“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.” — Rabindranath Tagore
In today’s meditation, we explore the nature of our higher self. We have been looking at belief as a way to reach our inner reality. As we step into the light of our true self, we realize that pure awareness is a state of true knowledge. It is not a belief; it is a knowing. Our true self is not a particular kind of knowledge; it is “knowingness” itself. This state is the gift of living from your core beliefs. This is the fulfillment of becoming what you believe.
Living from our true self, we transcend belief; we shine with the light of our essential nature: truth, happiness, and love.
“Belief is truth held in the mind; faith is a fire in the heart.”— Joseph Fort Newton
Today’s meditation reminds us that our guiding light in life is our true self. This silent presence of awareness is the light of truth that always shines. As we learn to think, speak, and act from our true self, we build a genuine, dynamic, and loving self. This is our truth, this is our Being.
We don’t have to do anything extraordinary to live this truth. It is simple, adaptable, and intelligent, and it is accessible to you right now.
“Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.” ― Kahlil Gibran
In today’s meditation, we explore how faith heals by expanding our awareness and revealing all the possibilities within our soul. Here we understand the soul by our direct experience, not as something we learn about secondhand. The soul is our true self; it is the quiet “experiencer” within, the presence of awareness that understands what you are reading right now.
This experience of the soul is who we are – it is our wholeness. The soul is the source of our joy, truth, beauty, and infinite potential. When we live from this level of life, we are immediately connected to and supported by other souls. We heal and are healed in return.
“If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” ― Thich Nat Hanh
Sharing and expressing the same core beliefs as others brings with it a fellowship of the heart, and this bond of companionship makes our life journey more rewarding and enjoyable. Our spiritual growth is amplified when we connect to others in a group that shares our goals.
This is the Indian concept of Satsang, which refers to people coming together based upon a shared truth to uplift and transform themselves. Finding and participating in such groups gives you more than strength and companionship; it provides an expanded version of your own spiritual self.
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa
In today’s meditation, we look at the unifying power of faith. We have developed an understanding of faith as the shared value of our core beliefs. This experience of faith is felt as love in our hearts. To live our faith is to live as a loving person. That means our life is directed from our loving center, our true self. We do this by finding situations around us where our love can make a difference, and then extending ourselves in acts of love. These acts are done without any thought of receiving something in return. However, this heart-to-heart connection always brings countless benefits to both the giver and receiver.
“Believe what you believe and it will be, believe what others believe and they will consume you!” ― Stanley Victor Paskavich
The maturation of the core beliefs we share with others is called faith. In today’s meditation, we discover how faith, operating from the level of our expanded awareness, creates a new reality. This kind of faith is not necessarily a religiously devotional faith. Rather, it is the collective movement and influence of peacefulness from the experience of the unity of spirit.
When we live the personal reality of peace, we become peacemakers. Our individual energy then aligns with the realities of other peacemakers, generating a wave of goodness throughout the world. This is how the phenomenon of faith within our awareness joins with others and becomes a great agency of transformation that creates a new, peaceful reality.
“Faith is universal. Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary.” ― Dan Brown
Today’s meditation is about finding the common purpose and vision in humanity’s beliefs. This is how we can overcome the divisiveness of conflicting and hostile beliefs. Instead of remaining stuck in an “us versus them” mentality, we replace that with the belief that all humanity is one spiritual family. On the level of our spiritual identity, we are all equal.
When we know the truth of our shared humanity from our innermost Being, then our connection to the human family becomes a source of joy, love, and peace.
“One person with a belief is equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.” ― John Stuart Mill
Today’s meditation is about using your personal power. However, personal power is not about changing the world around you. It is about the power to change the world within you. This means that as we open our awareness to our core beliefs and true self, we organize, clarify, and reconfigure our internal life so that our thoughts and actions have meaning and bring a feeling of fulfillment.
The true self imbues our beliefs with the personal power that can achieve our goals with the least effort and a minimum of obstacles and confusion.
“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.”― Swami Vivekananda
Yesterday, we learned how to heal self-judgment by connecting to our wholeness. Today’s meditation shows us how this integration of the separate self progresses into self-love and self-compassion. We might think that self-love involves adopting a positive attitude toward ourselves, but positive attitudes cannot bring true self-compassion. Real love and compassion are simply the presence of pure awareness awake to itself. When we are living in the present moment, we are open and accepting, not resisting or grasping. That presence of consciousness is your true self, and that is real self-compassion.
“Man is what he believes.” ― Anton Chekhov
In today’s meditation, we look at how to heal self-judgment. Self-judgment is the compromised belief that gives rise to feelings of guilt, shame, self-criticism, and self-recrimination. Self-judgment happens when one part of our divided self judges another part of us. Instead of our self functioning as an integrated whole, it fights and resists itself.
This leaves us feeling divided, depleted, and unhappy – the opposite of our core belief “I am fulfilled.” To heal this self-judgment, we can return to the wholeness of our true self. And in the midst of activity, we can also heal it by asking ourselves what we really want. In that answer, we move away from self-blame and toward the inner fulfillment we truly desire.
“With faith you let go. You trust. Whereas with belief you cling.” ― Yann Martel
Fulfillment is the only response from our environment that shows us we are living from our core beliefs. If we feel anxious, insecure, and fearful, that means there are still obstacles and limitations in our beliefs. In today’s meditation, we look at the core belief “I am safe and trusting,” and see how we can remove the obstacles and limitations around this belief without strain or effort.
When we meditate, we contact the quiet, secure, and peaceful nature of our self. This conscious contact exposes the false sense of separation that compromises our beliefs. This exposure automatically dissolves the obstacles and boundaries around the belief.
“Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
We learned over the last few days how powerful core beliefs are when they spring from your true self. In today’s meditation, we discover that this power and dynamism come from the stillness and silence of our true self. If our beliefs are compromised and not having the effect we hoped for, then we need to return to the stillness of our true self to rectify the belief.
For instance, if the second core belief “I am worthy” is compromised, you may not see this belief reflected back to you by being listened to and held in regard by others. Instead, you might find others are disrespectful or don’t take you seriously. Rather than reacting to their behavior, you can bring attention back to your silent core – your true self – and align with the truth of your sense of worth and value.
We learned yesterday about the power of our core beliefs. In today’s meditation, we discover how to activate that power through conscious action. We begin with the core belief, “I am loving and lovable.” To activate its power, we expand the loving reality of this core belief into the world and engage with it in our actions. This puts our core belief of love into motion, reflecting its effects back to us as love, compassion, and understanding.
“True faith is belief in the reality of absolute values.” ― William Ralph Inge
In today’s meditation, we learn that our core beliefs are the most intimate beliefs we hold about ourselves – about who we are and what matters most to us. We learned last week how powerful our beliefs are. This week we will learn how to direct these powerful core beliefs so that their expressions in the world are harmonious and life-supporting, for ourselves as well as others.
If our beliefs become compromised and confused, they have a self-sabotaging influence on our actions instead. As we settle into meditation, we align with our core beliefs of feeling loving, worthy, safe, and whole.
“Believe that with your feelings and your work you are taking part in the greatest; the more strongly you cultivate this belief, the more will reality and the world go forth from it.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
We often think of life in terms of its many parts or aspects. Even when we simplify it, we think of body, mind, and spirit as separate. But a belief in the ultimate separateness of life inevitably leads to obstacles and problems. In truth, life is one wholeness with many different modulations within it.
In today’s meditation, we experience this unity or wholeness in the silence of our awareness. And when belief is built on this experience of wholeness, all our core beliefs are empowered from their source in awareness. These beliefs then provide us confidence, wisdom, and inspiration in our daily lives.
“A sincere seeker knows that belief is dynamic power, and he has this power as his very own.” ― Sri Chinmoy
The impact our beliefs have upon our motivation to act is very powerful. If we believe we aren’t smart enough to do something, that limiting belief can make us feel the task is impossible or that failure is inevitable. Conversely, a self-affirming belief such as “I am capable of accomplishing the job” leads to confidence and action. Limiting beliefs are false messages about our self. They are like dark shadows hiding our true nature. When we dispel those shadows with the light of self-awareness in meditation, we are liberated from their grip and free to pursue the core beliefs that are expressions of our true self.
“I'm a believer in belief. Faith is something that works – it causes people to do things, it has results.” ― Tommy Lee Jones
We have learned that the power of belief is always working behind the scenes to create our identity. In today’s meditation, we want to make use of this knowledge to consciously choose and direct our beliefs, so we are in charge of them – not the other way around.
Turning beliefs of low expectations of life into beliefs of rising expectations is how we make the power of belief our ally in reaching our full potential. This is how the beliefs we hold help us create the life we want.
In today’s meditation, we explore how our positive beliefs expand our horizons in life. Positive beliefs are connected to our true self and so their energy is life-affirming and nurturing. They promote love, happiness, and creativity, foster all aspects of our life, and encourage our awareness to grow and expand.
When you become aware of the positive beliefs within your true self, you open yourself to unlimited possibilities. Just by connecting to your inner Being, all of these beneficial beliefs are activated and supported naturally, without effort or analysis.
“The love of what you do, combined with your belief in what you do, will not determine your success. It will determine how hard you will work and how dedicated you will be to achieving it.” ― Jeffrey Gitomer
In today’s meditation, we look at the beliefs that lie hidden in our unconscious. It’s important to bring these hidden beliefs to light, because otherwise they can be traps that create unnecessary limitations and obstacles in our lives. When we illuminate these unconscious or shadowed beliefs, we reveal our true nature.
Hidden beliefs are limiting, fearful beliefs we hold about ourselves and others. Once we bring these hidden beliefs to light, they begin to dissolve and lose their power over us. The core beliefs that affirm our true nature then begin to shine through and light our way.
“Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In today’s meditation, we learn that we are what we believe. We shape our identities around what we feel to be true about ourselves. Sometimes we don’t even clearly know what our beliefs are, because many are hidden and unconscious. Beliefs we hold about ourselves may be either mild or passionate, but they all still contribute to who we are. Our meditation today brings us greater clarity about how our beliefs form our identities, because to truly understand ourselves, we need to examine our beliefs closely in the light of our awareness.
“What each of us believes in is up to us, but life is impossible without believing in something.” ― Kentetsu Takamori
Welcome to our 21-Day Meditation Experience, Become What You Believe. We are excited that you are joining us on this journey to discover the power of belief. Together we will experience and understand how to use this power to transform, support, and uplift our lives in every way.
In today’s meditation, we learn that our beliefs are always in motion, constantly influencing our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Our unconscious beliefs are always affecting us as well. To use the power of belief to our greatest benefit, we need to become self-aware. In doing so, we attune our beliefs to our deepest spiritual aspirations. As we continue this Meditation Experience over the next few weeks, we will see our beliefs manifest as greater love, purpose, and meaning in our lives.
