Ignorance of Believing

Ignorance of Believing

July 12, 2010
Words in any language are a sound that attempts to communicate an impression, perception, mood, truth, etc., for two or more people to relate. The christian bible in Genesis starts out with ‘in the beginning was the word’. Word? What word? To believe that is ignorance without questioning the statement. There were no words … sounds perhaps? Beginning? Isn’t that just a useful word to create some form of resonance?

One either knows or doesn’t. Believing strongly implies ‘doubt’, and certainly not ‘knowing’. Believing in ideologies and religious information without questioning it is no different than cave man believing in spirits that they would fear and worship. Some of it may be true, and experienced personally with a clear mind. Most is conjecture or made up to mollify internal insecurities.

‘Believers’ become serial enablers of ignorant or fearful thinking of the lazy mind to and with others who lapse into the ‘coma of belief’, rather than having the courage to ‘know’. Imagine how people who ‘claim to be in love’, ‘believe they and their partner really are’ while they ‘twitch’ when you qualify it by saying, ‘deeply’? ‘Belief’ and faith in an invisible higher power is not knowing. It is ‘intellectual self hypnosis’ to avoid having to find out the truths for oneself.  Strangely, ‘believers, fight to defend their beliefs without seeing that the ‘dark side’ is doubt. It’s easy to say you believe, a whole different matter to have the courage to venture into the mysterious journey leading to knowing (not knowledge, that can be googled on the internet).

I have a guest here at the center who is excited about dropping her ‘beliefs’ and moving into ‘knowing’ or admitting that something that she’d like to know is still part of a journey away. Resistance to seeing truth beyond beliefs is akin to a ‘stroll over a mountain range’ – unbearable and formidable. Beliefs become more and more hardwired as time goes on to the point of throwing away the key. Resilience and openness to know the truth is a human virtue that fosters the growth of self love, and authentic love of others. An apple is not an orange! False truth is not real truth …or, is saying real truth redundant?!

“Truth is always simple; it is untruth which is complicated. The untruth has to be
complicated so that you don’t find that it is untrue, so that you
can’t find it. Truth is simple, utterly simple and naked.”

Arhata