This is the starting point of all introspection and self-analysis. When Voltaire (18th century pundit) stated that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” he was speaking about the examination of your beliefs.
Beliefs can shackle us or set us free. Even the monolithic, somewhat dogmatic, medical establishment is beginning to understand how beliefs can promote healing or cause debilitating disorders or dis-ease. The power of belief has been known for centuries, but often denied in the face of "reality."
The contingent conditions of reality require you believe only what the senses can prove. Beliefs based only only on what can be proven can oppress and limit you.
“If we think distress we get distress; if we think success, we get success. When we entertain destructive thought we set up a chemical action that checks digestion, which in turn irritates other organs of the body and reacts upon the mind, causing disease and sickness; when we worry, we churn a cesspool of chemical action, causing fearful havoc to both mind and body; on the other hand, if we entertain constructive thoughts, we set up a healthy chemical action.” (Charles Haanel, “Mental Chemistry, p.13)
Identifying the beliefs that oppress you will improve your spiritual development. Every successful psychotherapeutic approach deals on some level with changing beliefs, however, usually the focus is on improving your "functioning" and not on your increasing awareness of "spirit" or that part of you that does not rely on sensory perception.
Cognitive Therapy, as developed and codified by Aaron T. Beck, isolates the thoughts that impair functioning. From the examination of thoughts, the counselor then aids the patient in identifying the beliefs from which these thoughts originate. These are the “themes” of your life and are labeled “rational,” if they are realistic interpretations of your reality (sensory) or “irrational” if they conflict with sensory perception and what the world believes is "real."
You must focus on changing your beliefs to reflect what you want to experience, rather then what you “believe” you should experience based on what the world teaches. This process of improving your life through identifying beliefs is highly effective as demonstrated by the universal applicability and popularity of this as a therapeutic approach.
However, if you go to a therapist with the desire to uncover the beliefs that obstruct from experiencing Universal Consciousness/God and becoming one with that Consciousness, you would most likely encounter the limiting beliefs of the therapist (“Good grief! Not another Messiah Complex!? Nurse, get the restraints!).
You could become involved in religions and meditative practices, but often these have limiting factors that result from the need to learn and adopt an ideological perspective relative to the religion or practice. This may result in paradigm conflict and the inability to merge opposing ideologies (e.g. eastern philosophy with western competitive values)
All religions (including eastern) encourage the neutralizing of current beliefs through replacement with the dominant beliefs of that particular system of thought. With Judeo-Christian religions we need to accept the polarity of heaven and hell as being separate distinct places each “ruled” by a distinct positive or negative personality (God and Satan). With Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism we need to dissociate from physical reality and attain a state of “Being” that transcends our reality.
With all religions (and their derivatives and denominations) we are either worshiping ascendant principles (surrender to God) or descendant principles (we are God). They all require your adoption and the living-out of a particular belief system. However, within a "healing" perspective these are all effective paths to God.
All religious belief systems started out “pure” in ideology but were finally overcome by the need to accommodate our sensory perceptions and the strength of sensory impulses (I can imagine a place called heaven, but my senses reinforce my beliefs about the world I see, hear and touch as "facts," and this becomes the only information I now desire). Sensory perception trumps imagination.
The belief in attracting or creating your "reality" through a connection to Universal Consciousness/God is also a belief system. This belief system is descendant because God is in you and not out or up “there.” You need to seek within for “the kingdom of heaven,” since that is where it resides (belief). Once we “dwell” in “the Kingdom” we are then in an experience that, in itself, will change what we believe about our physical reality and thus change every experience of that reality.
To know this “kingdom” is to know the Truth. To know the Truth is to experience “Love” beyond belief (as we know it now) and that is a Joyful experience and will radically alter any and all contrary beliefs. Every instance of experiencing this type of Joy, no matter how brief, results in detaching, little by little, from your limiting beliefs.
This belief system (as taught by A Course in Miracles and other spiritual paths) resonates with me because it’s simple. Why should it be hard, unless you believe it should be so, as many do. There is little to suffer through when the predominate belief is that you are a manifestation of joy.
Personally, I enjoy being in the process of seeing things differently through the application of these principles. I like that I can do all this “on my own damn couch.” We don’t have to get into any pretzel like postures or drink the “blood of Christ” or “empty” our mind, pour ghee over the Buddha, wear the Virgin Mary on a chain, separate beads on a string, sing devotional chants, give up modern conveniences, wear only black and white, shave our head, or do any other esoteric practice that we are instructed will lead to a state of mind that many call “enlightenment.” However, you can incorporate these approaches if you so choose, in part or in whole.
The primary objective of any religion based belief system is the reframing of interpretation. This is because nothing means nothing beyond the interpretation or meaning we have applied to it. Our interpretation comes from what we believe. The principles I am learning promote a belief system in which you are attaining, in essence, “enlightenment” through realizing that you are God and that God wants you to realize this fact.
Since our beliefs are deep within the subconscious mind (causing us to live in "auto-pilot") it can be difficult to identify what fear-based belief we adhere to that obstructs our connection to Universal Consciousness/God. In fact, it is often virtually impossible. So don’t bother.
However, you can neutralize limiting beliefs simply through the adoption of alternative thinking. It takes approximately 30 days to develop a habit (though time is not that important). If you practice consistently holding thoughts of connection to Universal Consciousness/God, and these thoughts are intensified through powerful positive emotion, you will develop this habit of thinking and it will become belief. This belief will result in the experience because you will always experience what you believe you MUST. In time connecting with Source/God will be only a thought away and thus, instantaneous.
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