“That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity.
Simple can be harder than complex;
you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”
Welcome Belief Voyager!
In a world where convictions often clash, sometimes with alarming consequences, you've taken a bold step to embark on a belief voyage, to understand better the journey of beliefs.
We could make this belief journey complicated and difficult. But why make it complicated when we can make it simple, straightforward, and effortless?
In a quest to illuminate the terrain of the Belief Voyage ahead, we'll begin with the simplest and easiest analogy: a journey from the Valley to the Mountaintop.
The Valley
Imagine that all of your life you lived in a Valley, surrounded by high mountains. You find the Valley very comfortable because you know the rules by which people of the Valley live. When one lives in the Valley, one adheres to the beliefs of the Valley. There appears to be harmony among the Valley people because everyone must follow the same rules and adhere to the same beliefs.
One day while taking a stroll in the Valley, you stumble upon a Crossroads, leading out of the Valley. Curious, you follow the Crossroads to take you into new uncharted territory. The Crossroads feels lonely at times because you are leaving the Valley behind, but you continue nevertheless, intrigued by the new sights you see.
The Mountaintop
You follow the newly discovered path that eventually takes you up a mountainside. As you climb higher and higher, your view of the Valley is continually changing.
The Valley looks very different when seen from the mountainside. New vistas are opened to you. Vistas that you had never imagined. Your perspectives are continually changing and growing.
Finally you reach the Mountaintop. From the Mountaintop you can see not only the Valley from which you came and the entire Mountain, but you can also see a vast Sea beyond the Mountaintop.
Your vista encompasses so much more than you could see when in the Valley. There your perspective was limited by the mountains on each side. Once you reach the Mountaintop, your entire perspective changes.
It’s not that the beliefs of the Valley were right or wrong. The beliefs of the Valley were a good fit when you lived in the Valley. But now that you are on the Mountaintop, your beliefs about the world change.
On this belief voyage, we will start in the Valley, find the Crossroads, and finally reach the Mountaintop. Expect your perspectives and views to change along the way, knowing that this is an integral part of the path of understanding that occurs in a belief journey.
If we can see beliefs, not as right or wrong, but as a progression on a belief voyage, then we can facilitate not only our belief journey, but the journey of others.