How To Remain a Mental Virgin

When I explain to people that I teach the art of letting go of beliefs, I often get a blank stare. Some people ask me to provide an example of a belief. At first, this did not make sense to me. Doesn’t everyone know what constitutes a belief? Apparently, many people are questioning the notion of beliefs these days. According to the Google keyword search tool, every month over three million people perform a search using the phrase, “What is a belief?”

I needed to step into the questioner’s world to understand their point of view. I realized that people generally think that their beliefs are true, while another’s beliefs are false. In essence, the word belief seems to carry an inherent double standard.

I prefer to define beliefs as temporary ideas that we mutually accept as true for a creative purpose. Our minds are meant to be individual, temporary holding locations, not collective long-term storage. We are eternally connected as one at the level of the unconditionally loving true Self. Our authentic Self has no beliefs. But our mental connections were meant to be purposeful, creative, and of limited duration. In this way, we all get to have our own beliefs; and we connect when it is mutually beneficial.

Let’s say that I want to buy a car, and you want to sell a car. We both accept beliefs that facilitate that transaction. We complete the transaction and drop our beliefs. We don’t fall into a “Groundhog Day” scenario and buy and sell the car every day for life.

Think about the natural creative process. First, we have an unfulfilled desire. We get an idea that becomes our blueprint. Eventually, we manifest the idea in the world. And then, we drop the whole thing. Once the desire is fulfilled, the beliefs used to manifest it are no longer necessary. In ancient mystery school language, this was called remaining a mental virgin because the initiate constantly purified their mind of beliefs. They were masters in the art of letting go.

When beliefs turn sour, it is because they have outlived their usefulness. They become permanent in our mind and part of our identity. They mimic the truth. So the mind loses its virginity.

Only pure truth is permanent. This is why people who have a near-death experience feel flooded with love. The false self, which is made up of beliefs and judgment dies; the pure, loving Self remains. We don’t have to die to have that experience.

Unconditional love, joy, peace, and freedom are true and present in every newborn child and cannot be destroyed. But you can cover those perfect qualities with beliefs. A mind filled with beliefs sees an illusory world. In the east, they call this false world maya. When in maya, we think paradise went away; but it has simply been hidden from view.

Beliefs also become divided by judgment. In my car example, there was no judgment. I bought a car; you sold a car -- end of story. I used beliefs, as they were designed, for a co-creative event. Judgment, on the other hand, separates people into good and bad, right and wrong, and halves and have nots.

Most people today feel lonely, and beliefs laced with judgment are the cause. We form groups that believe the same things; and then we judge our common enemy. Politics, religion, cultures, sports teams, and even schools are used for purposes of division. On the surface, it looks like we are creating community. But we are actually creating division.

When our mind is divided, we see a divided world. We long for our other half even if we hate it. When we are not whole, we are lonely. We have veiled our true Self and left paradise.

The first belief that was been sold to mankind was that we left paradise, and we can’t return. We return by dropping our judgments of good and evil. When we are free of judgment, we naturally return to paradise because the illusion dissolves. Remember the illusion was made of beliefs laced with judgment. The world doesn’t disappear, just the veil that hides paradise.

Humans were not designed to see others as enemies. We were not designed to compete; we were designed to cooperate and to co-create. There is a sad reality in the saying, “Divide and conquer.” All of us are weaker when we are divided. And judgment is behind every division.

Power-hungry leaders divided humans in ancient times so that they could rise in power. That system is still working today. Some call it a formula for success. We don’t have to fight it; we just have to stop participating in it. We do that by simply clearing our own mind. As we do our own clearing, we move outside of the illusion. Once safely outside of maya, we can reach out a hand to free others. And when enough people stop giving power to the false world, it will collapse. No one will get hurt because it was never real to begin with. In fact, all the people who are suffering will be freed.

The best thing about beliefs is they offer unlimited creative potential. We enter the world as blank slates, and we create beliefs like an artist painting on a blank canvass. We can use beliefs to create an interesting life story. The worst quality about beliefs is that some people impose their beliefs on others. We don’t have to fight those who think their beliefs are right; we just deny them access to our minds.

We take on beliefs for many reasons. Most of them come from family, friends, teachers, and authority figures early in life before we have the ability to discriminate. We see something that appears to be real for them and assume it is also true for us. We are born innocent; and our innocence causes us to believe authority. Often we accept the beliefs of people we love in order to feel connected to them or to help them. But two people drowning in an illusory sea of beliefs doesn’t save anyone.

We can let go of any belief about anything by recognizing that it is just not the truth. That recognition loosens up our mind. Often we feel a flood of emotions as we challenge the belief. The emotions are just more proof that the belief was false. The emotions provide a measure of how much energy we put into this belief to keep it alive. Witnessing the emotions is much like letting steam out of a kettle. Eventually things become quiet. On the other side of the emotions, there is often an insight or a feeling of peace or unconditional love. The belief is now gone. What remains is the truth.

Your mind belongs to your true Self, not to any other. You get to decide if you want to believe something or not. Honoring your Self’s wisdom is your place of power. It doesn’t matter if even one other person drops a belief that is shared by many. You make a difference in your life when you let go. You stop worshipping two masters. You let your true Self return as captain of your ship.

This I know for sure. Your authentic Self, which is unconditionally loving and wise, can solve anything. Letting go can’t hurt anyone; and it can heal anything. It is never too late to start because letting go of our false mind, with all of its beloved beliefs and judgments, is the secret recipe for miracles.