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Introduction

"Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is" Bhagavad Gita, 500 BCE The question about what propels people, what makes people who they are has excited peoples' minds since the very beginning of the humanity. Bhagavad Gita gave his own point of view of this issue, saying that "Man is made by his belief. As he believes so he is". The words have been said more than 2 thousand years ago, are still relevant today. To evaluate how deeply I agree with the following quotation or not, first of all I have to understand what the meaning of the term "a belief" is. Belief is any state which is held to be true. In other words, our belief is exactly what we believe in. It's the way how we look at the world around us, the way how we perceive it. It is like a glass that we are looking through when we look at the world around us. Psychologists say that there are no 'bad' or 'good' things in our life, there's only our attitude to some facts. There's only an attitude which is a base of our beliefs. So does a man really is what he believes? ...read more.

Middle

Do I think that is right or not? Yes, I think that is right. Don't you remember the story about a lion cub who was brought up by a herd of sheep? As time went by the cub grew into a lion but thought himself to be a sheep! He believed that he was one of them. He used to eat grass like them and bleat. So even though he looked like a lion his behavior was that of a sheep because he believed so. From that example, I can make up a conclusion that perception of society influences on our beliefs, hence, influences on what we are. Another example is about all well-known Mowgli. He was born as a human child, but then, brought up as wolf. And for some time, before he met people, he believed that he was being a wolf, acted himself as wolf and perceived the world as a wolf. Years later, Mowgli is captured by the villagers and recognised as the lost child. Mowgli learns to speak and tries to imitate the ways of men, so the other people were trying to change his beliefs = change himself. ...read more.

Conclusion

It's like when you think you are a lady, you start acting like a lady and then you become a real lady since you believe you are one, and you act like one as well. There are lots of reports about how people got rid of dangerous diseases, set records and nearly impossible due to only one thing - their strongest belief that they can, really can do it. So, I think that I can assert thoughts are material. Thus, our beliefs make us what we are from the inside, they get us through our origins, and eventually they affect us from the external world. In conclusion, the premise "Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is" can be agreed with. I see now that beliefs are around us; they are inside of us and rule our lives by psychological, sociological and philosophical means, humans themselves are nothing but a biological machine created by nature (or perhaps by God, depending on a person's beliefs) and only our beliefs and thoughts fill us with life, let us be a fully developed unique socialized personalities. ...read more.

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