Breaking Down Belief Systems:
by Nikki Sapp -
Whether we realize it or not our entire identity is formed off of the relationships that we have with the world around us. In fact, our perception that we even exist at all is dependent upon these relationships to people, places and things, in order to survive. For example, in relation to a tree I am a human, in relation to that man I am a daughter, in relation to that child I am a mom, in relation to that lady I am a friend, in relation to this dog I am its owner, etc.
Our whole existence is formed off of who or what we are in relation to the things around us. With each one of these relationships comes a different personality. We have the personality when we are with our family, we have the personality we are with our pet, we have our friend personality, we have our work personality, and we even have the personality of the voice in our head that is commentating on everything.
Going even further down the rabbit hole, within each one of these personalities we have preconceived notions about the way we should behave, the way others should behave and the way life in general should go.
The friend personality has its beliefs of what it means to be a friend, the employee personality behaves in accordance with its ideas about what it means to be an employee, the spouse personality has its own set of rules and regulations on what it means to be a spouse, and so on and so forth.
With all these different ideas, belief systems and relationships that make up who we are, or at least who we think we are, how do we find out who we REALLY are? How do we go about breaking down relationships into labels down to personalities down to belief systems all the way down to our lowest common denominator?
“As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be, you can’t see how it is.” –-Ram Dass
Before we can break ourselves down to this level we must first ask ourselves, “What IS our lowest common denominator?”
The lowest common denominator is us at our first level, our most authentic self.
It is the part of us that has not one concept or preconceived anything about anything. It has no thoughts, beliefs, ideas or judgments of how we should behave, or of how others should behave because it exists prior to all labels and concepts of what is “right”, “wrong”, “acceptable” or “unacceptable.”
It can never be upset or offended because it has no prior idea of how things should happen or how people should act. It is our pure consciousness. It is the awareness that literally is the observer of all the different personalities that show up in our day to day existence. Our lowest common denominator experiences life as it is in the present moment.
When we become in touch with our lowest common denominator we experience life as it is.
We experience people and relationships as they are without getting caught up in the labels in our head of what we believe someone should be acting like. One would dare to say, it is only when we get in touch with our lowest common denominator that we are actually truly living, because when we are not in touch with this pure awareness we are still operating from our thoughts about a situation instead of the situation itself.
To always be in our thoughts is to constantly be judging which means we are not present. The less we are truly present and living in the moment, the less we are experiencing life in its most authentic form. So now that we know WHAT it is, the question still remains, how do we find and connect with this part of ourselves?
“When there is silence one finds the anchor of the universe within oneself” --Lao Tzu
In order to break down all our beliefs about life and people and become completely anchored in our field of pure awareness, we must turn our attention inward. Once we become focused on what is going on inside of us, we are then able to confront every judgment, criticism, belief and idea head on.
It is only in this confrontation of ourselves that we are able to realize that every single one of our judgments of good/bad, right/wrong, acceptable/unacceptable is based on prior programming, which stems from how we were raised, or where we grew up or what books we read etc… However, our lowest common denominator exists PRIOR to this programming.
Whenever we find ourselves placing judgment on others or on the world we can be assured that we are not operating from lowest common denominator.
We must literally always point the finger back at ourselves anytime we find ourselves becoming frustrated, angry, offended because these emotions are always indicative that there is a preconceived belief of the way things SHOULD be, that is being triggered.
Once we become willing to confront these beliefs we are able to connect with a stream of inner stillness and silence that allows our authentic self to emerge.
Operating from our lowest common denominator won’t always be easy and will definitely take practice at first, especially for those of us who have become very attached to all of their ideas of who they think they are or should be.
When we are brave enough to confront ourselves and question every single belief down to the point that the false self cannot come up with even one more lie to try and make us believe in its validity, we are on the path to our authentic self.
Our authentic self gets to experience the present moment in its purest form, it gets to experience people and situations in their most raw and genuine way, the way they truly are before our thoughts step in with all their judgments and commentary on a situation.
When we start living this way we see the world through brand new eyes, through the eyes of a person who has no prior knowledge or judgment on anything, which means we start to live through our feelings and instincts and consequently the world becomes new and exciting all over again.
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