We humans have this incessant need to tell others our beliefs in order to justify them. Having a human nature, we all have beliefs about all sorts of things. God, life, creation, existence, politics, religion, and so on. Instead of truly looking at our beliefs and why those beliefs are even there, we feel this need to tell everyone else our opinions and beliefs about everything in order to try to justify them and have them make sense. Humans are filled with all sorts of beliefs, some of which don't serve us anymore, and yet we cling to every belief we have ever held. As a child we believed the adults that raised us knew everything and for most of us a time came when we realized that those adults most definitely did not know everything. That belief changed based on the new information given.
There are humans who try to control and manipulate society through politics, religion, or wealth for their own personal gain. Those people also do everything within their power to limit knowledge, books, educations, wisdom, or really any mental growth whatsoever. The only way a belief can change is to allow more knowledge or wisdom to come into the personal mind. If I were a dictator who was trying to take over a country for my own gain, the first thing I would do is destroy any chance of anyone learning what I was doing. I would do this by burning books and dismantling the education system. A dictator is only a dictator if the people they are dictating can't see that they are in fact being dictated. Once a person under a dictatorship LEARNS that they are in fact being dictated, they tend to not like being dictated and tend to fight back which is not good for the dictator. People that follow a dictator are not evil, they simply don't see that they are being dictated.
We go on dates and the goal of the date is often to find out the other persons beliefs in order to know if you would get along with each other. It is truly remarkable how many potentially beautiful relationships we pass up since we can't get over the other persons beliefs. A person's beliefs are not who they are, it is just a small part of them and can change at any given moment sometimes for no reason whatsoever. How many times have we heard, "'my spouse has always believed ____, and now they believe ____, now we're getting a divorce" when absolutely nothing else changed. They are still the same person they just changed a belief. We are so willing to give up 30 years of our lives simply because someone doesn't believe the same way we do anymore.
Since we rarely look at our beliefs and why they are there, we fail to let go of old ones that don't serve us anymore and we also try to justify the ones that don't make any sense. We do this by finding other people with the same belief as we have in order to solidify our own belief. When we come across someone who has a different belief, we instinctually try to change theirs to match our own. We can visually see this play out in a lot in religions, but we do it with most of our beliefs. If we are holding on to a week belief that we don't pay much attention to, someone else is able to change that belief fairly easily. We fight over our beliefs, we pick "sides", and we treat people less than garbage over beliefs. What is war, but for two opposing beliefs going all out to defend their own beliefs. There is no "good vs bad" or "right vs wrong" there is only a difference in beliefs.
When we share our beliefs with the world and everyone in it, we open ourselves up to all sorts of nonsense. People will try to change them, people will try to use them against us, and people will try to judge and condemn. We learn to hide some of our beliefs since we know that society would look down on them. We shout to anyone who will listen the beliefs that we think people will like. Take a minute to truly look around the world and all of the humans in it. 100% of humanities "problems" come from beliefs. Any differences that we have with each other are simply a difference in beliefs. This is not to say that no one should have any beliefs or that we should be ashamed of them or try to suppress them, but to simply look at them and ask ourselves why they are there and if they still need to be there or if they can be updated, changed, or gotten rid of completely.
The only reason we care about what anyone else believes is because we are insecure in our own beliefs. When we are secure in our beliefs, we are willing to look at any beliefs that show up and let them go if they no longer serve us and we are also willing to allow in more information as to form new beliefs. When we are secure in our beliefs, we have no need whatsoever to defend them, since we know why they are there and that they serve a purpose. We have no need to convert anyone to our own beliefs. We have no need to fight with anyone about our own beliefs or even theirs. I'm going to restate this since so many of us fail to see this, if a person holds a belief that harms them or others, they are not evil, they are simply lacking the information that would allow for them to see the harm they are doing. More often than not, these same people who are lacking the information that would lead to their liberation are too afraid of information to actually look at it, since they are fully aware that the new information would blow a giant hole in their beliefs, and they don't think they can handle it. The beliefs we refuse to let go of are the same beliefs that cause us to become afraid of our own liberation.
Personal beliefs are just that, personal. It is no one's business what anyone else believes. In order for the human to have the basic need of safety and security we simply let go of the need to share our beliefs with anyone will listen. How is it possible to feel safe and secure when our own beliefs, which are the core of our individual self, and the core of our personality are constantly under attack? In the post Basic Human Rights, we discussed food, water, and shelter which most definitely can help us feel more safe and secure but true safety and security come from knowing who we are at our core. We can only know ourselves when we stop allowing all of the external circumstances to change our beliefs on a whim. We share our bodies with the world, we share our time with the world, and we share things with the world. We also share our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs leaving nothing for ourselves, leaving us feeling hollow and empty. We sure don't feel safe, we sure don't feel secure. We subconsciously dread every new person we encounter simply because they might have different beliefs and might try to convert mine.
It is perfectly healthy and normal to keep our own personal beliefs to ourselves. We don't ever owe anyone that part of ourselves. If our beliefs were meant to be for everyone, creation would have put words above our heads as we were thinking for everyone to see. Creation gave us a safe and secure space in this universe, and it's called our body. Our personal mind is what is meant for the individual. What is inside of our bodies is meant for us, the internal individual person, not the external world of forms. So many of us are trapped in the personal mind because we are too busy defending our beliefs and have therefore created a wall around our mind in order to protect our beliefs, when all we need do is stop sharing our personal mind with everyone. It really is that simple.
When we stop living in the personal mind, we become open to the universal mind or the collective unconscious as Carl Jung called it. All personal minds are connected and create a universal mind. The universal mind can see all. When living within the personal mind, the idea of there being a universal mind where people can know your thoughts is terrifying. We can think some pretty fucked up shit, we don't want people knowing what is really going on in there. The personal mind believes in judgement and condemnation and therefor is afraid. The universal mind has no knowledge of judgement or condemnation. The universal mind is aware that the personal mind believes in judgement and condemnation, but the universal mind sees them for what they are which are illusions. Figments of our imagination. We made them up. Love and Peace!