What is your most basic belief?

[Katinka Hesselink]

Since us theosophists are supposed to be questioners and ponderers - I have something to ponder for you all: what is your most basic belief, what idea feels like it's part of the core of your existence?

[Susan Thomas]

The core belief I have is that all sentient beings are in and on this planet to help each other reach something better. I believe we are going somewhere, and that we will only get there as a whole.

[Katinka Hesselink]

Sweet.

I guess my most fundamental belief is that the universe is basically a good place. Probably a naive sense, but there it is. It's the basis of my belief in karma - but that's secondary.

[David Melik]

I feel like an (a)gnostic nihilist theist. I avoid (dis)believing anything, but I can still (not) know truths. Some ideas are proven to be unproveable as true or false--mostly ideas in math--but I am gnostic about Divinity. I know that is what the light of my own consciousness is, and that I am more that than the body to the extent I could not care less what happens to the body--even the mental body--in this lifetime. Perhaps I hope that I have good karma, but I know everything that happens is because of cause-and-effect.

I think Katinka's viewpoint is reasonable and I would probably argue for it myself, though saying 'I believe...' is longer than 'I think....' Some people would disagree with her, but I think as a corollary to 'I am consciousness' is the idea 'the universe is good,' because consciousness is also the universe and good.

Because of that and since I like Mahayana I would also argue for Susan's point. Of course often sentient beings are selfish, but one cannot really define kama-manas as those beings: they are their monad, and that is what the light of consciousness is reflected in--also in one's body sometimes where the body is within the monad if that part of it lights up. When that happens you do not worry so much about relative beliefs though hypotheses and proofs are still useful.

[Brandi Mitchell]

im only 17 and not really smart apon this stuff but i know what my insticts have told me since i was little,

I believe the core of my or our existence is based apon an energy originated from some type of source, were here to better ourselves through expirences over various lifetimes until we are purified and released from the body to join the source. And like you said based on a law of cause and effect karma.

[Joe Fulton]

On the other hand, being 17 means that you don't have all that boatload of stuff to unlearn either!

[Ferran Sanz Orriols]

We humans need to learn to share. Friendship has no limits. Mahatmas (call them as you like) are simple people: wisdom is not complicated.

[Roy Stewart]

I am

[Erica Georgiades]

This is a profound question, and I am not sure I could answer that, but giving a try I would say: I believe in life and that there is goodness within everyone. Even those persons, which we think have lost all humanity, deep within themselves some goodness will be found.

[David Eberhardt]

This is the way I have come to see Reality.  "Infinite is the number of living beings and all without exception desire happiness." This is the first line of Pandit Sukhlalji's commentary on Umaswami's Tattvartha Sutra; long my favorite quotation from all that I have read. The logical conclusion of this realization is well stated as "Ahimsa paramo dharma",  Noninjury is the highest duty mutually of each conscious being.  Eventually ultimately inevitably consciousness (all conscious beings) will learn to accommodate itself (ourselves) by evolving with the universe toward a state in which no part of it will be uncomfortable (maximally optimally blissful, not manic).  The universe will maintain itself (maha atma) there (nirva ana akshubdha = without the least disturbance) as long as possible and eternally evolve back to that state.  

Meanwhile, we are in an earlier state of evolution.  We are in a primitive cannibal world where life lives on life.  The trick is to learn how to live blissfully as serene non-injurous individuals in a world where we are all vulnerable mutual predators.  We look for this Wisdom to the Masters who might already have and might give this wisdom, and we look everywhere else  that we hope to find it.

[Roy Stewart]

Beliefs are states of mind and are eliminated during meditation. Consciousness is more basic than any belief because belief cannot exist without consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sven Bowsher]

this my get a negative outlook, but i fear nothing.

     "Humans are nothing more than cockroaches, we are no different than anyother being on the planet. We are born, we learn, we procreate, we teach, we die. " that being said, i know that many people frown upon this but lets face it, its the truth of PHYSICAL REALITY. the reason that is pronounced is because in our physical reality sex is all that matters. sex so that we can provide the next set of hellacious little demons that we once were, to become what we are now.
    inside of me, my very core? this is much more complex than physical reality. i believe that as a people, a civilization we all cam from one place, and piece of mind. place your fist in front of you, either hand doesn't matter. follow with your eyes from your elbow to your fist... it is a loooong strong line. that is the original society. once you reach your fist, you have the formation, the basis, the beginning, if you will, of the end. spread your fist palm up and stretch your fingers out as far as you can. this is where s*** changed. this was the migration of people. there were too many for the society, and they left... as they left their skin, language, and beliefs all changed... aided and aiding by and in evolution. we as humans traveled all overy the world to find our own niche. when we left the original belief, the core of our inner beings changed... religions formed based on word of mouth from the parents and grand parent of children and grand children leading us to were we are now... a billion different ideas and quests for the after life.

     damn that, the afterlife is coming... thats one answer that will be guaranteed, we just have to wait for it... but to find the truth of who we are, we have to look into our past. essentially we are all so distantly related, but so unrelated as a people. look to our beginnings to find our present, use the knowledge of the present and wisdom of the past to change the future. the future if you only change it for yourself, ripples through all of humanity and nature.

...............................this is how i believe, beliefs are not changed, as you can not change mine. but beliefs are refined, and as now theories come into play then new beliefs form.

get at me

[Roy Stewart]

Humans do in fact differ from cockroaches in many respects.