lead to becoming dogmatic.
Many of our strong beliefs are formed early in our lives.Oncestart believing in something , our subconscious takes over and starts to filter our perceptions with a view toreinforce our belief. Any information that repudiates our beliefs are conveniently over looked or discarded as untruthful. Over a period of time these beliefs create our habits and thence it becomes our character. We alll have been brainwashed into believing things about religion,good and bad, people of different ethnic groups etc. In fact almost everything. Most of them are not true. They are just opinions of other people which we made into our own.Many of these beliefs are counter productive. They tend to make our lives to be limited . We loose our ability to be open thereby missing out on many new experiences.
We cannot change the way we behave until we change our beliefs. We have to learn to introspect and become aware of our thoughts and actions. The next step is even more difficult. We have to identify the belief that drives the action. The cunning mind will try to rationalise and give several good reasons but we have to persist till we are able to identify the REAL reason , which will lead us to our underlying beliefs.
The next step is fairly simple. It is to test the veracity of the belief. Is it true. Could it be wrong. How can we be sure. Can wefind away to settle it one wayor another . It needs enormous motivation and commitment. Think it is too difficult? Nobody said that transformation is easy!
posted by sampath @ 3:41 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Excellent article, SK Sir.
...”We cannot change the way we behave until we change our beliefs...” very well said. This reminds me a lot of known people..like relatives, friends and other know peoples never introspect but blindly follow the beliefs that were instilled in them in early life by parents or guardians or society around them like going to temples each day praying different god etc. but then gossiping, spreading bad mouth on others and all of it. As you rightly said.. transformation is not easy..needs great will, commitment.. determination��, but transformation can become a little bit easy when one has a great mentor like SK Sir, who can shed some light on such blind beliefs based on their real vast life experience, great knowledge on all spectrums of life and unimaginable cognitive thinking abilities and power. Great article, Sir. Thanks.
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