On Belief
The entire question of belief and how it relates to reality is an interesting subject.
I see it like this. At the highest level of creation (which none of us individually exist as) there is simply creation by fiat. Like you and your own personal imagination. You get an image in your head, you create it, and INSTANTLY it appears and you can "look at it". I sort of view ones personal "inner space" as an analogy or "lower harmonic" or "microcosm" of the larger space of "God" (whatever imagined it ALL into existence). In the sense of the
creative imagination, you ARE "made in the image of God".
So, at a high level, there really is no such thing as "belief", there is simply postulates and considerations, and whatever you decide to imagine appears instantly. Take a moment and notice how your own imagination functions. You call things up, or call up memories, or fantasize about various scenarios, and in all cases YOU PUT IT THERE and SEE IT exactly at the same moment as you create it. Creation and perception of the created occur simultaneously. This should be obvious to any person who takes a little time to experiment with and observe what his or her "mind" does. Actually, it isn't really "mind"
per se, but spirit that does this. "Mind" is a creation of spirit.
We can each see easily how any of our own unique "inner realms" respond to instant creation and perception. A problem with our own little versions of the absolute is that our creations don't "persist". We are endlessly changing and shifting what we create in our minds, our attention waxes and wanes, and nothing remains for very long. Now, while it is true that one can perform drills and exercises to vastly improve ones ability to create imaginatively, to focus attention, and to KEEP MENTAL IMAGES THERE INTACT, few of us bother with the discipline and time required for such an adventure. But until you do THAT, you will NEVER approach a personal understanding of how creation works by direct experience - you will simply accept and believe or not believe stories from others (NOT the same thing). When Mystic talks of DIRECT EXPERIENCE, while much experience and perception can be colored and tainted, there is a tight fine line where it can be other than that.
But, one of the things you realize at that stage is that WHAT you see is colored and even determined by HOW you "see". In other words, there is NO REALITY that is separate from the consciousness that is seeing it (and creating it). Any observer ALWAYS effects and directly influences
what is observed. This is the notion of Einstein's theories of relativity applied to consciousness. To be there and "see anything", you must
contribute to the creation of whatever it is that you see and experience. These sort of experiences can be very unsettling because everything gets "thin" and even "vanishes". It often happens abruptly and quite shockingly to students of meditation.
In the same way that you instantly see your creation or mockup in your inner space (mind), right along with you "putting it there", is the SAME way that it works "out here in the solid universe and world".
So, the question becomes, if we are of the same stuff as that which created it all, why can't we each create similarly (by instant creation)? This is how I see it. First, you are but a TINY part of the whole of all-that-is. The awareness and consciousness that you possess is but a
droplet of mist from the ocean of creative awareness from whence it came. Your awareness is as a spark from an immense universal fire. Your awareness and abilities in this regard are as a tentacle from the great central awareness that underlies all-that-is.
There is no way to gain all the powers of that which created all-that-is while existing as a human being, or as ANY differentiated and separate aspect of creation. Yes, one can gain some few abilities and powers, but these will largely remain limited and relative to this plane of existence.
See, it isn't so much that YOU expand and grow and develop into a God, but that instead, YOU
lose personal identity, you
lose personal concerns, you
lose differentiation and allow separation to vanish, and in THAT WAY, yes you meld back into that from which you came. You
can fade back into the central source, but in doing so you will LOSE all sense as an isolated and separate entity. It can be no other way. Though, yes, there are many gradations along that fading of separated self back into God.
Now, as a human being, without the ability to NOW create instantly by "belief", I suspect that we each have an innate deeply subconscious sense that we are connected to something that DOES have such a capability. I have considered the notion that possibly people accept and adopt beliefs in an attempt to MAKE REALITY CONFORM INSTANTLY (as we know we "should" be able to do). See, on a
very deep level, beliefs DO function as the postulates and considerations that form and create reality (the physical included). I am NOT talking about intellectual beliefs or concepts that flow through your conscious mind. The common beliefs of Man are "surface stuff". They are products of the
intellect and
mind, and are NOT of the creative imagination or spirit. Few of us have access to the subconscious realm of considerations and postulates that hold the entire universe in place.
Anyway, what passes for "belief" on THIS plane is most often the product of an intellect or mind. It is a result of the action of a thinking mind that breaks up all reality into little categories, compartments, significances and meanings. It is "thinkingness". It does not have much of an ability to effect anything on that level. Sadly, most people accept and adopt beliefs based on personal bias, proclivity and with whatever happens to resonate with them.
On a path towards "losing ones mind", in the good sense of learning to quiet the mind and ceasing to create it, one also
abandons any and all belief. Any person who "believes" anything is still mired in some aspect of mind and thinkingness. With Buddhism, and other forms of inner work, it is a part of the progress to learn to
abandon ALL vestiges of any sort of "mind". On these sort of paths "belief" is not a useful thing. But until one gets to a point where he or she can truly quiet the mind COMPLETELY, and have it vanish from view COMPLETELY (at least during the time period of doing the exercises), one will NOT be able to see and directly experience the glorious unfettered creative awareness that is each of our heritage.
And until then, one will not be able to grasp, again from personal direct experience (as opposed to reading and listening to reports of others), the great difference between "belief" as a mental artifice of a human being and the "belief" of the creative imagination. The difference is tremendous.
That is how it seems to be currently, at this moment, while I sit looking out the window watching the fog slowly meander up the forest valley behind my house.