Quotes about Beliefs

Our philosophies of life
     often evolve from our way of life
           and not vice-versa.
In outher words,
     our philosophies of life
           are often mere rationalizations
                  for our behavior.
Rather than examining our beliefs
     and thinking about what we should be doing.
we do what we feel like doing
     and then put our minds to work,
            like defense attorneys
                   to come up with a good case for us.

You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here . . . I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me.

Thoughts are just what is. They appear. They're innocent. They're not personal. They're like the breeze or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops falling. Thoughts arise like that, and we can make friends with them. Would you argue with a raindrop?

You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.

Isn't that how it is with words and beliefs?  They're only useful when you don't need them.  They're not like me...here I am.

Beliefs are determinant of what one experiences. There are no external 'causes". One discovers the secret payoffs that are obtained from unconscious secret projections. One's underlying programs can be discovered by simply writing down ones litany of grievances and woes and then merely turning them around into their opposites.
"People hate me" stems from one'w own inner hatreds. [...] "People are jealous of me" stems from inner jealousy of others. Thus if we take responsibility for being the author of our world, we come close to its source where we can correct it. By being loving toward others, we discover we are surrounded by love and lovingness. ...

Destroy Your Beliefs
 I do not believe in believing.  That has to be
 understood first. Nobody asks me, 'Do you believe in rose flowers? There is no
need.  You can see; the roseflower is there or it
isn't. Only fiction, not facts, have to be believed.

Belief is comfortable, convenient; it dulls.  It is a  kind of drug; it makes you a zombie.  A zombie can be a Christian, \Hindu,
Mohammedan - but they are all zombies, with different labels. And sometimes you get fed up with one label, so they
change the label; the Hindu becomes a Christian, the Christian becomes  a Hindu, a new label, a fresh label, but behind the label the same belief system.
Destroy your beliefs. Certainly it will be uncomfortable, inconvenient but
nothing valuable  is ever gained without inconvenience.

Our beliefs create our actions

It is not what happens to you or for you that makes you grateful. It's how you respond to what is happening, that shows your belief about gratitude

"No one can change another person’s beliefs. But you can be accepting of his beliefs and then slowly build an influence for the other person to change himself."

“Everything is a loan that is given as a gift.” from http://yaffa.gaia.com/blog/2008/7/mastering_the_gratitude_attitude

When we see Him, we will wonder that we ever could have disobeyed Him.

The brain is a stubborn organ.  Once its primary set of beliefs has been established, the brain finds it difficult to integrate opposing ideas and beliefs.  This has profound consequences for individuals and society and helps to explain why some people cannot abandon destructive beliefs, be they religious, political or psychological.

Our beliefs and thoughts are killing us, whereas imagination and creativity liberate us.

Trauma is nothing more than being stuck in what you believe.

Every sphere of genuine discourse must, at a minimum, admit of  discourse – and hence the possibility that those standing on its fringe can come to understand the truths that it strives to articulate.  This is why any sustained exercise in reason must necessarily transcend national, religious, and ethnic boundaries.  There is, after all, no such thing as an inherently American (or Christian, or Caucasian) physics.  Even spirituality and ethics meet this criterion of universality because human beings, whatever there background, seem to converge on similar spiritual experiences and ethical insights when given the same methods of inquiry.  Such is not the case with the “truths” of religion, however.  Nothing that a Christian and a Muslim can say to each other will render their beliefs mutually vulnerable to discourse, because the very tenets of their faith have immunized them against the power of conversation.  Believing strongly, without evidence, they have kicked themselves loose of the world.  It is therefore in the very nature of faith to serve as an impediment to further inquiry.  And yet, the fact that we are no longer killing people for heresy in the West suggests that bad ideas, however sacred, cannot survive the company of good ones forever.
     Given the link between belief and action, it is clear that we can no more tolerate a diversity of religious beliefs than a diversity of beliefs about epidemiology and basic hygiene.  There are still a number of cultures in which the germ theory of disease has yet to put in an appearance, where people suffer from a debilitating ignorance on most matters relevant to their physical health.  Do we “tolerate” these beliefs?  Not if they put our own health in jeopardy.
     Even apparently innocuous beliefs, when unjustified, can lead to intolerable consequences.  Many Muslims, for instance, are convinced that God takes an active interest in women’s clothing.  While it may seem harmless enough, the amount of suffering that this incredible idea has caused is astonishing.  The rioting in Nigeria over the 2002 Miss World Pageant claimed over two hundred lives; innocent men and women were butchered with machetes or burned alive simply to keep that troubled place free of women in bikinis.  Earlier in the year, the religious police in Mecca prevented paramedics and firefighters from rescuing scores of teenage girls trapped in a burning building.  Why?  Because the girls were not wearing the traditional head covering that Koranic law requires.  Fourteen girls died in the fire; fifty were injured.  Should the Muslims really be free to believe that the Creator of the universe is concerned about hemlines?

"You've got to stand up for what you believe in because if you don't then why should someone else?"

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new. Pema Chodron

You are given the gift of the gods; you create your reality according to your beliefs; yours is the creative energy that makes your world; there are no limitations to the self except those you believe in.

People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs.

"The God force is separate and not separate, whole and not whole at the same time. Really, it is not "sliceable", not reducible. Even when it is sliced into individual energies, it does not diminish the total God force or the power of the individual. Each of you has the potential for the God force potency. However, (and this is a very important caveat), no individual can overcome the God force. There is a misinterpretation, then, that Satan is as powerful as God. Limited energy cannot live on its own. Every experience must exist and yet they (limiting forces) can never exist on their own. Limited energy, then, is the experience of the absence of the God force (as a teacher and as a belief). Therefore, there is no need to fear it. Those choosing such experiences have a need to understand how it feels to believe evil powers exist. Again, I say that those who pursue this route are taking it too personally. They believe the story they made up about themselves. It is similar to a person going into an ice cream store and only choosing one flavor from many. Preoccupied with tasting only one flavor for a very long time, they are probably quite sick and tired of it. Still, they don't want to believe there are any other flavors available."

There’s nothing “wrong” with anything. “Wrong” is a relative term, indicating the opposite of that which you call “right.” Yet, what is “right”? Can you be truly objective in these matters? Or are “right” and “wrong” simply descriptions overlaid on events and circumstances by you, out of your decision about them?

You cannot know God until you’ve stopped telling yourself that you already know God. You cannot hear God until you stop thinking that you’ve already heard God. I cannot tell you My Truth until you stop telling Me yours.

You are what you believe you are.

We learn to be right and to make everyone else wrong. The need to be right is the result of trying to protects the image we want to project to the outside. We have to impose our way of thinking, not just onto other humans, but even upon ourselves.

You are the way you are because that is what you believe about yourself.

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.

The world is perfect. As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious. Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes. A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed. It can never be fooled into believing that there is one speck out of order.

The quintessential viewpoint, which we have forgotten, is that of the primal universal creator.  So the first step back to that viewpoint is to accept that were we are is exactly and only where we are.  To begin the process of sorting out or lives, we must own and appreciate the circumstances we found ourselves in right now - continuously.

Realize that in this moment we are exactly where we once decided we wanted to be.  There is no point in second guessing the wisdom behind our decision.  It made sense at the time.  When we assume responsibility for our lives, we will begin to appreciate the wisdom of all our creations, and we will find in them empowering lessons.  As we learn, the solidity of our reality will begin to soften and dissolve, layer by layer, until we behold the core beliefs that created it.

Question your beliefs