Belief is in ignorance. If you know, you know. And it is good that if you don’t know, know that you don’t know — the belief can deceive you. The belief can create an atmosphere in your mind, where, without knowing, you start thinking that you know. Belief is not trust, and the more strongly you say that you believe totally, the more you are afraid of the doubt within you.
What is trust? Is it a belief? No, because belief belongs to the mind. Trust is a rapport. You simply put aside all your defense measures, your armor; you become vulnerable. You listen to something, and you listen so totally that the feeling arises in you as to whether it is true or not. If it is untrue, you FEEL it.
Trust is simple. It is just like a child trusts in his mother. It is not that he believes — belief has not yet entered. You were a small child once. Did you believe in your mother or did you trust her? The doubt has not arisen so what is the question of belief? Belief comes only when the doubt has entered; doubt comes first. Later on, to suppress the doubt, you catch hold of a belief. Trust is when doubt disappears; trust is when doubt is not there.
If you have a belief and you come against an experience which the belief says is not possible, or, the experience is such that you have to drop the belief, what are you going to choose — the belief or the experience? The tendency of the mind is to choose the belief, to forget about the experience. That’s how you have been missing many opportunities when God has knocked at your door.
The difference between belief and trust is simple. I am not talking about the dictionary meaning of the words — in the dictionary it may be so: belief means trust, trust means faith, faith means belief — I am talking about existence. In an existential way belief is borrowed, trust is yours. Belief you believe in but doubt exists just underneath. Trust has no doubt element in it; it is simply devoid of doubt. Belief creates a division in you: a part of your mind believes, a part of your mind denies. Trust is a unity in your being, your totality.
Belief is of the mind, of the thinking; faith is of no-mind, of awareness, understanding.
Do you believe in the moon? Do you believe in the stars? You simply know, there is no question of belief. Belief arises only for fictions, for lies, not for truth. Every belief system is a hindrance for spirituality.
I don’t want people to have any kind of belief system. Whether it is Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism, it does not matter. To me, any organized religion – and Christianity is the most organized religion in the world – is a danger to human beings. Their individuality, their freedom, their dignity is destroyed.
Only the open mind can be ready to listen to something that goes against it. The closed mind can listen only to that which supports it. The closed mind has only one dimension open, that is: everything that supports it is allowed in, welcomed in. All other dimensions are kept closed because there is fear. Things may enter you which may shake up your belief system, disturb your so-called peace of mind; they may sabotage your faith. No person who is a believer can afford to be open.
Organized religions have been deceiving humanity for thousands of years. But they could do it because you allowed it to be done. Belief is cheap; you don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to go into the unknown, the mysterious. You have just to cling to your belief system and Jesus will save you, Buddha will save you. Nobody can save anybody else. That will be against human dignity. If I save you, I am not your friend. I have taken away your birthright — the most important, the most significant glory of your being. I have not allowed you to discover the truth yourself, and I have destroyed you, not saved you. Truth can be known only as an individual experience. It is just like love. You don’t have organizations of love. Just think of organizations of love! — and they say to you, “You have just to believe, you have not to do anything else. The savior will do everything; he will make love on your behalf.” But truth is an even higher quality.
Meditation should be absolutely necessary in every educational system, because meditation is not Hindu, not Christian, not Buddhist. Meditation has nothing to do with any religion. It has nothing to do with any belief. Meditation does not require you to believe in God first, heaven and hell, Jesus Christ as the only begotten son. It needs no belief of any kind. Meditation is an inquiry, a search, a pilgrimage towards your own center. And the person who knows himself cannot do anything wrong. That is an impossibility. The person who realizes himself needs no morality. Morality is needed by blind people.
A belief system is nothing but poison to your capacity to understand.
You go on pouring belief, more belief; but you are simply suppressing doubt deeper and deeper into your unconscious. And the deeper it goes, the more dangerous it is because you will become unaware of it. One day you will think that you believe, that you are a believer, that you have attained to faith — because your doubt has gone so deep in your dark unconscious that you cannot see it anymore. I would like you to see your doubt clearly. Rather than repressing it by any belief system, bring it out into the conscious mind, face it. And just by facing your doubt, it dissolves. No belief is needed, it simply evaporates. Doubt is not to be substituted with a belief. If you substitute it with a belief, then you are in a very strange dilemma: just scratch your belief a little bit — and there is doubt flowing, fully alive. The belief is skin deep and underneath your blood is flowing.
Remember the distinction between belief and faith: belief is in an idea; faith is in total reality, faith is a reverence for the whole. Belief is of the mind; faith is of your totality. When you believe in God, you believe in the God of philosophers. When you believe in God, God is an idea, a doctrine. It can be proved or disproved and it will not transform you. But if you have faith, it has already transformed you. I will not say that it WILL transform you. If you have faith, it has ALREADY transformed you.
Belief is theoretical. Trust is existential. You can change your belief without any trouble; it is just like changing your clothes. From a Hindu, you can become a Christian; from a Christian, you can become a Mohammedan; from a Mohammedan, you can become a communist. There is no problem, because belief is only of the mind. If anything is more convincing, more logical, you can change it. It has no roots in your heart. Belief is like plastic flowers, which look like flowers from far away. They don’t have any roots, they don’t need any care — no manure, no chemicals, no watering, no gardening, nothing is needed. And they are permanent people, they can remain with you your whole life long — because they were never born, so they will never die. They are manufactured. Unless you destroy them, they will remain. Trust is a real rose. It has roots, and roots go deep into your heart and into your being. Belief is just in the head.
Always remember: that which nourishes you is real, and that which simply gives you a consolation is very dangerous. Because of this consolation you will not seek the real food. If you start living in dreams and you don’t eat real food, then by and by, you will dissipate, disappear, become dry, and you will be dead. So take immediate action: whenever mind is trying to give you a substitute, don’t listen to it. It is a great salesman, a great seducer. It convinces you, and it says, “Those things are very cheap. Faith is very difficult to find because you will have to risk your life; belief is very easy, very cheap. You can get it for nothing.” In fact, so many people are ready — if you accept their belief they are ready to give you something more with it: become a Christian, become a Hindu, become a Mohammedan. People are ready to give you a great welcome and respect, respectability. Everything is available; just accept their belief. Belief is not only cheap, it can even bring many more things with it. Faith is dangerous, never cheap. You will have to put your whole life at stake. It needs courage, but only a courageous person can be religious.
Jesus says, “Truth liberates.” But how to attain to truth? It is not a question of belief, but a question of meditativeness. And what is meditation? Meditation is emptying your mind completely of all belief, ideology, concept, thought. Only in an empty mind, when there is no dust left on the mirror, truth reflects. That reflection is a benediction.
Belief is opposite to trust. You believe because you have doubt; the belief is an antidote to doubt, it is a need to cover up the doubt. Trust is when you don’t have any doubt, so trust is not a belief. Belief is always in something — in some doctrine, in some principle, in some philosophy. Trust is in the totality of the cosmos. It has nothing to do with books — HOLY BIBLES, GITAS, KORANS — no. Then there is only one scripture which is spread all around you — in the trees, in the rivers, in the ocean, in the stars. And you don’t have to read it; you have to be just silent, and it starts showering on you all its wisdom, which is eternal. I am against belief because I want you to come to the point of trust.
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