You must rethink your entire way of approaching the matter of Truth. Currently you have it framed in the idea of having “correct beliefs,” and you think this is what matters. But how would you even know if you achieved having “correct beliefs”? Who decides? For the Christian, “correct beliefs” to one denomination or church are “wrong beliefs” to another, and both will argue that their interpretation is the right or “biblical” one. Forget the heady and ego-gratifying search to “know Truth.” Divest your energy from the drama of being right. Correct beliefs are the Booby prize. What you are after is the end of your suffering. Dismiss the idea entirely that the road to Truth is paved with correct beliefs. A belief is a state of mind in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true. You are not going to uncover the Truth by constructing new beliefs in your head because Truth is not a belief in your head. Truth is not an idea, a doctrine, a theory, or a position. Truth cannot be found in a book or on a screen. Truth is not a concept in your mind. It can’t be transmitted through words or grasped by the intellect. Truth is not an answer to a multiple-choice, true or false, or fill-in-the-blank question. There is no essay brilliant or long enough to elucidate it. You cannot know the Truth through your mind. It is that simple. Quit trying. Jesus spoke of a peace that is not as the world gives, and one that is beyond all comprehension. He said that when you know the Truth you will be free, which includes freedom from the never-ending conundrum of constructing correct beliefs. If you could have gotten to true and lasting peace through the work of your mind, you would have done so by now. The fixation of comprehending spiritual things on a cognitive level is largely a Western idea. Westerners insist on packaging up the infinite and unknowable into a system of intellectual ideas, propositions, concepts, and beliefs. It’s a bonus if you can reduce it into a short creed and fit it onto on the back of a church pamphlet. Westerners idolize the mind and imbue it with powers that the mind simply does not have. We think that somehow the mind defines the limits and boundaries of life. We take offense to the thought that the mind has significant limitations. - Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 01:34:15 +0000
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