beliefs

As our beliefs actually change,
so do our experiences.

Carol Sheffield

Be sure to choose what you believe and why you believe it, because
if you don’t choose your beliefs, you may be certain that
some belief, and probably not a very credible one, will choose you.

Robertson Davies

Believe in poverty and you will be poor.
Believe in wealth and you will be rich.
Believe in love and you will have love.
Believe in health and you will be healthy.

Napoleon Hill

We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs,
but find ourselves with an illicit passion for them when
anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship.
It is obviously not the ideas themselves that are dear
to us, but our self-esteem that is threatened.

James Harvey

If we believe in magic, we'll live a magical life.
If we believe our life is defined by narrow limits,
we've suddenly made those beliefs real.

Anthony Robbins

People often become what they believe themselves to be.
If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable
of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.

Mohandas Gandhi

The thing always happens that you really believe in
and the belief in a thing makes it happen. And I think
nothing will happen until you thoroughly and deeply believe in it.

Frank L. Wright

You are what you are
by what you believe.

Oprah Winfrey

Upon this little word belief
hang all your sorrows and joys.

James Allen

They were so strong in their beliefs that there came
a time when it hardly mattered what exactly those
beliefs were; they all fused into a single stubbornness.

Louise Erdrich

Many a time I have wanted to stop talking
and find out what I really believed.

Walter Lippman

What we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often
extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it. . .
or because it is traditional, or because you yourself have imagined it.
Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect
for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis,
you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all
beings--that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.

The Buddha

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When your self-identity and beliefs merge, differences feel threatening. You are likely to defend your turf, become righteous and angry, and possibly shame or abuse other people who see things differently. When people adopt a belief--be it about religion, politics, sex roles, or whatever--as the one, correct belief, their minds get locked up in a rigid box, and other people with differing beliefs are seen as the enemy. And what do you do to the enemy? Abuse them, shame them, hate them, or even kill them. . . .

Listen to your beliefs, think about how you learned them, and realize that they are not genetic, nor are they the "only way." You are free to acquire new perspectives, to absorb new ideas, and to question everything you were taught to believe. As your mind opens to exploration and change, you'll feel a new lightness and more joy.

Charlotte Davis Kasl

Sometimes we adopt certain beliefs when we're children and use them automatically when we become adults, without ever checking them out against reality. This brings to mind the story of the woman who always cut off the end of the turkey when she put it in the oven. Her daughter asked her why, and her mother responded, "I don't know. My mother always did it." Then she went and asked her mother, who said, "I don't know. My mother always did it." The she went and asked her grandmother, who said, "The oven wasn't big enough."

Charlotte Davis Kasl

The biggest addiction, and one we least often talk about,
is being addicted to beliefs. We really get hooked into
thinking what we believe is true and right.

Martha Boesing

Unconscious Beliefs
Leonard Jacobson

On the path of awakening,
it is necessary to become aware
of your unconscious beliefs.
It is not a difficult task.
Just become watchful.
If you are alert and watchful,
without any judgment,
your day to day life will reveal
those unconscious beliefs to you.
Be a watcher of your self.
Be an impartial observer
of who you are at the level of mind
which is programmed
with your unconscious beliefs.
It helps to have a sense of humor.

If you have an unconscious belief
that you will be abused or put down,
you will attract into your life
those who will abuse you
or be critical of you.
Your mind seeks to
be validated in this way.
"See," it will say to itself,
"I knew I was a victim.
I was right all along."
If deep down you feel unlovable,
you will attract into your life
those who are incapable
of loving you.
And even those who happen along
who are very loving,
will suddenly find themselves
being unloving towards you.

If you have a belief that the
people who love you will leave you,
then sure enough, it will happen.
Over and over again.
So you had better become
aware of your unconscious beliefs.
They are creating
your experience of life.
They are based on your past
experiences, and mostly they are
formed in your early childhood.
As long as these beliefs
remain unconscious,
there is no way to be
released from them.

All belief that does not make us more happy,
more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is,
I fear, a mistaken and superstitious belief.

John K. Lavater

And this I do believe above all, especially in times of greater
discouragement, that I must BELIEVE—that I must believe
in my fellow people—that I must believe in myself—that
I must believe in God—if life is to have any meaning.

Margaret Chase Smith

Nature always takes you at your own valuation. Believe you are
the child of God—really believe it. Believe that you express Divine Life,
Divine Truth, and Divine Love. Believe that Divine Wisdom guides you.
Believe that God is your supply. Believe that God is helping and
blessing humanity through you. Believe that you are a special enterprise
on the part of God and that he is opening your way—and
what you really believe, that you will demonstrate.

Emmet Fox

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

Ralph Hodgson

Your beliefs are your reality. If you don't like
the reality you see, change your beliefs!

Stephen C. Paul

The therapist does not treat patients by simply giving them
another set of beliefs. He or she tries to help them see which
kinds of ideas and beliefs have led to their suffering. Many
patients want to get rid of their painful feelings, but they
do not want to get rid of their beliefs, the viewpoints
that are the very roots of their feelings.

Thich Nhat Hanh

For as long as I can remember, people said I would never
be able to do anything. My parents and I believed I could,
and we've been proving them wrong ever since.

Rick Hoyt

Most philosophies wrap their seekers in a strict belief system.
By virtue of what they include, they exclude everything else,
especially some vital realizations. Periodically revising our philosophy
of life as we live it is, therefore, a critically valuable exercise.

Charles Bates

Believe nothing because a wise man said it.
Believe nothing because it is generally held.
Believe nothing because it is written.
Believe nothing because it is said to be divine.
Believe nothing because someone else believes it.
But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.

the Buddha