Beliefs

 A lot of things that I find kinda funny.......

Beliefs especially. And how they are often defended. But I try to live without beliefs and really, I have none. Beliefs tend to dictate our experience, they trigger our responses to the stimuli always around us, directing us down the alley we have made for ourselves, or what has been made for us by conditioning, time and place. Seeking to truly see this can be a liberating path.

As opposed to "belief" is Faith. Trust. Rather than causing us to cling, remain static, Faith helps us "let go". Beliefs divide, faith unites. Without the "confirmation bias" inherent in beliefs, faith can open up the world around us to ever greater understanding. Trusting in reality we are encouraged to let it all in, fearing nothing.

As Julian of Norwich has said:- "All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

Beliefs cement our minds, which work (when they work at all and are not just reacting to mindless stimuli) dialectically. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis - the synthesis then becoming the new thesis. And so on, and so on, interminably. Or, in practice, stopping at the thesis that suits, or tickles our ears! Job done!

But right across the spectrum, of our Faith Traditions and our philosophies, the "interminable" nature of such thought is recognised in diverse ways. Even Keats, in his letters:-

I have never yet been able to perceive how anything can be known for truth by consecutive reasoning.

Wittgenstein, who recognised that all logical thinking is at heart, in essence, only tautology. Circled. Never actually reaching outside itself to encompass meaning. Why am I here? Who am I? Our thoughts, our thinking, can never lead us there.

The central Buddhist philosophy, the Madhyamaka (of Nagajuna - 2nd century) makes the same point. The interminable conflict in reason, the unending dialectics of reason which lead nowhere of worth (except in a scientific, technological sense, which cheats us into thinking it has a final truth - Scientism) The Madhymika, by the destruction of such methods of arriving at "truth", seeks a no-position, the Buddhist Middle Way, not a position between two extremes but, as said, a no-position that supercedes all positions.

Possibly this all seems obscure, complex. But at heart, not so. "A little child shall lead them". Arriving at such simplicity can be complex at times. Our own unique paths are infinite. But I only speak of simple faith, trust and imply that the thinking of the most intelligent minds actually achieves very little in terms of having such a life giving trust and Faith.

Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

(Lines from "Four Quartets", T.S.Eliot)