Freedom from Beliefs

 

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Freedom from Beliefs

Being brought up in a deeply religious family I was asked to believe lots of things which defied rationality. Whenever we questioned our mother she would say, you people are educated – we never had the guts to question our parents, we just did as we were asked to! Many of our ancient traditions are based on logic and science and their explanation can be found in the Upanishads, but as our mother did not have the answer to our questions we were spun off with her standard response!

This blind belief is probably the most dangerous thing that our mind does to us. It defeats the very purpose of rational thinking – blind faith and belief have probably conned the maximum number of people in the world out of their wealth as well as happiness! Only the gullible fall for this blind belief and believe me there are a lot of gullible people out there in the world. One thing we have to definitely understand is that to believe, to believe blindly, to accept silently with closed eyes, has been the basic cause of the crippling our lives until now.

It is destructive to believe anybody and it will be harmful to your life. Whoever makes a belief system a basis for his life is entering into a world of blindness – and no light to see with can then ever enter into his life. He can never attain light in his life. One who believes in other will neither believe in himself nor know himself. There is no need to disbelieve either. Both belief and disbelief are the same thing – one a positive expression and the other a negative expression of the same thing! There is a state of mind which neither believes nor disbelieves.

A person can only become free from this inner entanglement of thoughts if he becomes free of trust and belief. Belief is the foundation stone at the base of the pile of thoughts. On the basis of belief, man has been initiated into thoughts and when thoughts grip the mind tightly then a fear also takes hold - what will happen if I drop them? Freedom, liberation of the mind, happens not from changing one’s beliefs but from becoming free from belief itself.

If our mind could distance itself from both acceptance and rejections, then the entanglement could break here and now. Think, search and see - and if through your own experience you feel that there is some truth, if you feel because of your own search, because of looking into the window of your own mind, that there is some truth in it, then that truth will become a truth of your own. Then it becomes an understanding of your own; then whatever you do becomes a way for your life to move towards wisdom and awakening. But whatever you do through believing takes you into more darkness and unconsciousness.

Reference: Osho Talks