Blind Belief

[Guest guest]

WE ARE CONSCIOUS OF OURSELVES THROUGH A CONSTANT FLOW OF

THOUGHTS. These thoughts might not even be our own; we have picked

them up from someone else. And they had picked them up after they had

been well-used before. All questions of belief are programs of pre-

set, ready made, answers. They can never be a real quest for truth.

The paradox of the human mystery is that without a storehouse of

knowledge in the form of language and symbols there can be no human

phenomenon. Yet when that knowledge is used as if it is the actual

direct experience of the individual, that selfsame storehouse becomes

a graveyard turning humans into humanoids. When beliefs and symbols

are identified as if they are the experiential world itself, then man

becomes alienated from both himself and the world about him. Not only

does he then live in a plastic universe, but he feels he does not

need to explore it for himself. All a child has to do is to look up

his question in the answer book of the species and no further

personal responsibility or curiosity is needed.

But truth is not so cheap. It needs courage and intelligence to

explore unknown frontiers. Beliefs are cheap and they do seem great

bargains at first. Ready-made answers are free. However, there is one

small problem — there is no room for doubt. Doubt is the worm in the

apple.

It is always the fear of a true believer that somewhere, somewhen,

someone will come along to disturb his cherished and borrowed ideas.

Believers have to burn books, or heretics. At all costs they must

repress that threat to their belief. If you have experienced the

sunrise in the morning you don't announce, " I believe the sun. " You

have seen it. You know. Knowing is a direct experiential

understanding, vibrant with life, authentic and individual. How can

there be any doubt? You have seen the sun rise. But belief and

knowledge can never be quite so sure; there's always a niggling doubt.

Beliefs are rigid, dead and frozen fish. If they ever did swim with

life it was in the mind of the original innovator, who knew it. It

was truth for him, without doubt or belief.

Truth is always individual, anyone else's truth is worthless. Truth

is a non-transferable ticket which only bears one name.

 

Unknown Man...Yatri

 

posted .........bob