Sunday, June 2, 2019

belief - an escape





You believe in God, and another does not believe in God, 
so your beliefs separate you from each other. 

Belief throughout the world is organized as Hinduism, Buddhism, or Christianity, 
and so it divides man from man. We are confused, and we think that 
through belief we shall clear the confusion; that is, belief is superimposed on the confusion, 
and we hope that confusion will thereby be cleared away. 

But belief is merely an escape from the fact of confusion; 
it does not help us to face and to understand the fact 
but to run away from the confusion in which we are. 

To understand the confusion, belief is not necessary, 
and belief only acts as a screen between ourselves and our problems. 
So, religion, which is organized belief, becomes a means of escape 
from what is, from the fact of confusion. 

The man who believes in God, the man who believes in the hereafter, 
or who has any other form of belief, is escaping from the fact of what he is. 
Do you not know those who believe in God, 
who do puja, who repeat certain chants and words, 
and who in their daily life are dominating, cruel, ambitious, cheating, dishonest? 
Shall they find God? Are they really seeking God? 
Is God to be found through repetition of words, through belief? 
But such people believe in God, they worship God, 
they go to the temple every day, 

they do everything to avoid the fact of what they are - 
and such people you consider respectable because they are yourself.






~ J. Krishnamurti
from The Book of Life
with thanks to j krishnamurti online
art by Michelangelo



5 comments:

erin said...

what if you believe in god but refuse to define (even to yourself) what god is except to say that god is everything, the whole of our existence, and we are here to celebrate this by simply being here and mindful? what of this belief?

xo
erin

Dean Keller said...

hi erin, thanks for your comment.

I appreciate the clarity he uses here to remind us that beliefs are not necessary, that they only serve to cloud an intimate knowing that lies closer to us than our own name. that these beliefs are constructions of the mind, a covering laid over top of this quiet knowing. we give these kinds of beliefs such importance, they have the power to not only distract us from the very essence of that which we are, but also to separate us from each other.

Sue said...

I can so relate to this. For some strange reason the last few years I have been trying to work out what "God" is. What a ridiculous idea! I don't even know why I have gone down this road, but I have. And I feel so much less for the experience, somehow. As my adrenal fatigue has increased, so has my inability to be able to sense and enter into the presence of things.

Previously, I was happy with the mystery - revelled in it even - and then suddenly this strange alley turn.

I look forward to returning to the misty road.

I very much like your belief, Erin, and your response, smilingheart.

Mystic Meandering said...

Provocative - but I totally relate to this. My experience has been that when we leave our "beliefs" behind all things "spiritual", including our *concept* of "God" does become discombobulated in many ways - but it was also a relief for me. There is no "absolute" to hang on to anymore, and that's very disconcerting to the mind - to not know what to believe in anymore. And so my "definition" of "God" has changed several times over the last decades. I can no longer *believe* in the "God" of my childhood, no longer a "person" god. My awareness of "God" has become a broader, more "energetic" based kind of vastness without name or image, that I have sometimes called The Ineffable or The Mystery, because it keeps the mind from trying to focus on a concrete definition or image. Although I guess some would argue that this is still "belief." I may have just created another belief to try to explain the inexplicable. :)

I love what you say Dean, that beliefs only serve to cloud the *intimate knowing* - that "beliefs are constructs of the mind".... Yes, and distract from the true *knowing* of the Essence of our Being... which some call "God."

It's like we have to remain fluid somehow and not settle on "belief", but remain an open receptacle for the intimacy of the uncertainty of knowing to touch us... Like the flute in Rumi's poetry... if that makes sense.

Sorry I rambled on here... _/\_

Dean Keller said...


well said, thank you. staying fluid, yes, staying present, getting comfortable not knowing.