On Belief

No belief is true, for truth is not a belief. 

No belief can encapsulate the truth, for truth is not a construct of thought, not a concept, and not an idea. Truth is far more expansive and elusive than that. It refuses to be boxed in by our limited conceptual understandings or neatly laid out in a doctrine or philosophy. It exists independent of our beliefs about it, and thus no belief can truly claim to be the truth itself. It's like trying to capture the vastness of the ocean in a small cup; the cup may contain a part of the ocean, but it's not the ocean itself.

First, we must define what is true, for this is a topic that has caused much argument, fighting, and even wars. Yet, it is precisely this calling towards and yearning to discover truth that has sparked the religious, the spiritual, the philosophical, and the mystical in the hearts of so many. All religions claim truth but truth does not claim any religion.  

The call to truth is a noble pursuit, no matter which way we face it. Here, I am not asking you to believe in something—no blind faith is necessary. In fact, not even ‘you’ are necessary—and that is a good thing. Oftentimes, we get in the way, because it is so very difficult for us not to hold a limited and self-fulfilling bias about what is real and not real.

An easy way to approach truth is to split it into two—a dualism. On one hand, we have relative truth, which is interpersonal, humanistic, and related to us and our immediate reality. For example, I look out of the window and see a mountain. Is it true? I see it, so yes, it is true. It is real; I can touch it, climb it, verify it. Yet, will it still be true in one hundred thousand years? Possibly. What about in one million years? One hundred million years, or a billion years? Possibly not.

For me, the realisation of ultimate truth must transcend time, space, and all human conventions. On the relative level, there is a mountain—but on the ultimate level, there is no mountain. This is not to deny the mountain’s existence in the relative sense, but to recognise that its reality is dependent on conditions. Ultimate truth points to that which remains when all conditions fall away.

That is what it means to find the ground of truth. Once that has been directly recognised and embodied to such an extent that it transforms the individual—truth blossoms in them, as them, and purifies them of themselves—because the ultimate sense and ground of truth is immanent in all things, including the one who recognises it.

Recognising it is the end of the recogniser. The moment of recognition is a glimpse of the non-dual.

Once the ground is established and realisation has dawned, then truth is not seen as merely transcendent but also immanent. Everything we touch, see and behold—including that which touches, sees, and beholds—is the truth. There is nowhere to go to find it and nothing to do to get it, because it is it, and that is the end of you as you know it, and the dawning of something greater.

This is why I say that no belief is true, because truth is what is left when all your beliefs are through. 

***

Confront the belief; question it. It doesn’t matter how deep it is, whether it is beautiful or painful. If it arises, look at it, and that which looks, that which is aware, is like a lighthouse. It sheds light, revealing and illuminating.

What do I have to believe to feel this way? What am I believing in order to see what I am seeing? A mirror that reflects what is in front of it is not necessarily coloured by the image; rather, it rests in its essence of being an empty mirror that reflects. Likewise, clear perception takes on the colours of the belief, but still only reflects its empty nature. We get caught up in the image and forget that what is seeing is free of imaginings.

Train yourself to see that most of what we take as truth in our society is a fabrication. The very words you are reading now have been made up, decided upon, and agreed upon over time by groups of people. Language is one example: the letters, the sounds, the grammar—all were invented by someone, somewhere, at some point. The meaning we give to these symbols is not inherent; it is agreed upon. For instance, the word “water” is not water itself, but merely a representation, a concept we collectively decided would point to that object in nature. It could have just as easily been called something else.

Consider time. The hours, minutes, and seconds that dictate much of our lives are human inventions, based on dividing the movement of the Earth into measurable parts. Yet, in nature, time flows without these boundaries; the sun rises and sets without needing to know it is 6 a.m. or 6 p.m.

Even the value we assign to money is a social construct. Pieces of paper or numbers in a digital account have no intrinsic value until we collectively agree they do. Borders, laws, cultural norms, and even moral frameworks—these too are constructs. They are agreements made by groups of people to provide structure, order, and a shared understanding of reality.

While these fabrications often serve us, making life more digestible and organised, they also constrain our perception. They limit what we see as possible, binding us to a framework that is not reality itself, but merely one way of looking at it. Just as the classic saying goes: maps give us a way to navigate the world, but they are not the territory. They are a simplified, human-made overlay of the infinite complexity of the landscape.

To see beyond these overlays, you must uproot all notions—question the unquestionable, examine the inherited, and notice the human fingerprints on everything you take for granted as truth. This is not to say we must reject all constructs, but rather to learn to see through them. When you strip away these layers, what remains is not the absence of meaning but the vastness of reality as it is, unfiltered and uncontained.

Most of the time, we erect walls of belief and agreement to see reality in a certain way—out of inheritance, a need for belonging, and a desire for comfort. Yet, if we look closely, much of what we believe is often a source of discomfort. The truth is not always comfortable, but until we learn to dance with it, we are left wrestling in the shadows of our discomfort.

What happens if you stop believing and identifying with what arises for you? You put it down, you let it go, you see through it; it becomes transparent and clear. You are free from its clutches. The shackles that most bind us are in our minds; and there too is the land of our salvation—not freedom from the mind, but freedom through it. Through recognising just what it is: infinite and ungraspable.

When we recognise and realise the infinite nature of our true identity, then thoughts and beliefs that pass through do not ever touch the sides. They are like clouds in a clear blue sky. What we once believed to be true now moves like leaves in the wind. We are untethered from them, and they are seen not as separate from the sky, but as made out of the same substance as everything else that arises—just like the ripple returning to the stream.

When we are aware of this, and when we shine a light from this awareness, that light makes the darkness of confusion flee. For what is aware of confusion is not itself confused. If you see the belief in contrast to the empty essence from which it arises, it loses its power and returns to the real power, like a red balloon that colours the sky bursting to reveal its inner essence as nothing other than the infinite azure blue of the sky.

***

On the path of realisation there are so many unnecessary assumptions and attitudes that must be discarded. So much to let go of in order to discover what is essential to us and what is essentially us: who we are beneath personality, who we are before the story, and what was there before the foundations were laid and the empire was built. 

Yet, at a deeper level of this realisation, in order to realise who we are, we may come to find there is nothing to discard or throw away, and there is nothing to add or accumulate either. Often, we approach spirituality like a task, a project that requires constant effort, the addition of new insights, or the removal of old habits. But the reality of our being is already complete and whole, just as it is. This means there's no need to accept or reject anything. This means you can be happy right now, regardless of circumstance.

Consider this: There is no deficit, nor is there surplus; all is precisely as it must be. You are not a puzzle missing pieces, nor an unfinished painting that needs additional strokes. Everything that you are, everything you will be, everything that you need to be here is already here, otherwise you would not be here at all. 

It is all contained within you and not separate from you. If you come to a deep psychological acceptance of this moment, of what is, without going anywhere, without denying anything, then what happens to the mind? Try it out for yourself. 

Here the idea of acceptance changes. It is not about just accepting the state of affairs, but rather resting as it, embodying it, and simply being present—as you are, as it is. This doesn’t mean you condone injustice or wrongdoing, nor does it mean you no longer have opinions or beliefs. Rather, it means you are not identified with or attached to the outcomes and labels of such. 

Acceptance does not require your approval, just as rejection does not hinge on your denial. For example, accepting the existence of suffering does not mean approving of it, just as denying the existence of death does not change the fact that it is an inevitable part of life. Similarly, accepting someone’s behaviour does not mean you condone it, and rejecting someone’s viewpoint does not change their opinion.

When we let what is be, without attachment to our beliefs about it, we become like a clear mirror—allowing all images to come and go without distortion. However, when we cling to our beliefs and attach them to our identity, we become fixated on the image. We suffer in resisting it or trying to accept it.

If we notice, however, the empty and reflective quality of the mirror’s clarity, we see that it does not get hung up, does not cling, and simply cannot hold onto the image. Its nature is to reflect—not to grasp.

***

The Western cultural mind is so driven, we must ask: Where are we rushing to? Our usual goal-oriented approach to life brings so much beauty, but at what cost? Isn’t our hard work in order to have more quality time? Yet, all the money made to achieve that will never buy back the time spent making the money.

Society runs on a razor's edge of uncertainty. We tend to think that who we are is defined by our acquisitions, status, and roles. On one hand, these possessions and titles are defining, and while we are constantly carving and crafting ourselves into new iterations and degrees, what we are before all of that is undefined, uncarved, original, unbroken, and undivided. If you relinquish—even just for a moment—your belief about who you are, then what are you?

The spiritual goal, if there was one, as the deepest understanding of our true nature, requires a different perspective. To grasp it, you must let go of grasping, to arrive at the destination, you have to abandon the map. It may seem paradoxical, but it's in this state of non-seeking that we find.

So, ask yourself: Where else could truth be but here and now? What else could you be but what you are? In this moment, even the sense of ‘I am’ begins to dissolve, to resolve, becoming elusive and difficult to grasp. And then, what remains? What is found?

This ageless mantra reverberates throughout the universe: this is it, this is it, this is it. It’s a silent echo of the wordless truth, which is the truth of the Word—the ultimate reality that lies beyond all concepts and beliefs, and yet is found in everything, because it is all that is.

***

Reality is filtered through perception, informed by our beliefs, conditioning, and experiences. For this reason, the wisdom traditions of several cultures have called this world an illusion. It is not an illusion in the sense that it does not exist, but rather because it is fabricated by our beliefs and opinions. Examine it closely, and you’ll see that these subjective assumptions obscure and veil the naked reality—the naked truth of what reality truly is.

Belief systems act as holding patterns. They are housed in the mind, yes, but they also manifest physically, creating a subtle tension as we strive to uphold them. When we learn to let go of these mental and physical constructs, we move closer to awakening and a freedom from the grip of belief.

Our perception is like the glass of a window, and the smudges are like our beliefs. When the window is covered in smudges, we look through the glass and assume we see the truth on the other side. This view, however, only reinforces our belief in the smudged perception. When the window is opened, true reality comes flooding in, offering an unadulterated view of the outside as it truly is. Moreover, when the window is open, the barrier between outside and inside is removed, and the distinction between the two dissolves. This is crucial: the outside becomes like the inside, and the inside becomes like the outside.

Clean your glass, and then open the window. See what happens when you stop believing for a moment and shift your awareness onto awareness itself. To perceive perception directly, to see through the illusion of separation, is to step into the infinite. What remains when the constructs dissolve? Only the vast, unbroken expanse of what is, untouched by thought and unclouded by belief.

***

This is why I will not tell you what to believe. I tell you to look at your beliefs. This is important. Do not think this is some cult for you to join or some Kool-Aid to drink. Don’t take my words for granted, for gold, or for gospel. Run them through the sieve of your discernment and direct experience. Decide for yourself what is true. To do that, you must first be pulled by the call of truth. Like a magnet draws metal, there is inside of each of us a pull towards and a drawing near to the ineffable. If you are here reading this, then perhaps you have that call. I then encourage you to enter the mind into the constant contemplation of truth. To carry it in your heart and mind, to keep one foot always through the nondual door, one eye always on the unseen, and one ear always on silence.

If you realise the truth for yourself, you will realise the truth of yourself. 

It’s like that. If you want some kind of mantra, sit with that for today: if you realise the truth for yourself, you will realise the truth of yourself. And thus, if you find the truth of yourself, you will find the truth of everything else.

***

The old adage that echoes through the ages is to “know thyself”. This brings us back to those familiar questions: What am I? Who am I? Who is the “I” that is asking the question? What is that voice, what is the quality, substance, or whereabouts of this “I”, and what is its being in relation to ultimate truth?

If the ultimate truth is undivided, then where do you stand in relation to it? What ground is it that you stand on? How can you become one with oneness? 

Pay attention any time you search for truth outside yourself, and notice how it immerses you in illusion. This external search places you in the tension of seeking. When you seek, you are in tension, and until you relax this tension, you will not find what you are seeking. 

It is simple: reality is truth; truth is reality. 

You are not separate from reality. You are not separate from Truth. Where else could you possibly look for it, if not right here? The most significant barrier to enlightenment is the belief that it exists somewhere other than in the here and now—the barrier is belief.

You don’t have to believe anything

Yes, you don’t have to believe anything. It’s very subtle. When you hear that, you may think to yourself, "I have to be a person who doesn’t believe anything." But it’s not really that; that’s another identification. It’s just about dropping the belief and removing identification. Then, there's only this, not "I am someone who is like this." There's nothing to affirm or deny, nothing to accept or reject, nothing to lose or gain, and nothing to seek or discover. 

It may be momentary, and that’s okay. Glimpse it. Rest and relax in the moment of non-belief. It’s not a thought or an idea, but the absence of thoughts, ideas, and concepts. It is about letting the world be as it is. 

Reality is revealed, not by us, but in the absence of us.