As one thinks within his heart, so he is. – Proverbs 23:7
`Ja hoye jay’ (`Whatever comes to pass
is all right.’) - Sri Anandamayi Ma
Comedian
W. C. Fields once stated, “A man has to believe it something and I believe I’ll
have another drink.” Poor W. C. suffered
from what many of us today believe is a disease popularly referred to as
alcoholism. This term was coined by a
Swedish physician in 1849 and “the disease theory of alcoholism” was further
developed by American physician E. Morton Jellinek who went on to outline the
progressive stages of this disease. Because
his research has become so influential, alcoholism is also referred to as
“Jellinek’s disease.” Despite Jellinek’s
research many people continue to deny that alcoholism, or addiction in general,
can be described as a disease.
Interestingly, an important aspect of recovery involves faith in a
“higher power.” So we have the case of a
questionable illness which can be managed (it is considered “incurable”) by a
belief in what many consider to be an even more questionable concept.
If
we consider the world we live in in terms of our perception of it (and there is
really no other world we live in) then we realize that it is all based on our
beliefs. As Jesus (purportedly) taught, "There
is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things
which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.” (Mark 7:15 –
16) It is our thoughts, our beliefs and
our desires which constitute the world of our experience. These constitute our “vibrational
level.” If we consider an alcoholic as
having a disease we might tend to feel more compassionate, after all we all
know what it is like to be sick. If we
consider her to be in control of her behavior then we might consider her to be
a “scumbag” and feel bitter and resentful. Moreover, the way the person suffering from the
disease views him or herself affects his or her ability to get help and to recover.
A
few centuries before Christ, Buddha (purportedly) made the pronouncement, “The
mind is everything. What you think you
become.” Of course, Buddha didn’t arrive
out of nowhere, he was the product of millennia of Vedic tradition. The gist of these ancient “secrets” as
reflected in the teachings of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, is that our
inner world-view directly affects who we are and the world we live in. In spiritual terms, our egos are basically a
collection of conscious and unconscious beliefs. We are our belief-systems. Our world is the display of these
beliefs. This is also what the twentieth
century movement of cognitive therapy teaches.
Fortunately this is not the entire story. If it were we wouldn’t have much of a chance
of awakening.
We
do have access to a higher power. We
open it through faith and surrender.
Whether the ego is invested in how wonderful or how f’ed up we think we
are faith opens us to the field of infinite potential, the abode of
miracles. It opens us to our true
potential. In this sense we can draw a
distinction between belief and faith.
Belief in this sense is a closed intellectual interpretation. When we “believe” we think we know what is,
how it is and who we are. Faith is the
openness of the heart which is willing to see beyond limited interpretations,
harsh judgments and intellectual pride.
We can’t really define who or what God, Self, Higher Power or even Reality
is, only be aware that It is present and operating in our lives. Paradoxically enough it might be working in
our lives as our own power of belief.
Way
back there in 1970s I became familiar with the work of John C. Lilly, a
physician and psychoanalyst who went on to push the envelope and explore
consciousness in new ways which included psychedelic drugs, flotation tanks, and
human-dolphin communication. He
developed the concept of the “human bio-computer” to describe our
mind/brains. Through his research as a
“psychonaut,” another term he invented, he attempted to explore the limits of
human consciousness. He came up with a
formula for understanding the potential of consciousness, "In the province
of the mind,” he writes, “what is believed to be true is true, or becomes true
within certain limits to be learned by experience and experiment. These limits
are further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind, there are
no limits." (1972, The Center of
the Cyclone)
We
might try to more succinctly state this as “all beliefs are relative,” but it
leaves out too much. Our beliefs are the
formulae through which we make sense of ourselves and our world. We actually begin doing this at a very early
age. According to Thomas Bowlby, the
founding pioneer of Attachment theory, each of us begins to develop an inner
working model (IWM) of self and others in infancy based on our relationships
with our primary caregivers. The roots
of our inner models are visceral, based in primary survival emotions and
pre-verbal. On this most basic level our
beliefs are what enable us to survive.
Research has shown that our early attachment styles can dramatically
influence the course of our lives.
Rather than astrology we might want to consider our early attachment patterns
as predictors of our futures.
Belief
is closely associated with attachment, both in the sense of modern theory and
the yogic concept. We are first and
foremost identified with our primary belief systems, our IWMs. It really doesn’t have anything to do with
objects, instead with our internal representation of them. The self of self-psychology is really an
internal representation as well. It is
us looking at ourselves in the symbolic mirror of the mind. Because we are biologically and culturally
predicated towards seeing and accepting the world through the medium of our
symbolic representations it is scary to let go of those personal psychic
artifacts that may be holding us hostage.
Faith
means letting go, opening up to the inner expanse of being which is undefined
and indefinable. We might do this in a
number of ways but meditation is a discipline which allows us to do this more
often and more consistently. When we
open to the true expansiveness of our being we experience a bliss which is beyond
any “high.” Faith means opening to infinite
potential, possibility and intelligence.
For the ego this might seem overwhelming, even terrifying. However when we are willing to surrender ego
we discover our authentic being. A
belief is something we cling to, faith means letting go.
