Beliefs 2   

As our beliefs actually change,
so do our experiences.

Carol Sheffield

   
Toward no crimes have people shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences in belief.

James Russell Lowell
  
Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself.  We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem.  We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth.

Iyanla Vanzant

      
The biggest addiction, and one we least often talk about, is being addicted to beliefs.  We really get hooked into thinking what we believe is true and right.

Martha Boesing
  

Until you understand your Core Story, whatever it is, and how it made you who you are today, your foundation will reflect only your unconscious beliefs about yourself, real or imagined, positive or negative.  When you delve into your subconscious beliefs about your lot in life, whether you believe you deserve to be happy or sad, successful or unsuccessful, only then do you have the chance to change the story that is replaying over and over in your head and determining how you go through life.

Lucinda Bassett

   

Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible.  This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs.

Maxwell Maltz

    

Believe in poverty and you will be poor.
Believe in wealth and you will be rich.
Believe in love and you will have love.
Believe in health and you will be healthy.

Napoleon Hill

   

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If we believe in magic, we'll live a magical life.  If we believe our
life is defined by narrow limits, we've suddenly made those beliefs real.

Anthony Robbins
  

People often become what they believe themselves to be.  If
I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of
doing it.  But when I believe I can, then I acquire the
ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.

Mohandas Gandhi

  

We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs,
but find ourselves with an illicit passion for them when
anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship.
It is obviously not the ideas themselves that are dear
to us, but our self-esteem that is threatened.

James Harvey

   

The thing always happens that you really believe in
and the belief in a thing makes it happen.  And I think
nothing will happen until you thoroughly and deeply believe in it.

Frank L. Wright

  

You are what you are by what you believe.

Oprah Winfrey

   

Upon this little word belief hang all your sorrows and joys.

James Allen

  

Beliefs 2  

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Unconscious Beliefs
Leonard Jacobson

On the path of awakening,
it is necessary to become aware
of your unconscious beliefs.
It is not a difficult task.
Just become watchful.
If you are alert and watchful,
without any judgment,
your day to day life will reveal
those unconscious beliefs to you.
Be a watcher of your self.
Be an impartial observer
of who you are at the level of mind
which is programmed
with your unconscious beliefs.
It helps to have a sense of humor.
If you have an unconscious belief
that you will be abused or put down,
you will attract into your life
those who will abuse you
or be critical of you.
Your mind seeks to
be validated in this way.
"See," it will say to itself,
"I knew I was a victim.
I was right all along."
If deep down you feel unlovable,
you will attract into your life
those who are incapable
of loving you.
And even those who happen along
who are very loving,
will suddenly find themselves
being unloving towards you.

If you have a belief that the
people who love you will leave you,
then sure enough, it will happen.
Over and over again.
So you had better become
aware of your unconscious beliefs.
They are creating
your experience of life.
They are based on your past
experiences, and mostly they are
formed in your early childhood.
As long as these beliefs
remain unconscious,
there is no way to be
released from them.

  

  

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If we do not allow our beliefs to evolve, if we do not maintain an open mind,
we risk waking up one day to discover that we have
lost faith in what we once believed.

Thich Nhat Hanh
The Art of Living

  

All beliefs are temporary and ultimately evolve to something different.
There will come a time when everything you now believe will not be
true for you. As much as you are sure you know how it is, one day
you will change your mind about how it is. Never argue that your way
is the only way or the right way. One day you will be proven wrong,
even to yourself. That day will be joyful because you
will leave a smaller room to enter a greater one.

Alan Cohen
The Tao Made Easy

  

Your beliefs are your reality.  If you don't like
the reality you see, change your beliefs!

Stephen C. Paul

  
The therapist does not treat patients by simply giving them
another set of beliefs.  He or she tries to help them see which
kinds of ideas and beliefs have led to their suffering.  Many
patients want to get rid of their painful feelings, but they
do not want to get rid of their beliefs, the viewpoints
that are the very roots of their feelings.

Thich Nhat Hanh
  

For as long as I can remember, people said I would never
be able to do anything.  My parents and I believed I could,
and we've been proving them wrong ever since.

Rick Hoyt

  

Believe nothing because a wise man said it.
Believe nothing because it is generally held.
Believe nothing because it is written.
Believe nothing because it is said to be divine.
Believe nothing because someone else believes it.
But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.

the Buddha

  

   
   

A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.

Jose Bergamin

  

A belief is not true because it is useful.

Henri Frédéric Amiel

   

What we believe about ourselves can hold us hostage.  Over the years
I have come to respect the power of people's beliefs.  The thing that
has amazed me is that a belief is more than just an idea--it seems
to shift the way in which we actually experience ourselves and
our lives.  According to Talmudic teaching, "We do not see things as they
are.  We see them as we are."  A belief is like a pair of sunglasses.  When
we wear a belief and look at life through it, it is difficult to convince ourselves
that what we see is not real. . . . Sometimes because of our beliefs we may
have never seen ourselves or life whole before.  No matter.  We can
recognize life anyway.  Our life force may not require us to strengthen it.
We often just need to free it where it has gotten trapped
in beliefs, attitudes, judgment, and shame.

Rachel Naomi Remen

    

   
When your self-identity and beliefs merge, differences feel threatening.  You are likely to defend your turf, become righteous and angry, and possibly shame or abuse other people who see things differently.  When people adopt a belief--be it about religion, politics, sex roles, or whatever--as the one, correct belief, their minds get locked up in a rigid box, and other people with differing beliefs are seen as the enemy.  And what do you do to the enemy?  Abuse them, shame them, hate them, or even kill them. . . .

Listen to your beliefs, think about how you learned them, and realize that they are not genetic, nor are they the "only way."  You are free to acquire new perspectives, to absorb new ideas, and to question everything you were taught to believe.  As your mind opens to exploration and change, you'll feel a new lightness and more joy.

Charlotte Davis Kasl
Sometimes we adopt certain beliefs when we're children and use them automatically when we become adults, without ever checking them out against reality.  This brings to mind the story of the woman who always cut off the end of the turkey when she put it in the oven.  Her daughter asked her why, and her mother responded, "I don't know.  My mother always did it."  Then she went and asked her mother, who said, "I don't know.  My mother always did it."  The she went and asked her grandmother, who said, "The oven wasn't big enough."

Charlotte Davis Kasl

Beliefs 2  

  

Our beliefs are so powerful that they color our entire world.
We literally see what we believe, but we can--and most of us do--fail
to take responsibility for what we see, especially what we see within.

Hugh Prather

  

Every mental act is composed of doubt and belief,
but it is belief that is the positive, it is belief
that sustains thought and holds the world together.

Søren Kierkegaard

  

Believe it can be done.  When you believe something can be done, really
believe, your mind will find the ways to do it.  Believing
a solution paves the way to solution.

David J. Schwartz
Magic Of Thinking Big

   
We must here make a clear distinction between belief and faith, because, in general practice, belief has come to mean a state of mind which is almost the opposite of faith.  Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would “lief” or wish it to be.  The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes.  Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be.  Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown.  Belief clings, but faith lets go.  In this sense of the word, faith is the essential virtue of science, and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception.
     Most of us believe in order to feel secure, in order to make our individual lives seem valuable and meaningful.  Belief has thus become an attempt to hang on to life, to grasp and keep it for one’s own.  But you cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it.  Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket.  If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket the water does not run.  To “have” running water you must let go of it and let it run.  The same is true of life and of God.

Alan Watts
The Wisdom of Insecurity
  

  
Surely, a person who is understanding life does not want beliefs.
A person who loves has no beliefs—he or she loves.  It is the
one who is consumed by the intellect who has beliefs, because
intellect is always seeking security, protection; it is always
avoiding danger, and therefore it builds ideas, beliefs, ideals,
behind which it can take shelter.

Jiddu Krishnamurti
The Book of Life:  Daily Meditations
   

When we examine the concept that your beliefs determine
your experiences, we will see that your experiences (external
events) are driven by your beliefs (internal events).  You can
then use the outer events to see what you really believe.  This
is often referred to as mirroring.  The universe you experience
mirrors your belief system back to you.  If you want to change
your experiences, you must change your beliefs.

Bruce I. Doyle III
Think Your Way to the Life You Want

  

The more you want to believe a thing the harder you should look at it.

Alan S. Parkes

  
Nature always takes you at your own valuation.  Believe you are
the child of God—really believe it.  Believe that you express Divine Life,
Divine Truth, and Divine Love.  Believe that Divine Wisdom guides you.
Believe that God is your supply.  Believe that God is helping and
blessing humanity through you.  Believe that you are a special enterprise
on the part of God and that he is opening your way—and
what you really believe, that you will demonstrate.

Emmet Fox
   

And this I do believe above all, especially in times of greater
discouragement, that I must BELIEVE—that I must believe
in my fellow people—that I must believe in myself—that
I must believe in God—if life is to have any meaning.

Margaret Chase Smith

  

    

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When Walker first steps onto the road, he has no thoughts, no history, no memories, and no clothes. As he travels and meets people and learns from them, he comes to know more about life, living, and becoming the person he's meant to be. Walker is a parable for all of us who wonder what might be the purpose of life, why bad things happen with almost as much regularity as good things, and how we can learn from the bad examples and experiences in our lives as much as we can learn from the good things. Tom Walsh's parable is a story of the ages, a timeless exploration of ideas and thoughts that all of us wonder about, a sincere and heartfelt portrait of a man who has no past and no future, but who learns to make the most of each precious present moment as it comes.