My Spiritual Journey And What It Taught Me About Beliefs

September 29th, 2009

Militant Atheism

About 3 or 4 years ago, I had never really thought much about God. I just lived my life as it was, no beliefs, not even any beliefs about having beliefs. But then I started asking the serious questions that we all ask “Why am I here?” “What is my purpose?” “What is the ultimate purpose?”. I attacked this question from a purely logical stand point. All I knew at the time was to use the logical side of my brain. I became kind of a militant atheist. Claiming to be open minded and yet deep down I thought I knew that I was right and was amazed that nobody else could see what I could. I admired people like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. I would have long drawn out discussions with Jehovahs Witnesses that I knew and totally could not see from their point of view. But I always had this aching feeling that their was more to reality than meets the eye. Just that maybe I would not find the answer in religion.

Logic As A Tool

A while later, I came upon the book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle and it took a massive effect on me. It is the type of book that you think about for a long time after reading it. I found that I was the controller of my thoughts, whereas previously, I was working underneath the control of my thoughts. Slowly but surely, I started to regain control over my thoughts and found that I could control and manipulate them to my liking. I found a sense of oneness that I did not even know existed, it was beautiful. I found heaven, and that it was an inner realm, as he puts it.

Logic is not purely what you should use to make decisions in your life. It makes logical sense that you should increase productivity to get better results in your career. But is this really looking at the bigger picture? Pure Logic often leaves out Love and considering other people. Their is a dimension beyond the mind that few have found and that more are finding each and every day which is what you actually are. It can be called consciousness or awareness and it is you that is conscious or aware of others, your physical body, your thoughts etc. I began to understand paradox and how I could hold two thoughts at the same time without mentally identifying with either one, thus coming to a third central path that used both resources.

Why Identifying With Thoughts Is Wrong

Eckhart Tolle puts it the best and I will try to paraphrase what he says. Thoughts like our bodies and everything else in the physical universe, they are temporary. The book is no more of a book than it is molecules that have formed together to create what appears to be a book. On a basic, zoomed in level, you are the same as the book physically: molecules, all vibrating at different frequencies.

So by becoming identified with things that are by their nature changeable, you are going to become stressed and angry when they change because a part of your self is invested in them. If you take the alternative approach however, and stop identifying with thoughts and beliefs, when they inevitably change, you will remain intact and sane in an insane world because you are centred and you don’t split your identity into other parts. You are whole.

All Books Point To The Same Truth

I don’t agree with people who say “There is only one true path”, and usually follow it by saying “it is through Christ” or something equally ridiculous. I believe there is several true paths that all lead to the same truth, which is a revealing of what you truly are. How can their only be one path? We are all physical individuals that come in a beautiful variation of heights, sizes and situations. People reach enlightenment or Nirvana and remove their ego from all walks of life. Business consultants, Web designers, Homeless people, Nomads, Cave Dwellers. Most of these haven’t even heard of some of the other religions that profess to hold the one and only truth. I read somewhere that Buddha said something like don’t agree with something. even things that I have said if you don’t believe them in your deepest self.

Spirituality vs. Religion

Spirituality and religion are not the same thing. Lets get that straight from the start. Religion is when a group of people come together and read designated scriptures and profess to adhere to certain rules that those books say. This can lead to spirituality but is not the definition of it. Spirituality on the other hand is getting in touch with truth and oneness. It is the process of pulling back layers of conditioning and finding out what you truly are.  This can derive from reading books but tends to be more of a singular than a group journey into your self.

I would consider myself a spiritual person because that allows for freedom of mind and for you to make your own decisions rather than labelling yourself as this religion or that religion. This does not mean that I was not influenced by religious trains of thought. I read the Bible regularly, and am influenced by The Tao Te Ching and Zen Buddhism.

The Problem With Scriptural Texts

The problem with scriptural texts, or more accurately, how people interpret them is that they are limited views and that they are not your views, they are other peoples. Once you start putting things in boxes mentally, you start to narrow what you can see. In my eyes, the most spiritually advanced people can study religious and non religious scriptures and take from each of them nuggets of knowledge. They can participate in group talks on these books and not have their thought controlled. It is a beautiful thing that there is so much varying opinion in the world but a shame that so many people identify with particular ones and shut their minds off to the rest of what is out there. Notice what is right for you and take that from the book.

Beliefs And Why They Limit You

I try as much as possible to limit the number of beliefs in my life. I think that all beliefs are limiting and that they all are based on things than happen in temporary form and no belief is 100% true. By believing in something, you tend to close your eyes to evidence that shows to the contrary. You may see something that contradicts your views but totally ignore it because you disagree with it. If you see me mentioning something that sounds like a belief, I am talking about my experience with the situation or object, not the ultimate belief.

Isn’t This Disempowering?

I think that it is totally to the opposite. Beliefs are based upon your presuppositions and prejudices about life. If you do not believe anything then what is holding you back? Nothing can stop you from becoming what you want because you do not know that anything is impossible. It does not mean that you cannot make accurate predictions about things in your life. For example, you can still predict rather accurately that when you put a glass of water down on a table that it will not go through the table. This is due to statistical probability and experience, which truth should be based upon.

How To Live Without Beliefs

The best way to start is by noticing that you have beliefs and are attached to them. You will notice that you are attached to a belief whenever somebody says something that you disagree with and you feel an urge to tell them that they are wrong and your body may change physically such as sweating, not being abele to sit or stand still. By noticing them, you put a space between yourself (the conscious processor) and the beliefs/thoughts themselves. You have to be totally prepared at any moment for a negative belief to come up though. It is a simple process, it is just being alert that is difficult. Just watch the thought and acknowledge that it is there. Do not judge because then you are back into beliefs.

Practice holding thoughts in your mind and accepting both of them. This helps you go beyond the level of logic. If you believe that the recession is a good thing and a bad thing, logic cannot understand that. So you can move beyond it. Next thing that I would recommend that you do is to try and read a lot of books on beliefs. You may not agree with me on all the points I have made and I totally accept that. After all, we are all different. By reading a wide variety of information on the subject, you can find out what resonates with you and what does not. Go after those things and put them to good use in your life.