Q: Is becoming aware of the moment and following the practices to gain this awareness not just again another belief system?
A: This moment and what it contains - which is everything we require [not necessarily want] for this moment - is the only aspect of our experience in which something is actually unfolding. We are in its unfolding whether we choose to believe in it or not. When we live in the mentality of "yesterday and tomorrow" we remain, for the most part, unaware of the resonance of this moment. This eternally outwardly unfolding, and yet inwardly unaltered moment exists in spite of all our beliefs.
My definition of belief is: The concepts and thought forms I have received from others, or that I have made up myself through my thinking and analysis, which I blindly hold as being true. Beliefs seldom have any validity to them - they are only valid as a head-space - as a activator for impotent ritual - as a promise yet to be fulfilled.
Knowledge, on the other hand, is vibrational in-sight gained through direct, integrated, personal experience. Knowledge is birthed from having a direct integrated emotional, mental, and physical encounter. Belief is purely mental in content. Belief then manifests as activity which is empty of any impactful resonance because it does not arise out what we know - but out of what we hope or wish is true. Belief also tends to lean on the past and the future as its point of validation. "I am doing what I am doing now because I believe Jesus existed in the past and will come back in the future - because the Bible [or the priest] tells me so." Just because I believe something - even if I believe it with all my feeling, thinking, and doing - does not make it true. It is only true when I experience it directly.
The present moment as a vibrational terrain is beyond belief. To those who prefer to rely on belief systems - the validity of the present moment remains unbelievable. Also, whether any specific practice empowers us to enter present moment awareness cannot be validated by thinking or discussion - for then one is simply turning it into yet another belief. Only when we apply such a practice experientially - physically, mentally, and emotionally - do we real eyes whether it is valid or not. This application - which is the bridge we cross from believing into knowing - is what we call faith. When a practice empowers us with added present moment awareness - with added awareness of our own vibrational presence - it becomes something we know as true. It is no longer a belief.
So, one can sit on the sideline, amidst a mountain of belief systems, and discuss and debate these eternally. Or, one may experientially apply a present moment awareness practice and ascertain for oneself whether it is efficient or not. Initially, this step may require some belief. From this point of view, such practices are possibly empty beliefs. Because if they do not work - they are yet another belief.
However, the present moment as a "this, here, now" trinity of beingness exists - just as does the past and future as a "that, there, then" trinity of doingness. The one shows us what we forever are. The other shows us what is temporary and passing. It is our choice with which state we choose to identify and embrace as the point of causality for our current experience.
The bottom line is this: Your direct experience is the only barometer of validation useful in answering your question.
