Belief is the bane of exploration
Ah beliefs… we all have them, we all love them. Well at least until one realizes the fallacies of beliefs.
Let us first define belief. My definition of belief is basically “A thought that we think is true and that is used in substitution of knowing.” The crucial hint here is that it is used in substitution of knowing. One knows when there is direct experience. So basically the difference between knowing and belief is that one is rooted in experience while the other is not.
An example:
Knowing: You played with fire and got burnt.
Belief: Your mom told you that playing with fire can get your burnt and you trust her words.
In this example it is not clear as to why I would suggest that you let go of beliefs and move into knowing. But what if being burnt is a part of life as well? Can you see how belief is a result of us trying to protect ourselves (ie. fear of death and fear of the unknown)? And with these fears and beliefs we go to the outside world perceiving everything through these tinted lenses, further reinforcing the beliefs by ignoring any proof of the contrary. And because the universe has its way of returning what you throw at it, your beliefs manifest into your experience which you then use as proof that the beliefs are true. Hence starts a vicious cycle. So by and by we stop questioning and instead spiral down into repetitive and routine lives and consequently wonder why are we alive in the first place.
At this point I can give you a ready-made answer. But replacing a belief with another is ultimately futile. Instead, I shall pose a question.
Now that you have the chance to see things for what they are, do you really still want to give up the immense experience that life can be and hang on to your petty beliefs?
A message by the late George Carlin
Our Life Today
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but
shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more,
but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and
smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees
but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more
problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too
little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too
tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too
much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to
life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but
have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered
outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better
things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the
atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more,
but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build
more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than
ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small
character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of
two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are
days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night
stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to
quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window
and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this
letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this
insight, or to just hit delete…
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not
going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because
that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the
only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.
Remember, to say, ‘I love you’ to your partner and your loved ones, but
most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes
from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person
will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the
precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments
that take our breath away.
Death of a Friend
If you stay in Singapore, chances are you would have read about the death of Clifton, the SAF pilot trainee. We were in the same Secondary School, Poly and then in the same camp during NS for a few months. We weren’t the closest of friends for sure. We just happen to be in proximity for these years.
Pardon me for not being entirely sad though. I just know he’ll be back… albeit not as Clifton. So there’s nothing to be sad about.
What I felt was a waste, and the emphasis is on what I felt, not what he felt, is that he did not experienced a no-bars-held kind of relationship when he was still alive. I say this because the last time I talked to him while we were still in the same camp, it seems that his relationship isn’t all that fulfilling. At least not to me.
I would sooner die than have a relationship where there isn’t 100% openness and satisfaction (or at least the want to satisfy the other party as much as possible).
Amen.
-Roy
From Ariel. Good Shit.
“Something interesting I’ve noticed is how we expect others, especially those in power, to be perfect.
Look at how much people gossip about celebrities or trash talk politicians for any dumb little thing they fucked up on.
Really, it’s hypocritical. Everyone feels imperfect and they project this “problem” onto others and bash them for their perceived flaws.
Yeah we can get spiritual and say how everything is perfect and whatnot, but from a purely human side of reality, we are all imperfect. We all have our dark sides, ego challenges, fears, and so on.
Does anyone else find this fascinating? When you give someone a label such as police officer, president, leader, teacher, or any other title that somehow implies they’re “above” you, we expect nothing but perfection out of them.
Instead of seeing them as just as human and vulnerable as ourselves, we expect perfection out of them.
This is how children see their mommies and daddies: perfect
And it really is that: a childish outlook on life.
Imagine what it’d be like if we all totally accepted ourselves as being imperfect and accepted others just as they are without pressuring them with unrealistic expectations.
What would be one possible answer to this? Stop expecting yourself to be perfect all the time. Stop expecting others to be perfect. Allow people to fumble their way through life and make mistakes occasionally.
We don’t get pissed at babies who fall over when learning how to walk. We simply encourage them to get up and try again. Why not with people who are trying to learn how to walk, and even run, through life?
I admit, right here right now, that I am NOT perfect. I am human. I am vulnerable. I have made many mistakes in life. I will make many more. I accept this about myself. It’s just how things are.
You, too, are imperfect and that’s OKAY. It really and truly is.
It’s okay to try new things and see what happens. It’s okay to make mistakes and to f*ck up sometimes, even f*ck up royally. It’s okay. It’s all okay… “
Brent’s Mail
“Philosophers and spiritual teachers have been asking themselves for the last five thousand years what influences are favorable to the development of an enlightened consciousness…and why.
There’s a profound story that portrays people as prisoners being held in a dark cave since childhood. They sit facing a wall and behind them is a raised platform and behind that is a fire. Their captors wave dolls back and forth through the light of the fire and these objects cast shadows on the wall in front of the people. The people don’t see the fire and they never look at the dolls because their bodies and heads are chained so they can’t look at the person next to them or move in any way. They only see the shadows that the dolls cast on the wall in front of them. The people come to believe that these shadows are reality. They name the shadows and start competing for who can name them the fastest and how many they can name, which one will come next Etc. They hear the voices of the puppeteers and believe that they are the voices of the shadows. And they suffer greatly as a consequence of their belief. They believe the shadows are reality because they know NOTHING but shadows and they assume there is nothing BUT shadows.
One day, by fate or by circumstance or maybe even by accident one individual is able to turn his head around. As he turns his head he sees the dolls going back and forth in front of the fire. In that moment he realizes that the shadows are only shadows and that suffering is caused by ignorance. He goes back briefly to watching the shadows and suffering. Even though the experience doesn’t last, at least he knows and he’s had this extraordinary moment of consciousness in which he realized that the shadows were shadows. In having seen the truth, it will tug at him until he finally walks out into the sunlight. He’d like to stay out in the sunlight for the rest of his life but he feels an obligation to the people who are still suffering, who still believe in the shadows and who believe there’s nothing BUT shadows. His biggest challenge is how to tell them.
If he goes back into the cave and he tries to tell the truth, they won’t understand him, they won’t believe him. They’ve never heard the word “sunlight.” They will feel that he’s insane and a troublemaker. And, he’ll either end up imprisoned in the shadow world or maybe even crucified… because his words about sunlight are meaningless to the people who have only seen cave shadows.
The principle obstruction to their awakening is the belief that they’re already awake.
Now, while the above statement is true there is, within it, a sense of being made wrong.
Ex: “What do you mean I’m not awake!?”
It’s a threat to the ego and this is no fertile ground for self-development or self-growth. But eventually, if he survives long enough, this realized being grows smart enough to circumvent the ignorance and the intolerance of the shadow watchers. He gains the ability to understand and manage creation. He operates from the viewpoint of higher-self without needing approval or applause. He simply takes responsibility for transforming these people and transforming civilization. He learns how to inspire. And he inspires the people who are trapped and suffering in their shadow reality. He learns how to inspire them to turn around and see the light without making them wrong.
Give your friends lots of room to believe what they believe. Remember, they’re just chasing shadows. If you want to help them (and have a good relationship with them) you have to take this into consideration and avoid making them wrong. Instead, be patient and inspire them to see a new way. When they do things the way they do them, don’t get sucked in…do your own thing and let your actions (and results) speak louder than your words.
Try it and let me know what happens!”
Awesome Quote from Battlestar Galactica
I am not a saint, I never even particularly been a good man
I am in fact been a profanity, a selfish man
But it doesn’t matter you see, something in the universe loves me
Something in the universe loves the entity that is me
I will choose to call this something God
A singular spark that dwells in the soul of every living being
if you look inside you will find this spark too
but you have to look, deep
love your faults, embrace them
if God embraces them, then how can they be faults
love yourself, you have to love yourself
if you don’t love yourself, how can you love others
and if you know what you are, then you can find the truth about others
see what they are, the truth about them
and you know what the truth is, the truth about them… about yourself
the truth is… we are all perfect, just as we are
because God is perfect
Cool quotes from a friend…
This is from a pretty enlightened guy named Ariel.
“LOVE PORN!
LOVE EVERYTHING!
That which you resist persists. That which you look at disappears. When you accept it and love it totally, its power over you will vanish like a fart in the wind. 
Where did your love of porn come from? You’re designed by nature, by GOD, to love sex and subsequently porn. It’s in your biology. It’s instinctual. Repression is not going to get rid of those feelings. As you found, they’ll eventually make themselves known, one way or another.
As with everything, just bring in the power of Love and Acceptance and it will naturally sort itself out.
In my life, I’ve chosen to fall in Love with literally EVERYTHING. Thus, I BECOME Love. Nothing outside of me can change that, increase it, or lessen it. Wanking it to porn may bring pleasure to the body, but it in no way brings any additional Love into this life. I AM Love. I Love everyone and everything. I can simply choose to enjoy porn and thus enjoy jerking off whenever I choose to do so.
And ironically, because it’s no longer some sort of “forbidden fruit,” I have no more desire to wank it due to lust consciousness. The only time I wank it is when I choose to connect to someone on a heart-to-heart level, deliberately.
Seriously… just Love everything! Including sex and porn and women and men. Call nothing wrong. Judge nothing, nor condemn. Just Love it ALL.”
Stay light, RoyRegarding the previous post…
In the midst of this flu and throat inflammation, I wanted to share something with you guys.
Now I was reading my previous post and realized how easy it is for someone to read it and go “Yay I’m spiritual/more enlightened therefore I’m different from that guy over there and therefore I own him”. That’s just more Ego.
When I say enlightened, I mean to wake up from the illusion of seperation. Ultimately, our True Nature is the same One thing. What differentiates us is how we choose to spend our time. Someone who spends his time primarily on soccer is going to be better at it than me. And there really isn’t a more worthy cause or a less worthy cause. When I say “everything happens for a reason”, it also means “everything that has ever happened and that will ever happen is appropriate for that moment, so are the lessons that they bring”.
Just for the fun of it, go out and hold the frame that you are not seperate from the people or things that you see. Look at everyone and everything and say to yourself in your head “I am that.” I’m sure you’ll have some interesting experiences just from one day of doing it.
Namaste, Roy, The Awakening OneOSHO: Accepting yourself vs. loving yourself
Accepting yourself.
It is the minimum that you can do. But when you can do the maximum, why stop at the minimum? When you can dance to abandon, then why go on just moving your body a little, as if under compulsion, ashamed: “What am I doing?” Accepting yourself is just like that: smiling, and yet still feeling, “What am I doing?…”
Something is negative in “accepting” yourself. The very word, acceptance, means there has been rejection before, a denial, and now you are trying to cover that denial, that rejection, with acceptance. No, I don’t want this kind of idea to be implanted in you.
My whole vision is of a human being, totally alive, intensely alive, enjoying everything that life makes available, and enjoying it with grace, with gratitude towards existence.
And that’s what loving yourself means.
