Belief, Being and Non-Being

I have on occasion been approached by persons who have strong beliefs in religious ideals or who are predisposed to believe in some kind of "new age" philosophy. There is this common thread of a need for validation and acceptance. People will make excuses for elements of a belief that are not consistent with logic and "common sense" and they invariably feel embarrassed for people who do not believe as they do. It is interesting to note that persons with strong beliefs find it necessary to cling to the notion that what they believe is absolute and irrefutable. The only thing that is irrefutable to this writer is that life changes from moment to moment and if one is to have understanding that is not a stagnation then one must also change. Change it seems is really what life is about, if it is in fact "about" anything. It is difficult to throw off ones beliefs, because we invariably find ourselves substituting one belief for another. But are not all beliefs really the same. They provide psychological escape from the truth of what is. The truth of the moment does not have a belief, it does not need to be labeled, defined or organized. But that is what we do. We take an ideal and turn into a god that we worship and want to willingly or unwillingly force upon others. The truth is, what is worshiped is our own creation, it is us. We worship ourselves and build all kinds of physical and psychological monuments, talismans and the like to create credibility as a separate identity such as God, Krishna, Christ, Buddha, Mohamed etc. But these representations of divinity are the masks of our own mind as the duality of what should be. Even atheism carries its own form of belief, and has its worshipers and progenitors. They too have a mask and an agenda, in fact there is in reality no difference. All are organized to promote and exploit and all are corrupt in there own way. I tell people that they must first free themselves if they want to see truth. But it is the hardest thing to do because we have been programed since birth (and before) to believe in the self. The self being the projected image of all the elements of what is believed. Psychologically to believe is to exist. Not to believe is to cease to exist. This is the basest fear, not being.

You can spend decades in a Zen monastery and still not realize the origin of the fear of not being. Or you can walk out your front door in the early morning sun and realize instantly that there is neither being nor not being. In that moment of awareness one is not just free, one is the freedom of the moment. Each moment is the renewal of the realization of that freedom. One is aware that it cannot be made into an objective ideal to be sought as in Zen. When Zen is not it is. Organization and ritual destroy the freedom of the absolute moment. And so all ideals, religious or otherwise, are the product of minds manipulations. The mind that manipulates destroys truth and love.