Advice To Changing Belief Systems

[Arkandeus]

Hello  I want to share what helped me get more in touch mental work on the level of beliefs. 

How does one change beliefs?When trying to get more enlightened there might be certain concepts we have a tough time believing in, letting sink in our reality.
I'd like to share how I see it. 

Belief cannot be fabricated or altered, a change of belief is a change of focus of your entire being. 
One will not believe in something that he/her does not consider is beneficial for them. One will only believe in something that will bring positive change in their live. 
So belief is automatic, effortless. When you recognize a belief that will actually help you advance, you will automatically start believing in it. It's not something that can be controlled. 

 Knowing that belief is effortless is the key to believing. 
Let's say you get in touch with a belief and you feel like ''hm, I want to believe in that''... the change already happened.
You're believing. 

Why would you desire believing something if you didn't already believe in it? 
That's the way you can detect you're believing something. Thoughts are the product of belief, the second your thoughts change to ''how should I believe in this'' the belief change was already made. 
So that is how I recognize my belief changes.
If you desire to believe in something, you're already believing in it. 

But we do long for something. We think we long for us to start believing in the belief. But since we already believe what we actually long for is the belief to take root in our reality. To manifest inside our reality. 

That's when the understanding of what believing is gets more subtle.
One should see belief as a gradient. It can start as a small flame, and the more you kindle it, the bigger it grows, till it takes root in your reality, till it becomes 'knowing'.  Which at that stage has huge effect on our realities. 

It's important to recognize this gradient and what we actually want. 
The mistake I used to make and that I know many others do as well is to misidentify what's going on with their beliefs. They desire to believe more and think they're actually not believing yet. They immediately want to feel this ''switch'' to knowing, they want to immediately feel the effects of believing or they will doubt that they're actually believing. 
This doubt that you're actually believing makes the belief process very slow or can even corrupt your belief, since you could be constantly introducing negative thoughts to yourself that you're not actually believing.
When you are, but it's just a small flame, and you might have not realized that belief grows across a gradient, it's not a switch. 

So when you realize that your very desire to believe in something is living proof that you're already believing into that something, you can relax and let the process unfold.
There's nothing to do, you're already believing. And the more you let go, the more you will believe. 
it's wonderful how effortless believing is. it's very comforting to realize you can change beliefs this easily. 
just sit back, watch the flame grow, till it overtakes your reality

 

[Prabhaker]

@Arkandeus 

2 hours ago, Arkandeus said:

Belief cannot be fabricated or altered, a change of belief is a change of focus of your entire being. 

No, Why we go on asserting such statements as ”I strongly believe,” ”I am deeply convinced” ? Because deep down you feel that you don’t know, this not-knowing has to be repressed. By strong beliefs you repress this state of not-knowing. Look underneath your convictions and you will always find undercurrents of strong doubts.

That’s why believers can change their belief very easily, but they cannot allow the natural doubt to surface. The theist can become an atheist; when he was a theist he was strongly convinced of its truth, and when he becomes an atheist, he is strongly convinced again of the truth of atheism.

Soviet Russia before the revolution was one of the most theistic countries in the world. Even India is not so theistic. It was the orthodox stronghold of Christianity, very orthodox. And then, within a few years, within just five to ten years, the whole country changed from a strong conviction of theism to a strong conviction of atheism. What happened?

China was one of the most religious countries in the East under Confucius, Lao Tzu, Mencius, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu – the great heritage. And then the impact, the great impact of Buddha and Bodhidharma. Thousands of monasteries, thousands of monks, Taoist, Buddhist, Confucian, and at least five thousand years of traditional up-bringing, yet within ten years after the revolution all that disappeared. Now China is as strongly convinced of atheism as it was convinced of theism.

The same people who look so religious will become anti-religious in the same way, with a vengeance, because the doubt is there deep down waiting for the right moment to assert itself.

Everybody teaches belief, but doubt is natural. Hence the real Masters of the world... for example, Gautam Buddha, says to his disciples, ”Don’t believe just because I say it is so. Don’t believe just because the holy scriptures say it is so. Don’t believe because the masses believe in a certain thing. Unless you experience, never believe in anything. Go on doubting – go on doubting to the very extreme.”

Doubt is a natural, intrinsic quality of your being; it is God-given. Use it, because it has tremendous power in it. It is an instrument to discover truth.

[FindingPeace]

Belief is a choice. You choose to believe something because you ultimately think that it explains something that you otherwise do no not understand or know. It is not truth. A belief is merely a model that you cho ose to adopt, so that you can use it as a point of reference for other beliefs. Hence we build up a whole 'web of beliefs' from which we interpret our reality.

Ultimately, beliefs are fictions, because you don't know the truth. Truth, on the other hand, comes from directly experiencing and seeing something for yourself. No belief is needed when something becomes self-evident. But to directly experience self-evident 'facts' takes awareness.

 

[FindingPeace]

People seem compelled to adopt beliefs because they fear not knowing. But not knowing, is a truth in itself. I am happy to recognise that I do  not know something, rather than looking for some belief to fill the 'hole'. When I have direct experience of the thing that I didn't know, then I will know. Until then, I don't know. And I don't have to believe anything one way or another.

Beliefs are adopted whenever they serve a purpose and they are dropped when they no longer serve that purpose. They are a tool for the self-agenda and the ego. Perhaps people should become more comfortable with just 'not knowing', and being open to possibility.