|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
A Modest Proposal
May 11, 2003 Where do I find faith? In the April 2003 Modest Proposal, I wrote, “Believe and you shall receive,” as the backbone of manifesting whatever I need in life. Faith is a step up beyond belief. Faith may be somewhat tainted as a bit old fashioned, but I think it is a great word and still in style. It can move mountains, we are told. Maybe so, but I have no mountains that I feel need to be moved, so in this commentary, I am going to look at faith in everyday life. From my way of looking at spiritual evolution, its associated practices and principles need to be applicable to day-to-day life if they are to benefit my journey. Faith is not for the weak hearted or weak kneed. Having faith requires a solid grounding in whatever it is that I am investing my energy. Faith contains an element of assuredness that may not be present in belief. For example, I can believe that waging war is not in the highest and best interest of our world. I can have that belief and go about my daily life without another thought about it. If I have faith that war is not in the highest and best interest of our world, I raise the ante. How is this so? To believe is having a knowing about something. If I don’t have a clock, and someone asks me what time it is, I can say, “I believe it is two PM.” That is, based on whatever means I have for telling time, I think it is two PM. To have faith is to go beyond knowing to understanding, to certainty, whether I have a timepiece or not. If I answer the “what time is it” question from a position of faith, I might say, “It is two PM,” without condition or equivocation. What enables me to go from belief to faith?” In this example, you might be tempted to say, “Get a watch, duh?” That is an answer for this example that works; however, lots of times, there is no answer that is that tangible. Do I believe in God, or do I have faith that there is God? Do I believe that when I die my essence is immortal and simply shifts energy states, or do I have faith that this will happen? These and many other “belief or faith” questions taunted me for decades, after I started believing in God, and dangled metaphysical carrots in front of my empty, air grasping hands. Belief is a comfortable resting place on my spiritual journey. It is tempting to hang out there and go no further. Consequently, I (and many, many others) have lots of comfortable beliefs that I use to shape my view of the physical and metaphysical worlds. What is lacking is commitment. When I commit to a belief, I enter the realm of faith. Because of some of the work that I do now, I read a lot of metaphysical-oriented work. Some of it is presented in such a definite and forceful style, that I begin to think that the article is written from faith. But, then I wonder, is the author writing from faith or a belief that is rooted in fear? Herein lurks the “belief booby trap.” The “belief booby trap” is one that I set for myself when I need others to buy into my belief. I want others to buy into my beliefs so that they will hold me in high esteem, and thus apply a little, topical anesthesia to the pain of feeling that I am not worthy. “If I can get my readers to believe that I have THE answers, then I have built a wall around my low self-esteem over which they cannot see. I am safe… for a while. (Is that why I keep writing articles and commentaries?) Sometimes, it is difficult for me to assess a writer or speaker’s faith in what they present. As always, my old standby, discernment, is needed to make the call. If I really listen to my discernment, my inner understanding divorced from ego, then the answer I receive is valid. Now and then, a reader not only takes issue with what I write, but questions my IQ and parentage. I must admit that sometimes I feel as if I have been punched in the stomach. Even though, I know enough to know that it is my ego that received the blow, there is that precious moment when I know that the reader has seen through the wall protecting my low self-esteem and knows me for who I perceive I am – a person unworthy of loving acceptance. Wow! Although I have healed my major emotional wounds, the reflexes they left behind continue to be triggered by karmic moments that I need to process. They are now easier and faster to resolve with loving acceptance. This is explained in more detail in my book, A Tao of God, along with an explanation of emotional wounding and the healing process. When did my faith grow wings and take off? Answer: in that case, faith was never there; if it was present when I opened the fateful email, I would have simply and lovingly accepted the reader’s comment and gone on my way. I experienced yet another “karmic moment” when I am on the cusp of how will I process the seeming attack on my worthiness? Will, I find my faith in what I wrote and lovingly accept the reader’s insults, or will I begin crafting a biting reply to the jerk who dared assault my words? It is an interesting moment to experience as are all karmic moments, big or small, when I have awareness of them. There is that boogey-principal again, awareness. My, but awareness does haunt me, and that is good. I need reminders. Let’s bend around in a full circle in this belief - faith model. To believe is to accept something. To have faith is to understand that something is. The difference between the two is commitment. When I have faith, I am committed to the existence of that in which I have faith. More simply, belief = probably; faith = certainty. Belief
makes me seem knowledgeable. Belief is a rest area on my spiritual journey; faith is the fuel that takes me forward. Belief is not wrong, bad, or evil. Beliefs are important to us for they are the foundation for faith. First comes belief, then faith. The essence of using belief in spiritual evolution is to realize what is present in a belief in contrast to faith. Having faith raises the ante, but not every belief needs to be fired in faith and shaped on the anvil of experience – just the ones that are the foundation of who we define ourselves to be. So, Ron, is anything that you write, written in faith, or is it all belief? I admit that some of what I write does come from belief. That is why there is the DISCLAIMER at the end of this commentary. There is other writing that I do that comes from faith, and so, I am committed to the principles and practices that I present. The book that I recently finished, A Tao Of God, is completely written from faith. I am committed to every word in it, and it took quite some time to put to paper because I tested each practice and principle for my faith in them. Is it true or is it TRUE? All of it is TRUE for me, and that is what is important to me. What is important for you is that you understand what you are faithful to. When you do that, life becomes a lot simpler and easier. DISCLAIMER: This Modest Proposal provides a way of thinking about its subject by viewing it from the perspective of love and acceptance through creating awareness that we all have choices in every moment. It does not intend to dictate to the reader that he or she should blindly accept or reject the suggestions presented in the commentary. It, as in all things, should be evaluated with discernment. May
you discern well,
|
