Beyond Faith: How to Break Free from Opinions and Words

Amazing?

The traditional meaning of the phrase beyond belief is to describe something so incredible that it is impossible to believe it is true.

However, there is another meaning that places greater emphasis on the word beyond, and that is to suggest something that is the other side of the belief. Or, in other words, something that transcends belief, and this is the meaning that I am giving to the phrase in this short article.

Definition of belief

A definition of belief is something that we accept and believe to be true, but it is not necessarily something that can be shown to be true.

Correct beliefs and polarized positions

In the field of religious beliefs there have been many discussions, conflicts and suffering for “correct” beliefs or orthodoxies throughout history.

Correct beliefs and core doctrines are reinforced by public statements of belief in creeds and propositional statements of faith such as the Nicene creed.

This is not limited to religion, but applies to political beliefs and social beliefs, such as those related to gender and sexuality, “awakened” beliefs about social equality, beliefs related to political correctness, etc. .

Then there is the tribalism of political beliefs like Democrats vs. Republicans in the US and Conservatives v. The work in the UK and the tribalism of pressure groups like the American NRA with their strong defense of the inalienable rights of Americans to bear arms.

Beyond belief: the suffering inflicted on those who disagree

The suffering inflicted on “others”, those who are not like me, non-believers and heretics.

Over the past century, countless millions have been killed and genocides committed in the name of various political beliefs: the Maoist and Stalinist purges, the death camps of Cambodia, Armenia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, the thousands of lynchings from the Klu Klux Klan. in the southern states of the USA.

In previous centuries, religious persecution by the state supported majorities over non-believing minorities, such as the persecution of the Cathars by the Catholic Church and the burning of Catholics by the Protestants and vice versa.

The list is endless and in all cases:

Believing themselves to be right, clinging to their beliefs, to the point of killing to defend their point of view on the correctness of their position.

Beyond belief to balance

The Buddha had something to say about holding onto views, opinions, and beliefs.

Detachment from things, people and concepts due to their impermanence is a fundamental teaching of Dhamma.

The Buddha offered guidance on how we should handle beliefs in the Alagaddupama Sutta: The Simile of the Water Serpent, which is followed by the Simile of the Raft.

The essence of the teaching is that we should cling to or cling to the Dhamma belief as if it were a raft that carries us across a river, our grip on the raft is analogous to holding a water snake properly so that it cannot bite you. and be released upon reaching the safety of the other shore. Therefore:

• A belief is presented as a guide whereas, conventionally, a belief is considered an immutable certainty.

• A belief must be contrasted with personal experience.

• Beliefs are there to fulfill a purpose and to be released when that purpose is fulfilled.

The mistaken view that thought can encapsulate reality or truth.

Eckhart Tolle has said that:

“Dogmas – religious, political, scientific – arise from the erroneous belief that thought can encapsulate reality or truth. Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of “I know.”

Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas.

It is true that all dogma sooner or later falls apart, because reality will eventually reveal its falsehood; however, unless the basic illusion is seen for what it is, it will be replaced by others.

What is the basic deception? Identification with thought “.

Beyond belief: the limitations of language

# The limitations of language and how the very structure of our language makes us identify with “my point of view” and reinforces the feeling that our concept of what is real is real, when it is not.

# The concepts that we use, the categorizations that we apply and the words that we choose and use to articulate a direct experience put us in a double bind, because despite all that we gain from being able to talk about an experience, we lose an equality, if not greater amount of the full meaning of that experience by the very process of speaking it.

# There is always a context and a framework in our choice and use of words. For example, what I want to tell you in this article and what you hear may not be the same!

Families and societies have been divided, innumerable wars have been fought, millions of lives have been lost, because of the meaning and interpretation of the words.

If we shift our focus to meaning behind or beyond words, meaning that transcends words, meaning that can only be fully grasped by experiencing it, then everything changes and divisions and barriers evaporate as we go further. beyond belief.

Thich Nhat Hanh – Beyond Faith

“When you free yourself from opinions and words, reality is revealed to you and that is Nirvana.”

Read more: Beyond Belief