There is an ultimate joy in the belief in something greater than ourselves. Often this is found in a religious system or spiritual theory, but not necessarily. Belief does not demand something as dominant as an existential system. It does not even demand an articulate arrangement of codes, tenets, or instructions on what or how to think. Lived-in belief needs only our inner, consistent acceptance that we are expanding into the largeness of our own destiny, a destiny that can only be consistently approached but never fully reached. After all, what would be the use of a belief that could be fully known?
We all need something greater...
Frankly we all need something greater than the ground of our own lives to believe in, whether it is a Supreme Being, an overarching idea, or even a desire to bring some good into life. And perhaps we should remind ourselves that belief is not absolute knowledge. It involves a state of mind arrived at through facts, myths, cultures, personal inclinations, ambitions…any number of factors that should remind us to revere beliefs but to hold them lightly in case some new input should render at least some of them no longer tenable.
A belief in something ethical, something loving...
A belief in something ethical, something loving, something that holds wonder is much better than rattling around in home-brewed notions lodged inside our skulls. At least it brings movement outside ourselves to which we must respond.
“I believe” lives; “I care not” withers.
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You might also enjoy "On Growing Up Consciously."
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