I think of beliefs as emotional positions that we have taken on, mostly unconsciously. I like your five ways. Below is another. It attempts to excavate beliefs directly with the practice of repeating questions. It's useful to both discover what our beliefs are and our rationale for holding them.
I think of beliefs as emotional positions that we have taken on, mostly unconsciously. I like your five ways. Below is another. It attempts to excavate beliefs directly with the practice of repeating questions. It's useful to both discover what our beliefs are and our rationale for holding them.
Here are the two repeating questions:
1) Tell me a belief you have.
2) What's right about holding beliefs?
You could ask yourself these questions, but it would be more fun with a practice partner. And you could do the questions sequentially -- the first one for 10 minutes, the second one for 10 minutes. Or interlaced, first then second, first then second, etc. for 15 minutes. With interlacing, the second question would change slightly to "that belief."
The purpose of the repetitions is that it tends to drill into the unconscious. The answering is done quickly and spontaneously. No figuring out a good answer. No censoring answers that don't seem to make sense in the moment. The responder just responds with no care what comes up. The asker just asks, with no reactions to the answers. And says "Thank you," after each response.
I think of beliefs as emotional positions that we have taken on, mostly unconsciously. I like your five ways. Below is another. It attempts to excavate beliefs directly with the practice of repeating questions. It's useful to both discover what our beliefs are and our rationale for holding them.
Here are the two repeating questions:
1) Tell me a belief you have.
2) What's right about holding beliefs?
You could ask yourself these questions, but it would be more fun with a practice partner. And you could do the questions sequentially -- the first one for 10 minutes, the second one for 10 minutes. Or interlaced, first then second, first then second, etc. for 15 minutes. With interlacing, the second question would change slightly to "that belief."
The purpose of the repetitions is that it tends to drill into the unconscious. The answering is done quickly and spontaneously. No figuring out a good answer. No censoring answers that don't seem to make sense in the moment. The responder just responds with no care what comes up. The asker just asks, with no reactions to the answers. And says "Thank you," after each response.
I hope this is useful. : )