The ego is a ghost that arises in consciousness. The ghost
has a name and many preferences. It believes it lives and will die but it has
never been born. It believes that life is suffering and seeks to confirm this
at every opportunity. The ghost has discovered that suffering more than
anything else gives the appearance of life to something that does not exist.
The ghost does not exist and although it suspects this it does not know it.
Huge amounts of energy are expended by the ghost to keep this secret from
itself, when the secret is revealed the ghost will fade and be no more. How is
it that something that does not exist appears to suffer? This amazing trick is
created using smoke and mirrors; stories are invented that sooner or later will
cause suffering. Once created suffering has all the qualities of reality and
this is because the body mirrors what the mind believes. It has probably taken
thousands of years for this trick to become as sophisticated as it now is. It
is now so sophisticated that it can hardly be conceived anymore that suffering
is a dream created by something that does not exist. Through belief
consciousness can and does create everything including the ghost and it is
through the realisation that belief is the source of all illusions that
suffering can at last end.
Hi Ray,
ReplyDeleteCan I ask a very fundamental question which I took for granted earlier regarding belief?
Why and how do we know that every belief is not true? When you say belief is the source of all illusions, what do you exactly mean? How do I know that all beliefs are illusory. I'm not doubting you at the least but somehow find it difficult to trust your word unless it is backed up by personal experience and so far I haven't experienced it.
Thanks with Love
It is not so much the question of whether or not a belief is true or not I am talking about something much more fundamental which is - what is belief itself? As I have said before the meaning of the word belief is 'that which we find palatable to ourselves'. Or that which we prefer. It is a kind of knowing in which we do not know anything, we just have preferences. If we use the word cat the word immediately brings to mind all the behaviours we may have witnessed regarding cats. The behaviour of a cat is not a cat and my point is that 'cat' can never be known. We can have beliefs about this creature but they tell us nothing of the actuality. This is true of all other words/beliefs. Beliefs like thoughts are abstract concepts manufactured in our heads according to conditioning and preference. If you understand this you will see that ' I believe in God' or anything else is no more than pixels on a screen or ink on a page or nebulous chemical responses in the brain that mean nothing except what we want or prefer them to mean. These beliefs can be taken to be valid when they are practical or useful. Most of what we believe is not practical or useful. Practical or useful are connected to our physical survival or in regard to communication which in the beginning would also be about cooperating in order to survive. You need to find out for yourself what beliefs you hold that are practical and useful and those that are not practical and useful and which may actually be self destructive. I feel it is not possible to understand what I am talking about until this question of belief is resolved. It is really very simple a belief is an arbitrary notion that arises in our head that has no independent truth attached to it, we may accept the notion to be true or false but in truth it is neither just as these pixels mean nothing except what you want them to mean.
ReplyDeleteTo explain belief as an 'arbitrary concept' makes it easier for me to understand what belief is, cause to be honest I didn't understand what you meant when you explained belief as being 'palatable to ourselves'. I couldn't grasp what it is that is palatable in the first place. By using the word 'concept' instead of belief, it makes it clearer. Could I replace belief with concept if thats more comprehensible?
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Yes, concept, belief and thought all have the same meaning for me. If the word concept makes this more comprehensible then use it.
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