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Belief

Belief, Faith and Knowledge
There is belief. There is faith which results from belief. There is faith which results from knowledge. And there is just knowledge. When knowledge is there all the time, there is no need for faith.
Diamond Heart Book I, p. 59   •  discuss »
The Universal Heretic
To have a free mind is to be a universal heretic. You don’t believe in the ultimate reality of any concept. You can assume any belief you find useful and attractive, but you don’t need to hold on to any of it. Without being captured by your beliefs, you are strong enough and confident enough to throw away any and all beliefs and perspectives, each and every philosophy and story. You can stand totally alone, completely independent of all that comes through the mind, through time and space. This station of realization is difficult and rare. Most of us don’t have the nerve to lose our minds. Although terrifying, it is necessary for true freedom.
Diamond Heart Book V, p. 63   •  discuss »
Disbelief About the Way Things Are
That is what I mean when I say, “Here's looking at you, kid.” No matter where you find yourself, there is wonder and change. But most of us refuse to believe that’s how things are. We cling to the self with two legs, two arms, and two eyes who sometimes has an experience of light. It’s like Chuang Tsu wondering, “Am I a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang Tsu, or am I Chuang Tsu dreaming that I am a butterfly?” You can find out only by examining where you are. If at the moment you are light, then you are light. Now you discover you are a body, so you are a body. But habitually you return to being the person who your mother and father and everyone you’ve known for the last thirty years say you are. You revert to what is familiar. Otherwise, who will do what needs to be done? That is the fear. If you are this wonderful light or this jeweled queen, then who is going to clean the house tomorrow?
Diamond Heart Book V, p. 198   •  discuss »
Christian Belief in Original Sin
Original sin is the fundamental problem that all human beings have from the beginning, a problem that is not dependent on whether we are good or bad, whether we do the right thing or the wrong thing. Although Christian scholars explicate the notion in various ways, in my view original sin is the belief that we are an independent entity, that we are a separate human being. So the belief in separateness, the belief in entityhood, the belief of being a separate entity and having our own will and mind and choice is the original sin.
Diamond Heart Book V, p. 290   •  discuss »

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