What is gained from our five senses? Our eyes let us see the world, our noses let us smell the world near to us, our ears let us hear a small range of noises, and our skin lets us touch, and our tongue lets us taste. All of these physical senses help us to build our picture of the world. Yet, there is no meaning to anything that we see, hear, smell, taste or touch. Only when the brain comes into play, and attaches some meaning to these sensory inputss does the world begin to make sense to us. Essentially, what we get from the senses is converted into small electrical impulses within the brain and this is all. Then, the brain attaches some sort of meaning to the the sensory event. Consider a news item that tells of a stock market crash. Various people will give this event different meanings. The stock broker sees doom and disaster, the banker see opportunity and fortune, the share holders fear they will lose money. Nobody will argue over the event itself, however, arguments will develop over the meaning of the event. So how are these meanings can be so different to different people. What is the process by which we attach meaning to events in our lives if the events themselves, have no meaning. The simple answer is that we perceive events with our beliefs, and with these beliefs, we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, thereby creating the world around us. WHAT??!! We are the creators?? YES! When we rely on the sense's to build our version of existence, we must keep in mind that this is only OUR OWN version. Others will have a different version of events, the world, and all of existence, based on their own beliefs. If you smell a rose and think the smell is sweet, and another person smells the same flower, and believes your rose is a daisy, they will have a different experience, different meaning. You have made the sensory input mean that the object before you is a sweet smelling rose, another person has used their sensory input to mean the object a no too pretty smelling daisy. Hold up!!! Didn't you just say "Nobody will argue over the event itself" I hear you say. That is correct. You are not arguing over the event, rather, over the belief system behind the meaning you have given the event. The flower is a rose or a daisy, depending on the belief of the person. We can argue over this however, this is not the source of the conflict, the belief system is the source. One person believes the flower is a rose, another that the flower is a daisy. The brain processes input differently depending on the belief system of the individual. So, is the object a rose or a daisy? We have been trained from birth to interpret and give meaning to events. Many wars have been fought and millions upon millions of people have died because they believed the object was a daisy. Had they realised the truth, and focused on the differences in their beliefs, and what they were fighting over was simply their own interpretation of meaningless sensory input, would they have so readily given up their lives? We accept our perceptions as truth, when what the are is merely our own interpretation based on our beliefs. This is our conditioning, and when problems arise in our lives, we react in a manner we have learned to a stimulus that is has no meaning. When two groups are in conflict, the differences in the belief systems are the issue, not whether the object is a rose or a daisy. Imagine if your entire reality were based on a bunch of meaningless impulses that you have patched together with a set of beliefs. This provides a shaky foundation for existence. If you climbed a old ladder (our beliefs) to paint a picture on a wall of a rose or a daisy, and then somebody came along and started to shake the ladder, how would you feel? Shaking the foundations of existance can be terrifying. If your reality is simply a set of beliefs of meaningless impulses and somebody challenges those beliefs, where are you left? This is why people fight to the death, because they fear they will cease to exist, and/or die if the ladder collapses. By protecting our beliefs, we protect our version of reality, which is created from the meaningless impulses. The beliefs act as an anchor, or attachment to meaningless sensory impulses. So, the question remains, is the object a rose or a daisy? Hopefully by now you are asking yourself what is the difference in our beliefs that one perceives a rose, and the other perceives a daisy. The answer is neither. Our beliefs build a framework in which we mold the sensory input to fit within our framework. Our reality is based upon seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling with our beliefs. This is why the people cling so tightly to their beliefs. Not only is their belief being challenge, but their very reality. This is what they fight for. Now imagine, I know you can as you have been doing this all your life, imagine a group or community, or even a country full of people who all conform to the same set of beliefs. They all perceive the world in a similar manner. This is great for limiting internal conflict, as there is a collective belief of how the world looks, feels etc. Knowing that our world and reality is created by these beliefs, a community or country will have difficulties when problems arise. Because, as a group, the community sees their collective reality as one, they cannot approach a problem from the view of another. When a person, community or country allows the possibility of another set of beliefs, and thus another reality, only then can they begin to view the world from another view point. When the view of the world is limited to a single belief, the ability to see problems is limited, and thus the ability to resolve them is limited also. I can hear the grinding of the gears as your brain asks "But if thinking alike is not good, and thinking differently results in conflict, how can we exist?". Balance is the key here. Conflict is inevitable with different beliefs. However, when we focus on the different beliefs, we see that we are simply re-interpreting the same reality. In this space lays the solution to conflict resolution. By focusing on the beliefs, rather than the interpretation, we can find common ground and make way for any belief.