Just to clarify, when I say we need discipline to avoid getting emotionally attached to beliefs, I don't mean it in the sense of punishment and reward. I mean "disciplined" (not lazy) and rigorous about always being willing to doubt what we hold to be true, and that this goes against our natural wiring, so to speak. However I think it's also important to realize that we use many of our beliefs completely unconsciously and that many of these help us navigate the world moment by moment, enabling us to make quick use of intuition, and instinctual/emotional responses. Becoming and staying unattached to belief systems is a luxury paid for in contemplative time and as you say, mindfulness.
Terren On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 4:17 PM, benjayk <benjamin.jaku...@googlemail.com> wrote: >> Yes, ideas in opposition to one another are necessarily defined by, >> and draw energy from, their opposite. So people attached to those >> ideas, ironically enough, need their enemies as much as they need >> their own beliefs. Emotional attachment to belief is the real culprit. >> But we are hard-wired for that and have to train ourselves with >> discipline to avoid it. What makes it harder is that identifying with >> a particular belief system is anxiety-reducing, a source of comfort in >> an uncertain world. >> > That's true, but at some point it stops to work, namely if you realize your > beliefs aren't true, as I slowly do. Yet I still believe them again and > again. > > Belief is quite a trap. I think it is more healthy to not believe anything, > including your own beliefs (that is, just treat them as thoughts that come > up now and again, and not as anything worth holding on to). > > I am not sure discipline will help there, to the contrary, a lot of our > emotional attachments show themselves in the way that we "discipline" us to > do something we don't really want. The only thing that really helps is > mindfulness, unfortunately you can't make that happen, and it often takes a > long time to realize your bad habits and their root, and see the path to > avoiding them (this includes not minding them, in my experience). > I mean we tried discipline for a long time (think of schools a few decades > ago), but mostly we became less disciplined and more wealthy (and bit more > happy, maybe). > > benjayk > -- > View this message in context: > http://old.nabble.com/COMP-is-empty%28-%29-tp32569717p32640682.html > Sent from the Everything List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
