Our beliefs have a great influence on our level of consciousness and spirituality. How we perceive life and our judgements about what is right and wrong come from or at least are heavily influenced by our core belief systems.
I mentioned in an earlier article in this series that most of our core beliefs are down loaded into our memory banks by the time we are four years old, before we are old enough to decide for ourselves. Therefore most of these beliefs are not our own but are from other people. It doesn't matter whether they were right or wrong, if they served our higher good or not, once they were lodged in our long term memory they became our truth. We need our beliefs because they are an essential part of the human function. Our perceptions are drawn from our beliefs. What we believe is our truth but it is not necessarily the highest truth!
A problem arises when we identify who we are by what we believe because if our beliefs are challenged then we feel challenged. If our self identity is threatened in any way we usually go into self-defence which is an action of the survival mode part of our brain. When this happens there is very little chance of change. People generally defend their beliefs and they can get very angry if these beliefs are challenged. They can feel attacked even if someone else is only expressing another point of view. This self identity with our beliefs causes many conflicts from inter personal levels through to international levels. One of the greatest obstacles to our spiritual evolution is our inability to allow our beliefs to be continually challenged and if necessary be changed for the better. This is not an easy exercise because old habits and beliefs die hard. We have to allow our beliefs to be reviewed regularly if we want to raise our consciousness. If a core belief is proved to be wrong we can have very strong reactions such as feeling a lesser person, stupid, a failure and a host of other negatives.
One classic example of the friction caused different beliefs is between religions. Let us use Christianity as an example. In the community where I grew up, the two main Christian churches were Anglican and Catholic and both had strong followings. I grew up in an Anglican family but I had many friends who were Catholics. We used to debate the different doctrines but because of our strong beliefs there was no way we could see the common ground found in the bigger picture. A picture where we both worshiped the same God and believed in Jesus Christ. A picture which should create understanding and harmony. These two local church communities tried to project a united front but behind the scene there was a lot of disharmony over their different beliefs. To me this seemed a huge hypocrisy but to these people they were only defending their beliefs. Both denominations believed that they were right and the other was wrong. There was a lot of rivalry between the two groups and this helped create deep divisions. Sadly, never the twain shall meet and many will leave this planet believing that they were right, even to the extent their beliefs should never be questioned. Ironically, both sides believed that their truth was the right one. I need to mention that there were a lot of loving spiritual people with honourable intentions found in these religions. This illustrates the dilemma that is caused when our beliefs are so set in stone that we lose the ability to see a bigger picture.
During my latter teenage years I started to question my religious beliefs because of the contradictory elements found in them. First; I had to own that I was a hypocrite with beliefs which had many faults. Secondly; I realised that it was not me but my beliefs that were faulty and hypocritical and that I wasn't necessarily bad person because I had bad beliefs. Third; if I am not my beliefs then I could change them any time I chose. If we can think from our higher self then we can observe and review the beliefs of our ego self.
We can accommodate other points of view and truths without feeling threatened. As we gather more information we not only build a bigger picture but we see the bigger picture. It is very freeing for the soul if we can let go of our self identity being associated with our beliefs. It is said that ‘the truth will set us free’. On the other hand it is our own lesser truths that hold us back. Exercise You will always experience inner peace and harmony if your truth is the highest truth. Therefore when your truth is being challenged, monitor your reaction. If you have any negative reaction at all then you will need to open your mind up to the possibility of change.
David Lane
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