Understanding your belief system

The other day a friend asked me what I belief. I told him I belief everything. He said he could not belief I said that. I told him that I belief he did not belief I said that. He asked why. I said even not believing is a belief. It means believing in no-thing. He asked if I belief in heaven and hell. I said it does not matter whether I belief or not. It is still a belief.  I explained that not believing in heaven or hell is a belief. It is a view I cannot proof or disproof with facts, figure or through personal experience. Its all by faith. On earth, I know there is eveil and I know there is good. But as for heaven or hell, I know by faith. But But he said supposing I knew for certainty that there is heaven and hell, would it change the way I live my life? I said not necessarily. He asked why. I said because I live my life the way I do not for fear of going to hell or expectation of going to heaven when I die, but beause of my love for living. He asked me again what I belief. I told him again, I belief everything and nothing. I mean I belief in the oneness and the duality of everything and nothing that have labels including negative or positive, right or wrong, black or white, day or night, good or evil, rain or sunshine, male or female, large or small, tall or short, beautiful or ugly, fast or slow, educated or illiterate, up or down, open or close, soft or hard, visible or invisible, etc.

My friend just looked at me in disbelieve and said I must be getting mad. I asked why he thought I was getting mad. He said because he thought I was talking rubbish. Rubbish? I asked. He said I was talking absolute rubbish. I asked him if he really believed I was talking rubbish. He said yes. I asked him to proof it. He said he just knew that I was talking rubbish. I told him that it is the paradox of belief. It is a word that means something at one time and place but means nothing at another time and place. It is a word that has no static interpretation. It is a word that means different things to different people. It is like where one man’s meat becomes another man’s poison. It is like describing one event as a failure in one culture but a huge success in another. Nothing is absolute. It all depends on time and space. It is the law of relativity in motion. It provides you with your own unique lens through which you view the world around you. 

My friend believed what I was saying was rubbish not because he was sure I was actually talking rubbish but because what he was hearing from me did not align with what he believed he already knew about me as a close friend and about heaven and hell as handed down to him from when he was a child. He just knew I was talking rubbish without any proof. He had no facts to back up his statement that there is heaven or hell. Between the two of us, who then was talking rubbish? We may probably never know. But we both learnt our lessons in contradictions. It does not matter what we belief, we were either probably right or probably wrong.

We live in a world of illusions. I recently attended a seminar on creative thinking. One of the discussants wanted a definition of humanity. Views were expressed by virtually everyone. After several people had shared their views, the seminar leader noticed that I had not made any contribution and turned to me to say something. I was not sure what to say and how to start. I decided to take the active verb root and said that to be human is to “being, doing and having” on a daily basis. A middle aged man to my left said on the basis of my definition, would I consider the table in front of us as human. I become confused. He said if humanity can be defined on the basis of my three active verbs, then the table should qualify as human. I become even more confused so were almost every other discussants.  I said, but the table is not even a living thing. He disagreed.  He said what evidence have I got to support my statement that the table is not a living thing. I said it does not breath, it cannot talk, it has no organs, etc. He said it’s all a belief, the way some people have chosen to interpret the world around them, a way of making sense of the world. He kept me thinking.  Well, I concurred. A table, after all, was once a tree, a living organism. Once was cut down, the ‘dead’ wood was turned into a table. He concluded that dead is dead, whether it is human or tree.

I am sure his belief was not in any way meant to compare a human being and a tree. The metaphor helps some of us to understand the root of his belief or disbelief.  After all, the seminar was about learning to think and to think differently. His own way of thinking however took my breath away. I however went away from the seminar more aware of some of the things that could have been making my own beliefs self-limiting.