Thursday, June 10, 2010

so tell me

So tell me
what if ALL beliefs
about who we are
and what is going on
are wrong!
Posted by at

16 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 10, 2010 at 4:53 AM

    might be as confusing as it would be if ALL beliefs about who we are and what is going on are right.

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  2. philJune 10, 2010 at 5:27 AM

    I often think they are all wrong ... explaining why we fight so hard to believe them right.

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  3. ablecutegemJune 10, 2010 at 8:02 AM

    I believe that is the truth!

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  4. AnonymousJune 10, 2010 at 8:18 AM

    My sense is that each belief "about who we are and what is going on" is grounded in some experience and/or process of reasoning and therefore reflects some sliver of truth about what is. Each is a finger pointing to the moon. None are "right" or "wrong." Some are likely to be more revealing or misleading than others. All are fingers, none are moon.

    It is reasonable to conclude that no belief is "absolutely right." Another way to express this is to say that ALL beliefs are incomplete.
    So, I would rephrase your question as: "What if ALL beliefs about who we are and what is going on are significantly incomplete?" My answer would be: Then we are all the more free to open to wider, deeper understandings. ~Stan

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  5. PatrickJune 10, 2010 at 8:28 AM

    If we became aware that all beliefs were wrong, it would shut down our thinking. We would just be.

    Or so I believe... (:

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  6. Kathy TrejoJune 10, 2010 at 10:20 AM

    I have no problem with that thought...all beliefs are man-made. Who made man? our source. what is our source? its all one...maybe? yes no? life and our senses are real...when i bump into a wall it still hurts..the walls don't disappear for me! even though the atoms are all made of the same stuff...i don't know jack! but my brain loves to search and try to understand.

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  7. Kathy TrejoJune 10, 2010 at 10:26 AM

    I think this is what Ryokan meant with these words:

    The flower invites the butterfly with no-mind;
    The butterfly visits the flower with no-mind.
    The flower opens, the butterfly comes;
    The butterfly comes, the flower opens.
    I don't know others,
    Others don't know me.
    By not-knowing we follow nature's course.

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  8. George BreedJune 10, 2010 at 10:51 AM

    Yes, Stan. Each sliver of belief is as nothing until following all the way through to the endless beginning and the beginningless end which are the same.

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  9. AnonymousJune 10, 2010 at 4:35 PM

    Yes indeed brother George! And some, such as the ones you share here, aim more in that directionless direction than others. ~Stan

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  10. friendsJune 10, 2010 at 7:10 PM

    I love you George!
    T

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  11. jbmooreJune 10, 2010 at 8:48 PM

    I doubt anything would change fundamentally, George. Look at the Russians and Chinese. Under Communism, the State has replaced religious beliefs with Communist ones, and Stalin, Mao, and Pol-Pot killed millions of people due to their new Enlightened beliefs. So what makes you think that if all of Mankind's beliefs disappeared tomoorow, that they would not be replaced by similar beliefs with a different object of worship in place, and that anything would fundamentally change. The underlying collective psyche would have to change from what we have now as well as the belief system for any significant change to occur. A better question might be to ask how Buddhism changed certain peoples like the Tibetans to be non-violent? Did their belief system change first, or was it the compassion of the Buddhist missionaries or some other quality that made them realize that Buddhist beliefs or methods were superior that changed them?

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  12. George BreedJune 11, 2010 at 5:54 AM

    I love you too, T.
    Great blessings to you!

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  13. George BreedJune 11, 2010 at 6:02 AM

    John, my concern here is not with change on the socio-politico-religio level.

    I am simply asking the question: what if YOUR beliefs about who we are and what is going on are wrong?

    And not only YOURS but EVERYONE'S! Can you open to that possibility and feel its freeing effect?

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  14. SteveJune 11, 2010 at 10:27 AM

    I am beautifully flawed.

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  15. jbmooreJune 19, 2010 at 9:01 AM

    George,

    I've lost my beliefs and searched for answers ever since my brother died in 1998. I try to understand what is real and every day a little bit of the stubborn I dies. Yet, I know I am still deluded in a sense, and I know further that in some ways I am a stranger to my own family. I also know that my framework for reality is likely wrong because the totality is beyond one mind to comprehend. Yet, I also know that when the time is right, my psychological death will occur. I (the ego) cannot make it happen because something that doesn't really exist can't do anything. All beliefs die when the brain starts dying. Possibly everyone's beliefs disappear when they die and they see true reality, but they either forget or lose consciousness before the brain dies and they die. So, in a sense what you propose (psychological death) happens every day as someone physically dies, and everyone eventually dies. Psychological (belief) death just doesn't happen enough before someone actually dies. The two events aren't disconnected in most people. But that's our genes. No animal wants to die. It may not understand mortality, but it does wish to continue its existence otherwise why evolve a flight or fight response?

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  16. George BreedJune 20, 2010 at 6:28 AM

    Thank you, John. I appreciate your open sensitivity, your good brain and heart.

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