The Paradox of Belief -or- The Meaning of Life

I’m sitting at a cemetery near where I live. A couple horses stand around near me, just past the fence, one eating grass, and the other licking and scratching its face on the bark of an old oak tree.

I let go and thoughts drift through caverns and containers and finally join me here near a wooden grave marker.

Last Sunday a client and I spoke about believing in things we don’t know with 100% certainty. Then we talked about abstract concepts that get almost universally accepted as solid fact.

One example is the term “the world.”

What does that mean? You assume it exists, but can you point at it? If you start to think carefully about it, you might realize that the world only exists in your head. But you act as if the world exists.

Now, what else do you believe in that you’ve never really looked into before? How about your limitations? Many of them are no more than unchallenged beliefs.

So after we talked about beliefs for awhile, I mentioned that some clients want to just get the basic benefits of undoing:

-relaxation
-sharper focus
-greater awareness of your own motivations
-clearer thinking
-knowing what you really want
-letting go

And that’s fine. It delivers.

There’re also a few clients who, for some reason, want to go all the way.

By that I mean to explore fully all the assumptions and beliefs you have, and to rid yourself of everything false. After he said he’d like to take things all the way, he asked me why people seem to need to believe in things, from science to religion to occultism to politics etc.

Good question, and it gave me pause to consider how and why people live out their lives in a land of abstract concepts, make-believe categories, stifling roles, and ideas of how things should be…

Two main reasons dawned on me:

Both reasons relate to a paralyzing fear.

1. The fact that you can’t rely on anything but your own perception and experience.

Your own perception is primary, and the rest is second-hand information, no matter how accurate it seems. This can be frightening to realize, simply because it’s unfamiliar and you aren’t used to sitting on your own throne.

2. No one knows what’s really going on.

You’re born. You develop into a child and then an adult human. You get told and believe all kinds of stories about what’s going on, from evolution to angry sky gods to million armed blue deities to philosophies aplenty to….

Just because you hear about and enjoy and react emotionally to a story doesn’t make it true. Even if you memorize the bible or the origin of the species or a book on brain science doesn’t mean you know the 100% truth of what’s going on here.

That can also be horrifying to realize, especially since the only person you can rely on has no idea what the hell is going on.

It makes you feel important to pretend you know what’s going on. And it gives you a sense of stability, importance, and permanence.

There’s another way to live where you don’t require concepts and beliefs. It takes a lot less effort, and you don’t need to maintain false certainties about what’s going on.

Simplify.

You can remember that your life is the adventure you’ve been looking for. You find it by letting go. Letting go of what? Of all those fears about what’s gonna happen if you stop being the way you think you should be and doing what you think you’re supposed to do.

We all end up in the same place anyway, so why not get a fair amount of joy just by remembering how unlikely it is to be alive, to have a body, to perceive, to feel anything at all.

Is it not utterly magnificent when you really think about it?

Here’s to your adventure!

Enjoy,

-Garrett

PS: if you feel like expanding your adventures and cutting through your own bullshit, you’ve got options:

1. Esozone Codex Course: perfect to test the waters, opening up to new ways of perceiving yourself, removing some filters between you and what is, and ridding yourself of guilt.

2. Radical Undoing 101: going a lot deeper into the process, conquering social anxiety, moving through fear, going beyond your perceived limitations, following what truly excites you, and expanding your life in ways you really enjoy.

3. Body Movement Course Series for learning how to undo your own chronic tensions and internal conflicts. Make your body and mind run smoothly so your life feels more like a ride or a movie rather than a prison camp or the doldrums.

4. Direct personal training online, in Ojai, CA, and sometimes available for workshops in your area.

If you want an extended training series, please email me at: garrett@radicalundoing.com to discuss what approach is right for you.