Most people are unconsciously bound to belief systems of every sort - in a very real sense they are sleep-walking through their lives because of this. Rather than seeing things as they are, they are looking at events through the varied belief systems that have been accepted. One's very identity is enmeshed with the beliefs that are held. So, to challenge a long held belief system is to challenge one's own identity.
To actually challenge a specific belief system is quite courageous because doing so is fraught with peril, for the very direction one's life takes can be at stake. But any kind of change can be very scary for people, for this means stepping into unknown territory. Usually what happens is that one set of beliefs is substituted for the ones held. The irony, of course, is that the new set of beliefs carries with it another confining viewpoint, even though it may be different - this is bondage, and this is the foundation of separation and suffering. What to do? I suggest that it would be wise to go to the root of the dynamics of accepting/rejecting beliefs of every kind.
What usually gets overlooked in all of this is the careful examination of just who it is that is holding onto any belief. In other words, just who am I anyway? We think we know, but do we really? If one is sincere and truly wants to know, one can begin with this basic question. Who/what am I? Try to find out by asking yourself this and see if you can find out. See if you can find out specifically who or what you are beyond any belief in who or what you are. Everyone has ideas about who they are, but are these anything but ideas? Can you be an idea, something which is subject to change, or are you something else, something which doesn't change, something which isn't subject to suffering and which isn't separate from all that is.
Asking this question "Who/what am I?" challenges the root belief system that usually goes unchallenged by the vast majority of people - the belief in 'me' as a separate and distinct entity. Most who will read this response will dismiss it out of hand as something rather silly. Of course they know who they are, goes their thinking; why should I bother with asking a question which has such an obvious answer? This attitute is rather typical, but in reality, it is an unconscious evasion of a subtle, but core fear - the fear of discovering that the 'me' I take myself to be doesn't actually exist. Who wants to be confronted with the fact that they don't exist? Almost no one is willing to make this examination, because to do so is to come face-to-face with their core belief, the belief in me, and the frightening prospect that they don't exist as a separate and distinct entity. To do so presents them with their greatest fear, the fear of facing life without absolutely any beliefs at all.
However, those who are willing to make this sort of self-inquiry will discover something literally unimaginable. When the discovery is made of just what one is comes a life that is fulfilled, a life that is rooted in unshakeable peace, and a life that is truly free. Henceforth, belief systems of all sorts are easily spotted as just that, beliefs that are held by imaginary characters; characters that are no more than thought forms that congeal around a bundle of ideas that are taken to be 'me'. What one is lies beyond all beliefs, beyond the mind and senses. What one is is unbounded by space or time, not subject to change or injury. What one is is eternal and free, and can be discovered this very moment.
