Why It Doesn’t Matter What You Believe.
I’m interested in mysticism, a direct experience of god.
So it might seem strange to hear me say that it doesn’t matter what I believe. But that’s what I’m saying. It doesn’t matter what I believe, and it doesn’t matter what you believe. It doesn’t matter if we’re right, and it doesn’t matter if we’re wrong.
Because, and get this, the point is not to “be right”. The point is to experience god. And it’s a lot easier to experience god if you give up your need to be right about things. A lot easier.
The need to be right is a human invention. No other animal, plant, piece of matter, or force we know expresses this need. A tsunami or earthquake doesn’t need to be right; it just is what it is. But we like to be right. We REALLY like it. It’s an addiction with most of us.
Watch people discuss politics. Watch them discuss religion. In politics, perhaps, the need to be right, to come out on top, is understandable; the outcomes can actually affect these apparently powerful human institutions we’ve created. So OK, go ahead: Argue. Fight. Go to war. Win. Be right.
Religion is where humanity’s addiction to being right really shows how misguided and pointless it is. Remember, god doesn’t need you to believe in it…god already is, was, and ever shall be. You’re a component of the universe, and you can’t get along without the universe, but the universe can get along fine with or without you, with or without your belief. You need universal truth a lot more than universal truth needs you.
The universal truth of creation is not affected by your belief or failure to believe. God doesn’t become more or less real the more or less you believe. The natural events and processes that govern developments in the universe don’t become more or less real depending on how many people believe in them, or whether they are properly understood by scientists or not. The complex, powerful organizations we create to defend our various orthodoxies are completely purposeless. Ultimate universal truth needs no defense. It needs no army of devotees. It is already the source of all power, of all everything. It lacks for nothing. You may need to believe in god, but god does not need your faith.
So that’s why it doesn’t matter what you believe. Lots of people act as if it matters. They act like it’s important to pick the right religion. Some behave as if the validity of their own beliefs is undermined by the existence of doubters or nonbelievers anywhere in the world; these folks seem to lack faith in their…um…faith. If you really believe it’s all absolutely true, why the insecurity?