How to prevent creating a belief system?

[Pouya]

It's a trap almost everyone can fall into, specially me.

Who do I prevent it?

Being mindful of assumptions?

Always questioning?

[Shadowraix]

Stay detached from the ideas. The ego likes to latch onto everything. Be mindful. Do criticisms make you feel attacked? That's one example on how people can start to identify with the ideas being held. Leo's video on ideology provides a lot of good insights on these mechanisms.

[cetus]

@Pouya A still mind has no belief system.

[Anton Rogachevski]

First realise there are is no better "Authority" than your direct experience. Be connected to the actual at all times, and compare any belief that seems to contradict that.

Cheers 

[Aaron p]

Do not fall into the trap of believing that your beliefs are wrong

[SOUL]

Our mind uses belief to navigate in the physical world, it's natural and an unconscious process so we cannot stop our mind from doing so. The difference is the identity attaching story the ego builds around beliefs about self are the ones that will cause self suffering if challenged.

A 'system' of beliefs are a bunch of individual beliefs that rely on each other and support each other so challenging one belief may challenge the network of them. This is why if they are built around self identity they are more fragile to the ego and can cause self suffering if a single one is challenged since the whole identity is challenged because of the one being so.

If you are seeking to limit self suffering then to limit the amount of self identity beliefs will help in that regard. Although, deluding yourself into believing you don't have any beliefs at all is just that, a self delusion, since it is a self belief of 'I don't have any beliefs' which isn't factual so may again cause self suffering when one is confronted with the reality of the mind's natural beliefs.

If you want to know if a belief is a self belief or a natural life functioning one is ask yourself if the 'truth' of the belief exists apart from the belief in it. Such as you don't jump off a cliff because you 'believe' in gravity but if you don't believe in it do you still fall? It can get more complicated as the beliefs become more abstract such as does one believe they are a success?

If we look at it from a physical point of view every moment we are alive is a success, that's the only measure of success as an individual biological organism. As a more complex social creature our ideas of success may be more complicated than just the animal's survival. Then is where we'd have to examine the network of ideas we believe to find the ones attached to self identity.

As a simple matter of the way I view it is I prefer to have as few beliefs as needed to survive but I don't obsess over the amount I have because attaching identity to how much I have would cause self suffering. So if a belief doesn't exist unless I believe it then I just don't believe it, so that's it, nothing more than that.

If the belief is a functional one it doesn't really matter if I believe in it so I'm not exercising my voluntary belief muscle of the mind so to speak. If it's a necessary component to life sustain the mind will unconsciously account for it without me having to actively believe it to be.

So some might say, well, isn't this just all a belief system I have about belief systems? Yup, it sure is...it's a belief system used to limit the belief system of self identity and cease self suffering. It's works in my experience of being present to liberate from self suffering.

 

[okulele]

watch out