Beyond Beliefs

Leave everything I believe behind and take that step (of faith)?...

  “You put the belief aside, or see through it, so that you can experience what is deeper than belief. For instance, what are you if you do not refer to a single thought, feeling, or memory to tell you who you are? Your mind does not know. So instead, become aware of what is not a thought, not a feeling, not a memory. Just be aware. There is then just awareness. What is it like to be just aware, to be awareness? Be patient with this series of questions. Hold them easily.

So, as you can see, we are not replacing one belief with another. That’s what we usually do, hop from one belief to another, one idea to another. I do not want to indoctrinate you into a new belief. What’s beyond all beliefs? For example: I am good, just a belief. I am unworthy, just a belief. I am the best, just a belief. I am the worst, just a belief. This is to live in the prison of belief—to live in a sort of virtual reality created by your mind and then felt in your body.

Start with questioning any belief that makes you feel bad. Notice that it is the belief that is making you feel bad, nothing more than a belief. Then see how things look and how you feel when you see that it is only a long-held belief. Put it aside and then see what is different, how you feel. Later you can even do this with what you consider to be positive beliefs.

This isn’t necessarily so that you never form a belief again, but so that you are not held captive by the abstract world of beliefs and the painful emotions that they elicit, as well as the often distorted thinking that they generate. Behind the world of beliefs is the experience of profound freedom, love, and joy.”

~ Adyashanti

"The Philosophy of Enlightenment" Online Course Q & A