Changing Beliefs, Unchanging Believer
Questioner: I have a set of beliefs that keep changing with the passage of time, giving way to other beliefs. I am no more the same person I used to be. How to work on this?
Acharya Prashant: Beliefs are changing. They are coming and going. Is the believer changing? Is the tendency to believe changing?
If my immunity levels are low, if my body is basically weak, then diseases will keep coming and going, right? My body has no resistance to disease. One disease, then the next disease, then the next disease. Apparently, things are changing. But something is not changing at all.
What is not changing at all?
The weakness. The lack of resistance. The problem with immunity. Not much is changing. You see, we all want change, but because we do not look attentively, we change the wrong things. Change what really needs to change, not that changing which would be of no avail. In fact, changing the inconsequential is a deep internal conspiracy not to change that which is crying out to be changed.
You're changing beliefs, but are you changing the one who is so prone to believing? Are you changing your confidence in beliefs? That would be something.
I think X. I think Y. What is common between these two? But when I move from X to Y, I probably want to declare that I am quite a tolerant man. I am a liberal who is prepared to alter his positions. I'm not a "by God." If you give me the right arguments, I will change my thinking. But what will I not change? What will I never change?
Questioner: Thinking.
Acharya Prashant: The tendency to think. The reliance upon thought. The misplaced belief in belief.
All right. You show me your wears. I have chosen something, but I am prepared to change my choice. But one thing can never change. I cannot compromise on that. On what? That I will be the one who will choose. Now, me being the one, I am prepared to alter the choices, but I don't want to give up the right to choose. That is something I will not accept.
Bring in the right change. Do not change trivia.
Do not change your sunglasses. Do not change your headgear, do not change the curtains in the house, the car tires, a new deodorant. Changing these will not bring the new to you. Or your political affiliations. This time you voted for the BJP; next time you are voting for the Congress. You are still a political animal.
Questioner: Acharya ji, I love to travel to new places, have good food, and there is a craving for it. What I understood about myself is that I am very greedy to fulfill my desires, but this understanding is not helping me anymore. Now what should I do? Kindly help.
Acharya Prashant: You see, first of all, this belief that you will come to an understanding in the form of a conclusion has to be dropped. Had the mind, in its present state, been so intelligent, then it wouldn't have fallen into this trap in the first place.
So questions like, "Why does it happen?", "What exactly am I craving?", "How to stop it?", "What will happen after stopping?", "What is the solution?" These questions must not be asked because these questions are looking for something beyond yourself. You cannot go beyond yourself through this route. That does not mean that there is nothing that you can do. You can still do a lot to help yourself.
What can you do? You have gone to many of these places, right? You would have checked in, checked out, walked into a restaurant, ordered meals, paid the bill, the tip, and moved out. You have been doing all this, right?
You are a being propelled by memory. That's what you are. No unnecessary confidence that something beyond this state can happen is needed because you are propelled by memory, remain with that. Use memory itself because memory is what drives you to food or travel. Use memory itself.
You checked it so many times, and every time you had to check out. Don’t come to conclusions about yourself. Don't say, "I am so greedy." No one says that there is something despicable about me. Just look at what has been happening. Seriously, look at it. Don't hide it under layers of laughter.
You know, you discovered a new place to eat. Why must you then go to Facebook and put your pics there? Why must you try to convince the world that you had a good time?
Questioner: Sir, that doesn’t happen with me.
Aacharya Prashant: If you cook a new dish, why must you post a pic?
Questioner: Personally speaking about me, I actually maintain a blog and I keep on updation. Because I keep on experimenting.
Acharya Prashant: And that you say this is a part of your creed, is that not? Why don't you be honest and put it that way? Why don't you write on the blog, "This is another product of my same mental state"? Why must an effort to deceive yourself and others via the world be there all the time?
And remember, that cannot be a high-sounding article. That cannot be an article which makes you look like a Buddha who is casting a glance on the world, seeing how ephemeral and meaningless it is. No?
You have to rather post a picture of that dish and then say, "Another product of my wretchedness." You know, the mind is so stupid that whatever comes to it repeatedly, it starts taking that as some kind of Truth.
You repeatedly told yourself that there is something important and great about travelling, about enjoying new experiences because that has happened so many times. So now you have fallen into believing in your own lies, and you very well know they are lies, right? Otherwise, you won’t be asking this question. Now that you know that they are lies, declare them to be lies.
Questioner: Sir, I’m not even sure about this.
Acharya Prashant: To the extent you're sure about this, can you take that step?
Questioner: Yes, sir. To a part that probably there is some greed, some desperation, and maybe even…
Aacharya Prashant: If you express it, even to an extent, so much dirt from your life would start clearing away.
Let's say it's your anniversary, and just tell one wants to have repeated experiences, one wants to have repeated anniversaries. And if on your anniversary you post a very ordinary pic of yourself, in no special clothes, with your face as common and simple as it usually is, and you say, "Another anniversary. I really wonder what's so great about these days."
You know what will happen?
A lot of dirt from your life will clear. How? You lose half of your Facebook circle immediately. They will loathe you.
That is the action of Truth. If you give it expression, if you allow it to come forth, then it quickly cleans away a lot of dirt. You express the truth, and all the false people around you will quickly run away.
Those who are, you know, professional congratulators, and there are many such people, when they are looking at Facebook and other forms of social media, they are looking for these things: Somebody got a baby, somebody got something else. Let me just go there and say, "How nice, so wonderfully cute!"
The moment they see what is happening: this woman's anniversary, and she is saying words such an ordinary day, immediately unfriend.
Questioner: That has also happened with me. They asked me, why are you not smiling? There is no tax in it, and I continue being that way, and they even lost interest in commenting.
Acharya Prashant: They are interested in the way you still are, and the way you still are is a problem according to yourself.
They are attached to the being that you still are, and you are not okay with the one that you still are, right? Something else, somebody else is prepared to emerge, and you said that yes, you do have a whiff of the Truth. Let that Truth emerge, and then see whether or not your external situations will change. And the more your external situations change, the more free and empowered you will feel to change those situations all the more.
My advice to you is: do not shy away from that which you already know. All of us know, and had we not known anything, then there is no possibility for us. I am talking to you because you already know. I am not talking to you because I can tell you something.
What empowers me is your own intelligence, not my words. It is because you already know that you can understand what I am saying. So start from there.
All of us have a nice point to begin from. That point is what you already know, what you already know but don't stop. Start supporting it now.
