The world is driven by beliefs. Hardly anybody has time to invest to understand or know reality; therefore, almost everybody just wants to jump at the conclusion. It requires quite less effort to believe, especially if it is a widely held belief and more so if it is comfortable. That is why many beliefs that make us comfortable are so widely held. For example, almost everybody believes that he is a good human being. If anybody believes that he is not a good human being, that would require immediate action to change, and therefore it is so easy to believe that we are good. Almost everybody believes that he did best in a given situation, which gives him comfort. The moment anybody accepts that he did not do enough, it would mean that the next time he should work harder.
We have a similar belief that we are intelligent and know what is best for us. If such a belief is not there, it would be quite difficult to make decisions, and we would always be confused. We believe that we are not going to die soon, else it would be difficult to plan for tomorrow. We have a belief about the relationships. Our brain is filled with stories about the significance of relationships and responsibilities since childhood. The people who sacrificed their lives for their families are treated like heroes in different movies, as well as story books.
That is the reality behind all these beliefs and stories? For example, I may make a mental story about destiny and start attributing failures to destiny. It was destined to happen. Almost every person before independence, who was not fighting for the freedom of the country, would have made such a mental story. Otherwise life would be full of conflicts. If somebody believed that India could be free and yet he did not make efforts for India's freedom, then he would not be at peace with himself. Rather, the most comfortable way out was to believe that India can not be free and it was the destiny of India to be a slave, and then such a believer can pass the entire burden to destiny and sleep peacefully.
Nobody knows what is reality. In fact, probably there is nothing like reality and everything lies in the domain of possibility. If somebody believes in destiny, then they choose one possibility. On the other hand, a believer of free will chooses another possibility. Both these possibilities co-exist and we just make a choice. Depending upon the choice we make, a particular possibility manifests for us. Depending upon the choices people at large exercise in a society, the possibility manifests for the society.
I believe that all possibilities exist in this world. However, for societal and systemic possibilities to become reality, at least a critical mass of society must believe in them. It's easy to assume that such a possibility does not exist. While India was not free, most Indians would have considered it impossible to achieve freedom. Yet, when a critical mass of Indians started believing that India could be free, India became free. However, this belief in possibilities can also create anxiety if others do not share the same belief, and a critical mass of support is lacking. That can lead to significant stress. For a possibility to take shape at the societal level, an absolute awareness of the fact must resonate with a critical mass. Until then, it will remain a utopia. We will continue to believe in its possibility and strive to make it come true, but it won't become reality until that critical mass joins in. Since no one can predict when that will happen, if we stop making our share of efforts, the manifestation of that possibility will be delayed. Therefore, the only option is to keep making efforts if we want a possibility to manifest. However, throughout this process, we must remain vigilant and open to new possibilities that arise along the way. Fixation with "destiny" resulting in "inertia" and fixation with "efforts" resulting in "anxiety" are two opposite extremes, and life lies somewhere in between where we make efforts without anxiety. That can happen only when we are aware that consciousness is operating at different levels of awareness among the human beings.
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