Belief, Knowledge and Truth: Can you tell the difference?

Who are you?

What do you believe is true?

What do you know is true?

Is there a difference between belief and knowledge?

If you say no, there is no difference, what are you basing that belief on?

If you say yes, there is a difference, what are you basing that belief on?

Do you sense the inherent contradiction here?

The limitations of language?

How many times have you noticed how people make their belief systems their lived reality and shaped their own personal experience of the world to reflect that belief? How believers surround themselves with other believers and therefore everything in their environment reinforces their beliefs. If someone believes something with all of their heart and mind, does that make it knowledge? If I believe with all my heart and mind that the world is flat, does that make it true? If I believe with all my heart and mind that God lives in Heaven above and the Devil in Hell below does that make it true? If I believe with all my heart and mind that there is no God at all and that individual consciousness ends at death does that make it true? Are truth and belief equivalent? Are truth and knowledge equivalent?

So what, then, is the difference between belief and knowledge? And what do either of them have to do with truth?

One online dictionary says:

Belief:

An acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists. Something one accepts as true or real; a firmly held opinion or conviction.

Knowledge:

Information and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. What is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information.

Truth:

The quality or state of being true: “the truth of her accusation”. That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality: “tell me the truth”.

1. Belief: Acceptance. Opinion. Existence.

2. Knowledge: Acquiring. Experience. Practical.

3. Truth: Fact. Reality.

Each of these terms has a subjective and an objective side to them. Each of these terms can mean different things to different people. Each of these terms can be debated endlessly.

Therefore, the only thing the first two terms share in common is their inability to fully encompass all perspectives pertaining to the third term.

As language inherently obfuscates rather than clarifies  the attendant difficulties in determining what is a belief vs knowledge and whether either category encompasses truth is a difficult if not impossible task.

The ability of humans to create lives and live them in communities based upon what are later found to be false beliefs, mistaken knowledge or untruths are rife across the span of history. What was true yesterday might be found to be untrue tomorrow. Human understanding of the world and each other evolves seemingly by the microsecond. Ignorance is the common state of everyone, as there is always something we don’t know that can and often does change our entire perspective about any subject whatsoever.

Disparate brain wiring inhibits understanding, different chemical makeups and the ability to control brain chemistry make some of us more or less compassionate and others more or less detached from the considerations and opinions of others.

Whether one believes or knows that Creation is either purposeful or purposeless does nothing to minimize the acknowledged fact of existence. We exist. Our experiences exist. Our perspectives exist. The double slit experiment proves beyond a doubt that the observer affects the observed. At the level of quarks and mesons, at the level of thoughts, the very presence of consciousness affects the material reality that it perceives. Quantum entanglement proves that everything is connected, also at the sub-atomic level. A split atom sent to the other side of the universe will turn simultaneous to the original remaining in the scientist’s lab.

Belief and Knowledge seem to be filters for experience. The less experience we have, the closer we are to belief. The more experience we have, the closer we are to knowledge. The quality of that experience determines how close our beliefs and knowledge are to truth. Whether a truth is a “little t” truth or a “big T” Truth is determined by how close experience approaches the multiversal in nature. Whether that truth is ephemeral, subjective and dependent upon shifting conditions or whether that Truth is an objective and fundamental expression of some multiversal constant.

The constant in all cases is experience. Personal expression. Therefore, our ability to perceive and express beyond the ephemeral, the subjective, the ego and personality-driven and approach the fundamental, the objective, the Higher Self and Avatarically-driven determines the extent to which our beliefs and knowledge reflect a greater rather than lesser Truth.

Who are you?

How closely do you associate with the truths you believe?

How accurately do you reflect the greater Truths of existence?

Are your truths local or universal?

Is there a difference  between local truths and universal Truths?

If you say no, there is no difference, what are you basing that belief on?

If you say yes, there is a difference, what are you basing that belief on?

Do you sense, here, the perceptual contradiction that, in reality, is no contradiction at all?

The necessity of going beyond language?

Spirituality is Personal …

… and intimate. How is it possible to argue with another about such a thing?

A belief is solidified in the mind to become subjective knowledge. That is why everyone’s beliefs are different in some facets. Our neural networks are linked up differently. Our synapses fire to different locations, connecting different pieces of information. Memory, education, experience differs, so how we interpret the same events is dependent utterly upon how we have wired our brains during the course of our lifetimes. That is why what we understand about something is never exactly the same as what someone else understands about it.

In the realm of spirituality this is exacerbated by the inherent unknowability of the process of gnosis. The intimate, personal experience of the inner world. This is why the best spiritual teachers teach in parables. People are thereby guided in the right direction but the destination is not defined succinctly. It is up to the Seeker to have the experience her or himself.

This is a cause of contention. This is a cause of conflict. This is a cause of drama. All of it unnecessary. Unnecessary because there is no ultimate description of spiritual attainment that can be encapsulated in words. How can you describe the indescribable?

For teaching purposes, those who have experienced certain states can employ tactics in order to impress upon students certain lessons that may lead the student in the right direction. The teacher does so from a place of understanding. He is playing upon the students emotions in order to bring about a desired result. If someone who has not experienced a certain state attempts to teach about it that person is not teaching from a place of knowing but instead a place of belief. Two different places. Incomparably so.

This is where conflict comes in and rightfully so. Listening to someone who barely has any idea of what they are talking about is a sure recipe for disaster. Such discussions must inevitably lead to conflict as the teacher is barely beyond the level of the student. When the Buddha was asked how people were supposed to know he was enlightened, he reached down and touched the ground with his fingers and answered, “The Earth is my witness”.

In a discussion with his disciples, Jesus told them that his Father’s house had many mansions. When Thomas expressed his doubts Jesus replied, “No one comes to the Father except through me”.  Building upon his original metaphoric description of the path to spiritual salvation Jesus deepens it, his meaning clear. His life, his state of perception, outlook and actions were to be the template for others to follow. He led by example. But the common misperception of those verses to be literal in nature sadly obscure this deeper, gnostic truth. More argumentation.

Respecting the personal aspect of spirituality means that people must be allowed to be where they are at. We are all here as free will entities and to harangue and harass someone about their understanding of the world and their place in it is to totally misunderstand one’s own place in the world.

It is true that samsara is a place of confusion and illusion with the blind leading the blind. So in this world it is normal for such insane practices to be commonplace. It is normal for people to misunderstand. It is normal for people to argue and fight.

But as one comes to a greater understanding, but even more importantly, as one gains experience by accessing certain states of perception and attainment, it becomes easier to let other people be. To let them alone with their illusions. To listen to the “I’s” and “me’s” and “my’s” and “mines” and to understand what is really being said.

Experience trumps book knowledge all day every day. There’s an old saying that those who know don’t tell and those who tell don’t know.

There was a reason esoteric knowledge was kept secret for so long. A reason why the Church, the Mosque, the Temple were able to limit people’s knowledge for centuries. A reason why the secretive higher orders of the monotheistic religions held knowledge in thrall. Knowledge is power. And the reason why esoteric knowledge is so accessible now is indicative of the times and who you are who are seeking it. Even today, what the Seeker finds easily accessible on Internet remains inscrutable mystery to the masses.

Be thankful for your propitious situation and being born into a Time such as this to achieve a destiny such as yours. Now let everyone else walk the Path towards theirs in peace.

The Energetic Resonance of Reality: What do you believe?

People often wonder what spiritual tradition I follow. They read my blogs, my Facebook and YouTube status updates, my LinkedIn profile and Twitter feed and they wonder if I’m a Devil worshiper, a New Age adherent, a Gnostic Christian, Agnostic or any number of other classifications of spiritual system they might be familiar with. But people rarely ask me directly what I believe personally; if I pray, or if I perform rituals to some form of Divinity in my private life. Of course such a question might be considered rude by most, as religion and politics are oft thought to be two of the most personal things a person can engage in and they both reveal so much about who a person truly is and what they really believe. For me to answer this question, it is necessary to engage in a short discourse regarding the nature of the world as it currently exists and my – and by my, I mean the individual’s – place in it.

I’ll begin as I’ve begun so many times before. As Above, So below. This hermetic truism is also a scientific axiom and a general statement of inter-relational inter-dependency between the Cosmos and Self. Expressed through physical manifestation and an infinite variation of potentiality at every level and stage intervening between extremes, personal experience as a subjective perception of a reality beyond the ability of the material senses to fully grasp is my, our, individual flashlight, or candle, the tool with which we define and interpret the things that we think, see and do.

All of manifest materiality is energy. I am energy. You are energy. The computer is energy. The table it sits on and the floor that sits upon are both energy, as is the planet itself, the grass, the dirt, the rock, the magma, the water ad infinitum. The speed at which energy resonates, or vibrates, determines its solidity. For example, the table is vibrating at a slower rate than the air that we are breathing, which vibrates at a slower rate than the electricity running through our computers, which vibrates at a slower rate than the thoughts that pass through our minds, which is a form of subtle energy that science has not yet formally announced the existence of but which must exist, as it is beyond question that we think, and are. Despite its nascent history and fumbling grasps at hypotheses and postulations regarding the nature of reality, science plays a large part in my understanding of reality and what lies beyond. As we move through time and space, inter-connected through quantum entanglement and the energetic resonation that permeates all of existence, it becomes clear that consciousness is the common denominator that connects all things at varying levels of interactivity and awareness.

Religions and spiritual systems reflect what seems to be a mathematical equation of Truth. Truth is a form of awareness, one that, when present, thrums through my body like an electrical current. Words, when spoken or heard, if containing Truth, lead to a visceral experience of discernment, which is beyond any doubt a form of connection to something beyond the mundane, beyond body language, beyond surface-level reality and the culturally-determined and biased truths that comprise the stuff of our daily grinds. All religions contain a kernel of Truth. By this stage of human cultural and societal evolution, it is apparent that the inter-relation between religious systems is much greater than most proponents of specific religions might admit to. Given certain cultural biases and evolutionary processes which have had a strong part in determining many of the ritualistic and humanistic aspects of different religious systems, the extraordinary amount of correlation about basic tenets and ideas about humanity and our relationships to the Cosmos and Creation is humbling to consider. As there are so many resources currently available for all who seek edification in this matter, it is not necessary for me to expound too deeply upon the subject other than to acknowledge this Truth and contextualize it.

Religions are culturally perceptive lenses through which we interpret reality. No more, no less. A woman born in Lebanon might find Islam to be her preferred lens while a man born in America might find Christianity to be his. An Englishman might choose Wicca or Luciferianism while a French-woman chooses some form of New Age Love and Light to express her beliefs about the nature of the world. Religious systems serve as guidelines that modify perception, affect behavior and determine both macro and micro-scaled events to the extent that they are institutionalized within disparate cultures. The universalizing religions of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism are more than just personal choices, then, but they are also cultural institutions that have played a large role in the evolution of global society and consciousness.

Because religions are variable, it is necessary to look at their core truths in order to determine the nature of the Greater Truth that underlies them. Coming from the perspective of criticism and censure negates clarity and limits potentiality and understanding, which muddies the vision, the mind and the ability to understand clearly. Emotional processes designed to lend energetic impetus to intentions then lead to compartmentalization, differentiation and hierarchical enumeration, dichotomous diffusion along a scale between extremes and a further playing out of human dramas within the crucible of cosmic forces manifest and hidden by idiosyncratic and egocentric blusterings.

The first word was a release of energy. That energy differentiated, becoming All That Was, Is and Ever Shall Be, as explained above. The first word was a sound, much like the words that we use today. The Buddhists say that word was Ohm. The power of words is expressed in ways too varied to remark upon, but suffice it to say that each of our lived experience should give us a very visceral understanding of this Truth. Words spoken in anger or in love, the beauteous sound of a harmonic chorus, a large choir, a child’s laugh. Words, sound, vibrations, resonation, creation. The relationship of musical notes to sacred geometry, to energy, to the very fabric of Creation, is emphasis of the importance of an holistic understanding of reality, of consciousness, of who and what humanity truly is and what our potential really encompasses.

Becoming aware of the importance of a scientific understanding of the world is secondary to the experience of the world. The visceral and involving task of living, or engaging the process of creation in the crucible of the Now moment trumps all attempts at codification and so, in this view, knowing the terminology and the processes can be seen as an irrelevant distraction from the beauty and perfection of pure knowing gained experientially. The triumph of ignorance and laziness threatens this perspective, as those who seek the comfort of illusory stability and understanding proselytize doctrines that encourage blind faith and impotent works rather than seeking knowledge and meaningful participation. Jesus taught that we had to be as innocent as children to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Buddha taught that you could find Nirvana by sitting still and meditating upon a blade of grass. Simplicity in Being is the common denominator.

Once your perspective has shifted to the point where you begin to understand the world as energetic interactions and relationships of linked and resonant fields, you begin to understand what it means to live in a state of grace, or in the flow of life. Once you have begun to lessen your inner resistance to the energy that is flowing through you, that is flowing through us all, you begin to realize that it is most often the blockages within yourself that cause many of the problems that surround you and that lead to further emotional imbalances and material contradictions in your life. It becomes possible to be aware of the flows of energy in your own body and the bodies of others, as well as the flow of intentions and the resultant interactions through which thought is manifest into deeds which imprint upon the very fabric of reality. As you clear your own blockages through meditative and prayerful practices, acupuncture, energy work with doctors, shamans, priests, preachers, pastors or psychics, your Self begins to experience states of consciousness previously unknown. Bell-like clarity and flashes of intuitive understanding that seem to come out of the blue, but that truly come from deep within you, from your Higher Self or God-presence, become only now accessible because of the clearing of mental and emotional detritus that was blocking their full expression. Our innate psychic potentiality can then be realized and we begin to experience more synchronicities, more intuitive leaps. Our dreams begin to instruct us and our lives begin to change, to simplify, to become less dramatic, less stressful, less blocked by negative energy that is really only our fears expressed in various forms stored in different locations in and around our physical bodies and astral fields.

The great Avatars, Prophets and Holy Men of the many religious traditions could have all sat down around a table together and had a great conversation. There would have been no fighting. No disagreements. The Buddha and Jesus would not have been rolling around on the floor trying to beat the life out of each other. There would have been only understanding. Only a flow of energy between clear conduits, unencumbered by mental and emotional blockages.

Any religious practice, if combined with an active curiosity and a deep desire for knowledge and understanding, can lead any practitioner to the heights of spiritual elevation and the transcendence of the physical world. The many interlocked levels of inter-relation between religious systems old and new point to certain deeper material and spiritual truths that mix physical science with biological science. In fact, there is only one science, the differentiation into disciplines was and is an affectation of the West done in the late 1800s more in order to confuse rather than enlighten as the masses of the European countries began to seek real educations. The human body, in microcosm, is a replica of the Cosmos, in macrocosm. The ancient peoples of the world knew this and built monumental structures designed to imprint eternal truths upon the facade of the world encased in stone for posterity’s sake. The Secrets of the Ages are now available to any who truly want to know.

The dangers we face we do so as a consequence of our chosen perspectives. All energetic relationships correspond to very strict rules according to flow and direction. This holds true regardless of context or type of energy. As an illustration, between the New Age-related and dichotomous designations of Service-to-Self and Service-to-Others as expressions of Bad and Good or Dark and Light, respectively, there exists a middling pole around which both extremes spiral, as exemplified by the yin-yang symbol. This pole is Unity Consciousness, a recognition of the necessity – and rightness – of the manifestation of opposition as an expression of the whole. Those whose intentions approximate the expression of Goodness as a lived reality can be seen to be on one side of the equation, while those who approximate the expression of Evil as a lived reality can be seen as the other side of that same equation. Being polar extremes, there is an inordinate amount of resistance and conflict between these two poles, as is readily understood by all. The eternal battle, it is called, or the War of Opposition. Those who plant themselves firmly between the two extremes experience the least amount of resistance as the energy from both poles flows through them rather than finding terminus within them.

Our personal perspectives are comprised of the choices that we make in regards to our cultural and spiritual alliances. Truth is beyond all of that. Beyond society, beyond religion, beyond politics, beyond opinion. Also, the reality beyond the mundane ability of our eyes to see is beyond what most care to know. The truth of it is that Creation can be a scary place if you allow fear to build blockages within your personal energy field. Since we are all connected, the fear that I might feel will affect those around me, passing like electrical current through capacitors linked and locked into multi-dimensional relationships we are barely aware of. Being an expression of primal creation, consciousness is not limited only to humans. Using the Judeo-Christian hierarchies of Angels and Demons as an example, there are multiple levels and types of consciousnesses that interact with humanity on behalf of Divinity in the form of God, corresponding to the di-pole expression of good and evil. They do not all have what we might consider our best interests – from our limited perspective - at heart, but they do engage in similar types of energetic relationships with us as we engage in with each other. Hence, the necessity of clearing one’s energetic fields so as to be better able to ascertain our inter-personal and inter-dimensional influences.

The Truth is, none of us is ever really alone. Therefore, there are no real secrets. There is no death as an end of consciousness and, in the end, there really is no you or me. We are variations upon a theme, holographically discrete expressions on a fractional scale ranging between 0 and 1, individually and collectively expressive of all the infinite potential therein. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed. I am finding that what we are each responsible for in our own lives is what kind of energy capacitor we want to be when it comes to our own integral natures and expression of Self and our resultant interactions with others. And that depends upon our intentions and our orientations and the clarity we create during the course of obtaining Knowledge of Self.

So, to answer the original question, I follow all traditions and no traditions. I can sit in a church, a temple, an ashram, a mosque or a forest and find God. As my friend Deepam is wont to say, some follow the Pathless Path, written in the Sky.

I am one of those.