Chapter  8:  Beliefs

Resolution of Suffering

Chapter 8: Beliefs

By: James Pesavento ( voice by Julie Jennings )

Your beliefs form the structure for how you see life. Belief is a personalized structure that you live in. It brings surety, security and safety. It is sometimes true and sometimes not true. It is always powerful and generally a limitation. Belief solidifies attraction and aversion – I believe my religion is true and I love my religion and I hate your religion. I love my country and its form of government and I think yours is wrong. Belief is often an egoic stance – My political beliefs are right and compassionate and will create the best outcomes and yours will ruin the country. I am right and good. You are wrong and bad.

Your beliefs create a structure and that holds your outlook – and you live in that outlook and color everything in the judgment of that outlook. It is a stance that holds resistance and judgment. It separates you from others and also from your Self. Beliefs alleviate fear and allow your ego to survive and dominate. Unfortunately, few beliefs are true. Beliefs are opinions, conditionings, traditions and standpoints. Some beliefs are scientific or religious. Some are cultural or familial. It’s not that you have to dis-believe all of your beliefs. Simply recognize their limitations and their origins. It’s beneficial to move from seeing them as rigid truths to seeing them as viewpoints. When you begin to lessen your rigidity around beliefs you open to ease, inclusion of others and non-judgment. That opens you to connection and compassion. It moves you into peace, neutrality and acceptance.

When you look deeply at most of your fear and story based beliefs you will be able to identify your egoic stance and outlook that underlie and fuel them. Look at the benefit of seeing a belief as a viewpoint or personal support versus a rigid truth. If you see your belief as absolute truth, that will create an attachment to an outcome. It will completely separate you from others who do not hold that belief. If you see your belief as a viewpoint you can understand better why another might hold an opposite belief as their viewpoint or personal support. In the rigidity of holding your belief as absolute truth, anger can arise when another is frustrating your desired outcome or challenging your truth. You will look upon another as wrong, lesser than and ignorant and you’ll see separation and differences. Most fear and story based beliefs are judgments that separate or differentiate you from others. They are habitual, rigid outlooks that make you feel right and judge others as wrong.

Your beliefs are the foundation for how your life unfolds. When you believe the apparent differences and live in separation and judgment, you create that. When you believe the unity and live in love, peace and acceptance, you create that.

Back to Chapter 7 - Stories
Next: Chapter 9- Patterns