You don’t have to hold any “beliefs”, you don’t need to hold on to any concepts, you don’t have to hold any blind faith in any teaching – this is what true freedom is, when you don’t have to carry a baggage of beliefs in your mind all the time. Everything that you need, to have a good life, is already within you. If you just follow your own joy, follow your heart and let go of being driven by negativity, you will always have a positive experience of life – there is no need or necessity to find any belief systems. The beauty of letting go of holding onto beliefs is that the required knowing arises for you whenever you need it – whatever knowing you need to handle your present circumstance will come to you effortlessly (either from inside or outside) when you are living in this open manner of not carrying the baggage of concepts, techniques or beliefs.
A pointer is just a pointer, it’s not meant to be taken as a “belief system”. If a pointer resonates for you, in that moment, it can help bring some clarity – after that you don’t have to keep holding on to that pointer by making it into a belief system. The only reason you will try to hold onto to “beliefs” is when you are afraid of being open to life. Anything you hold on to as a form of belief, becomes a resistance of some form, it curbs on your freeness – it keeps you in fear of losing it. A belief is something you need to keep reinforcing in yourself, and it’s a waste of energy and brain power. If you can live free of belief, you save so much energy (especially in your brain) which can be channeled into producing quality expression.
All beliefs are inherently laden with fear, if you were not fearful you wouldn’t really care to hold a belief – there will be things that resonate with you and some things that don’t resonate with you, but you don’t need to carry anything as a belief system. There is a difference between having a perspective and having a belief system, because a perspective comes from a place of what resonates for you in your present moment (so you are always open to anything new), while a belief system comes from a place of wanting to hold on to a perspective from a place of fear that you will be lost without it (hence it becomes a baggage). If you can drop all your belief systems and still feel “confident” in your well-being, that shows that you are not using any beliefs as a crutch in your life.
Your guidance should always come from within
It’s okay to listen to different perspectives with an open mind, but the only criteria for you to accept a perspective is to see if it resonates within you – if it touches your heart. If it doesn’t, then it’s not for you, at-least not at this moment, may be at a later time, with a deeper maturity, the same perspective may resonate for you, but right now you are better off without it. To try to believe a perspective by putting blind faith on someone, or some teaching, is just a “powerless” way to live where you are not standing on your own two shoes and expecting someone else to herd you around.
At any point in your life, you can only understand through your personal capacity for understanding, at that moment. If you simply follow your inner guidance you will always move in the right direction. Life is a constant learning, it’s a constant growth, and you need to just keep following your inner guidance on a consistent basis to allow this growth to take place, to allow learning to keep coming in. If you try to hold on to some belief systems that means you are no longer flexible enough to be open to your own inner guidance in that moment. Be open to learn and receive information from the outside, but always use your own inner guidance to let you know what feels right to you. This is what it means to take full responsibility for your life – this way you know you are not blindly dependent on someone, or some belief-system, to tell you the right way to live.
Your only criteria for accepting a perspective, or teaching, should be your inner resonance with it – if it doesn’t resonate for you don’t try to make yourself force believe it. If someone is asking you to believe in them, or believe in their teaching, rather than asking you to check within yourself to see if it resonates for you, it shows that they are not willing to allow you the freedom to connect with your own inner guidance – it’s best to walk the other way if you meet such people. Whether it be to choose the right job, the right diet, the right relationships – your guiding factor should always be your own inner guidance.
Clearing up the fog of negativity to connect with inner guidance
Of course, when you are lost in the mind’s momentum of negativity, there is very little awareness in you to be connected with your inner guidance, and the more disconnected you are with your inner guidance the more likely you are to live an incongruent life and hence attract more negativity, thus creating a vicious cycle. To break this cycle you need to let go of fueling the mind’s momentum by no longer anchoring your awareness in it, rather just rest in your being allowing the mind to slow down its momentum. The more you rest in your being the more connected you are with your inner guidance. To “rest in the being” is just a pointer to help you recognize the silent space of being that’s present outside the noisy space of the mind.
The more you rest in your being the more the mind’s momentum reduces, until it’s no longer a potent force pulling you around. In this place you have open access to your inner guidance because it’s no longer blurred by the noise of the mind’s momentum. We all have equal access to this space of inner guidance, it’s just that a lot of us are too lost in the mind’s pull to connect to this space of intelligence. When you get a sense of this space of dynamic wisdom within you, it becomes obvious that you don’t have to carry any rigid belief systems, neither do you have to be dependent on some outside source for guidance – this is how you become “self sustained”.
A teacher name Osho made this very clear when he said – “be a light onto yourself”, what he meant is – don’t be a follower be willing to connect with your own inner guidance. A true teacher is not someone who creates followers, but someone who helps the seekers towards their own inner guidance so that they can become self-sustained. A true leader is not someone who makes others trust in him/her, but rather the one who makes them trust in themselves. When you trust in your inner guidance you don’t have to carry belief systems, neither do you have to be a “follower”, you feel totally self-sustained and are always open to life guiding you as per the requirement of the moment.
Hi Sen
How beautiful – to let our inner selves be our own light. You are right, we are very bogged down by our beliefs, esp when they are limiting ones
We can shake them off anytime, but we don’t, for fear
Noch Noch
Sen, sorry this will be probably the first time that I won’t agree with you at all, as what you say is quite discouraging for people. Belief systems are what made the world around you, every unit of consciousness believed something and that materialized in a physical form. As far as I know the individual’s belief system is of the highest vibration a human being can have, whereas the belief that’s part of a collective consciousness or the so-called automatic mind is of the lowest, because it doesn’t promote new patterns of thinking. I’m not sure which one you mean, but believing means creating, and I think that’s very important at this age. I know what you’re trying to say, that we should let go of any form that can keep us limited, but I believe that belief is the only thing that can create a better world.
Mike, a strong ego obviously thrives on beliefs and if you notice rigid beliefs have been the cause of the highest forms of destruction, violence and suffering. One deluded belief is enough to create negativity for a lifetime, all forms of orthodox mindsets come from a belief in some idea, some conditioning, some commandment. Beliefs are the easiest way to keep the mind from thinking beyond its box of conditioning, and leads to extremely un-original life. There was a belief once that the earth is square, there was a belief once that the sun revolved around earth, scientists who wanted to differ were killed and burnt on the stake, all in the name of belief – that’s what belief can do, it can narrow down your thinking to such levels that you become prisoner to your own belief. Everyone thinks that their belief is right and the other’s belief is wrong, this is the root cause of all negativity and violence. It’s only people who were willing to think beyond popular beliefs who really made significant difference to humanity, who were the real pioneers of change.
If I sat holding on to several beliefs that are jutted out by spiritual teachings that I heard, if I just blindly stayed with certain conventional ways of looking at spirituality, none of these writings would ever have come about. The originality that comes in your expression, only comes from a place of being free of the popular beliefs. It’s easy to stifle a person’s potential by giving him a limited belief. The society gives you several “belief systems” which you may hold on to and become a prisoner to it, dis-allowing anything original to come through in your thinking. If you look at most people who live like drones, repeating the same routine day in and day out, you will see that they are holding onto some rigid beliefs about how to make money, the belief that were ingrained into them by their parents, teachers and society at large. Beliefs makes you a drone, when you are free of holding on to any beliefs, true originality comes into all your endeavors, new ideas, new outlook, new perspectives, new way of doing things, they are all emerge when you let go of holding on to rigid structures of belief. All the greatest artists were ones who went beyond the belief system in their tradition or school.
To say that a individual belief system is his highest vibration and that life-energy’s intelligence is at a low vibration, is just the kind of delusion that keep the ego in the center of your existence. If you want to sense your true originality and creativity, you need to let go your belief systems and be open to the inspiration that comes from your inner being, from your life-space or life-stream. Everything original comes from this space, everything mechanical comes from a mind rooted in old beliefs. I am not sure what you mean by “automatic mind”, I am not talking about taking on the collective belief or behaviors of collective human consciousness. I am talking about letting go of your rigid beliefs and be willing to be inspired by your life-stream’s intelligence.
Of course, this talk about letting go of beliefs is discouraging to the ego who’s whole existence is based on the beliefs that it holds onto. Beliefs in religion, beliefs of the culture, beliefs of the family, beliefs given by teachers – the brain incorporates these beliefs and tries to live in a false sense of security created by them. This comes at the cost of losing out of having access to original thinking, depth of perception, freedom from prejudices and creative inspiration that can only come when you are willing to let go of your beliefs and allowing of the inspiration that comes from your life-stream’s intelligence. If you’ve not tasted this intelligence, you are likely to stay clinging to the security of beliefs, but once you start tasting the freedom, dynamism and originality present in the intelligence of your life-stream you will no longer hold “beliefs” as the highest vibration of thought in a human being – if anything beliefs are the lowest form of thinking because it limits your thinking.
It’s not beliefs that will create a better world, it’s your access to the intelligence of your life-stream that’s “unconditional intelligence” which allows for true solutions and creative expressions to come through.
Sen what does it mean if we are experiencing more synchronicity in our daily life. After following your practices for a while (consider myself to be in phase 3) i have been experiencing more and more synchronicities it has become almost a common occurrence in my daily life. Where as before they would happen but way fewer and farther between
Ralph, as your resistance to your life-stream dissolves, you automatically find yourself moving in sync with wholeness – this ensures that you are usually at the right place at the right time, giving you a sense of synchronicity.
Powerful article, thank you
Thank you
Hello Sen
Like Ralph, I’ve been experiencing lots of synchronicities. I wonder if you could write articles on Synchronicity and also what they call the Shadow side of our psyche and what happens to it after awakening. How is the relationship of an elightened person with his Shadow or does it disappear altogether?
Thanks
Dan, The more you let be, in state of open allowing, without resisting what arises, the more you find out for yourself integrating with your dark (what you call shadow side) and light nature – which brings an inner wholeness. Also when your resistance reduces it’s natural for you to be more in sync with life and hence have more pleasant synchronicities happening, and less you try to control the more effortlessly things falls into a right timing. You can read this post – awareness touches your dark side for some more insights on how the shadow side gets integrated into wholeness.
Very true article. I really like it. Sir I also try to let go all the negativity and fears in the mind and I think that I’m successful to some extent in doing this. Whenever negativity comes in my mind I frequently remember two words ‘let go’ and really after that my mind is relaxed. Sir thank you very much for giving such wonderful and knowledgeable articles. God bless.
Hi Sen, this post gives me all the reasons to read of your rest of the posts , thank you again.
Hi Sen,
You won’t believe the weight that was shed from my shoulders after reading this. I have been so wrapped up in people’s beliefs and opinions of me that I failed to live my life to the fullest. I have been living in fear for a long time. It feels good to finally chuck everything out and breathe….. freely.. ;D
I have this fear that if I let my beliefs go then there is a chance that my belief in God and heaven will disappear. I am guessing this is the ego. Sen, can you please elaborate on how to let go of these beliefs. Does it have to do with not making such beliefs define me as a person because as you say they are coming from fear? Honestly, I think I do believe in heaven and God out of fear. This realization saddens me. It is because deep down inside I am scared that when I die there will not a place for my soul to go, that death is just blackness, a dreamless sleep. Are beliefs a way to suppress fears, to help create a sense of falseness? I want to believe without the falseness. I am just confused on how to start.
Nicole, the whole deal of “holding on to beliefs” is similar to the deal of “trust” – they both have a shaky foundation to start with. For example, let’s say you are with a person who has a strong sense of integrity and is committed to you, whether you trust this person or not he is going to be committed to you and is going to behave with integrity because that’s what’s important to him. Now let’s say you are with a different person who has no real sense of integrity and is manipulative, whether you trust this person or not he is going to be flakey in some way. In both these cases, what role did your trust really play? Basically, nothing more than just giving your mind something to worry about or something to seek some pseudo-assurance from. Just because you trust a person doesn’t change the person, if a person lacks integrity he will behave in that manner whether you trust him or not, and if a person has a strong sense of integrity he will behave in that manner whether you trust him or not. What you can do is to use your awareness to get a clear sense of person, and then decide whether you want to hold a relationship with him, while being open to the fact that you can never be totally certain (the best you can do is follow your instinct) – when you choose to be in a relationship with a person, you do so as a conscious choice while accepting that your judgement could be wrong in which you will remain open to dealing with the consequences by taking responsibility for your decision.
The whole deal of blaming the other person with the line of “I trusted you, how could you betray my trust” is just a waste of time and energy, and it’s also manipulative in many ways because you are trying to make the person feel emotionally guilty. If someone betrays you, it just means that you were not wise enough to choose the right person, and it was your decision to be with this person so you can’t just put the blame on him – holding someone else responsible for keeping your trust is a mindset that leads to self-pity, resentment, victim-thinking and powerlessness.
The mindset of holding on to beliefs works on the same principle as trust. Instead of holding on to beliefs, just be open to the fact that you could be wrong, that no-one can ever be fully certain. Also, whether you believe something or not, the fact remains that whatever is the truth will remain to be the truth – truth does not depend on your “belief” to stay true. For example, light is faster than sound, it’s a truth, and whether you believe it or not, it remains as the truth. Instead of trying to cling to beliefs just allow yourself to “observe”. There are two modes of observation – scientific observation and instinctual/intuition-based observation. Light is faster than sound is a scientific observation. Feeling the presence of God is a instinctual observation. Both these observations are required. People who say “I will only accept what I can scientifically prove” are being highly rigid because they are shutting down the door to “instinctual observation” and hence they lose connection with their emotional intelligence. Your “instinctual observations” will keep deepening as your awareness keeps growing and you will get a sense of life’s truths in the form of understandings that really resonate with you. However, you don’t have to hold on to these understandings, just allow them to come while being open to them evolving as your awareness grows – in that sense, allow yourself to resonate with some understandings, but don’t try to hold on to any understandings, just be open. Certainty is the mindset of the ignorant or arrogant, the wise are always open to uncertainty.
I talk about some understandings of life, in some posts, where I talk about souls, incarnation, creation perspectives, etc, and all of this is based on my personal understanding of life in my current awareness (my “instinctual observation”) – however, I never contend that whatever I understand is some “ultimate truth”, neither is it a “belief system” for me, I am totally fine if these understandings were wrong or incorrect – I don’t get my sense of security out of my understandings, my sense of power/freedom comes from the fact that I am open to them not being true. If something resonates with me, it feels like a knowing to me, beyond that I don’t try to make it into some belief to hold on to for my sense of security. The openness to allow life to be what it is, without wanting to be totally “certain” is what gives you a sense of freedom – the fact is that “certainty” is not possible, uncertainty is an attitude that’s more aligned with the dynamism of life. Once you become comfortable with uncertainty, there is nothing that takes away your security.
Nicole
I still believe in God, out of everything that is happening inside my mind, out of understanding that I have, and all the doubts that my mind have. After the first few times reading Sen’s article, something just came up in my head, that God is life itself. For me, this statement really makes sense in a way that I can only understand (probably). Once again Sen’s words shed a light into my understanding. Thanks.
Sen, “be a light unto yourself” are known to be the last words of Buddha.
Hi I am eighteen years old. I recently just got married and I have been independent for about 6 months now. A couple of months ago I woke up and I started thinking about killing my husband and a strange voice popped into my head telling me to kill my husband. I cried and told him about it and he was supportive about it, but since then I would have the voice tell me to kill the ones I love the most and it would even be strangers and it came to the point where I began to fear of being possesed by a demon or an evil spirit. I have learned that if I let it do its thing and not try to repress the voice has helped me. However, I feel like I am a bad person because I have these thoughts and voices and I feel like I am alone with this.
Amber, the experience you are going through is not uncommon. You may have to start with the understanding that just because a thought comes up in your mind doesn’t mean that you are “creating” it. You are part of a collective life, and there are many beings around, many energies around, many consciousnesses around – and in the end we are all connected in some way, and hence we have access to all aspects of life – However we once become receptive to what we attract or what we are a compatible match for. For example, a person who is fearful is a match towards elements that want to induce fear, and hence ends up attracting the influence of such elements in his/her life – you will notice how a person with a victim-mindset always ends up attracting some form of exploitation, it’s not a coincidence it’s just a very “scientific” deal of life that we become receptive towards the energies that we are a match to. You may notice that your personality may have aspects of powerlessness, meekness, nervousness or anxiety as a part of its unconscious makeup, possibly you’ve been living this personality for a long time (may be since your childhood). This aspect of your personality is what makes you receptive to thoughts that instigate fear in you, or the thoughts that create the feeling of helplessness.
The thoughts you’ve mentiond are not your creations (you can notice that these thoughts are not really congruent with you, and you won’t think these thoughts as a conscious choice), they may be induced by many elements external to you (including non-physicalelements/consciousnesses) – however, now that your brain has recorded these thoughts, it can keep re-playing it mostly out of fear or out of confusion. This is where you have to consciously stop identifying with these thoughts by letting go of your fear towards them, just allow them to be but don’t try to get into the loop of trying to suppress them, or feeling bad about them – just let them ride out, don’t make it personal. In order for you to do so you will have to work on the attitude of “inner power”, where you stop reacting in a meek manner towards these thoughts, and develop the power to let go of getting influenced by their presence. You can read this post – connecting with inner power – for more insights.
Thank you sen it makes sense now because i have grown up in a rough childhood and i have been suffering with anxiety for months now.