Different Perspectives on the Meaning of Faith

I discovered an American Public Media episode, "The Meaning of Faith" (on the program Speaking of Faith), which includes 4 guests representing 4 different religious perspectives: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

Each guest grapples with the meaning of faith. It's a fantastic way to spend way to spend 52 minutes - I highly urge you to listen when you have the time.

Meanwhile, here are a few snippets to ponder and to entice you:

• Faith is the "courage to step forward into the unknown" and "admit that we don't know", yet to still have an "open-hearted participation in life" [this is my favorite definition]
  
• Faith is "like a journey" and "an unfolding of the heart that's based on our love for ourselves and being able to reach out to others and let others reach out to us, to have a bigger picture of life where there's a sense of belonging and connection instead of feeling so alone and apart." [this is my other favorite]
  
• Doubt and questioning are built into faith.
• The opposite of faith is despair, not doubt.
• When we hold onto our beliefs too tightly, they do not take us on to a place of greater faith.
• Faith is "bigger than belief or not belief."
• Rather, faith is "an abiding trust that the way things are working out is part of something bigger and probably incomprehensible." [this rings most closely to how I've thought of faith over the years]
  
• Faith follows action.
• "Our commonality comes from passionately clinging to our uniqueness and our individuality and our difference."
• "Faith is a verb", "it's really an action word, faith is."
• Faith speaks to "a belief and an interest in matters that are spiritual rather than the institution and creeds that you associate with religion."
• "People of faith and spiritual communities understand that everyone is a child of God"
  

Pondering the Meaning of Faith

Last night, C, T and I were discussing the meaning of "faith". Traditionally, this word is associated with a lack of rationality, with a blind trust. T asked something like, doesn't faith inherently mean trusting in something that can't be proven? Sure, I agree that this is true. But I don't necessarily think that faith should be irrational. So how can we use reason to develop trust in something we ultimately can't understand?

Kahlil Gibran, one of my favorite writers to whom I often turn for guidance in understanding what I cannot, describes faith in the following way:
“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.”

Suffice it to say, I interpret this to mean that faith is not something we will ever be able to fully understand with our minds, but something that we know with our hearts. Faith involves belief in something that cannot be proven. Yet, how can we understand this quote without giving into the notion that faith is irrational? Just because our brains can't fully comprehend something doesn't mean that we shouldn't use reason to come closer to understanding the truth. Perhaps one interpretation of this quote could be that our brains alone, without the heart to guide us in our path, will certainly never come close to understanding faith.

What do others think?

Faith, a poem

Faith
-by David Whyte, from Where Many Rivers Meet

I want to write about faith,
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night,

faithful even as it fades from fullness,
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness.

But I have no faith myself
I refuse it even the smallest entry.

Let this then, my small poem,
like a new moon, slender and barely open,
be the first prayer that opens me to faith.

On the Path of Faith

Thanks to L for sending me this quote related to certitude. It provides some clear guidance about the importance of detachment for developing certitude and faith.

"…they that tread the path of faith, they that thirst for the wine of certitude, must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly - their ears from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from worldly affections, their eyes from that which perisheth."
- Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 1

Faith and Deeds

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." James 2:14-17

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24-27

Clarity of Vision and Perseverence

"...With clear vision we are enabled to struggle onward and upward, ever progressing in the paths of virtue and holiness, and becoming the means of light to the world." -'Abdu'l-Bahá

In the past 4 days I rediscovered how powerful it can be to mindfully set intentions (see my 9/5/08 post), for with purity of heart and divine guidance, it's hard to go astray when we have clarity of vision!

The above quote feels highly relevant to me in light of three key questions that came up over the weekend at a retreat on Mt. Hermon that I had the privilege of attending with my dear friend, M.

1) What is my next step of faith? I found this question to be very powerful, and also practical. A step of faith doesn't imply a leap -- each one of us can open our hearts to little baby steps of faith every day. And by faith I don't mean blind faith; rather, I understand it to mean seeking to further align our actions with the teachings that have been revealed to us through humanity's greatest teachers, whom Baha'is refer to as the "Manifestations" (a.k.a. folks like Jesus Christ, the Buddha, Krishna, Mohamed, Abraham...)
2) What dreams do I have that I need to hand back over to God? Having clarity about our dreams is the first step in learning to detach them being fulfilled only in our narrowly prescribed way/time frame. But, as I was discussing with my stepmom last night, detaching doesn't mean giving up one's vision/dreams. One still perseveres... while also leaving room for "God's final authority" to answer our dreams in a way that leads to our greatest spiritual growth.
3) In what things is God asking us to persevere? Again, it seems necessary to first clarify what things God really has destined for us. Or, one could pray to be shown in what things to persevere. It seems that questions 2 and 3 are intricately connected.
I'd love to hear folks' thoughts on how we go about clarifying the answers to any of these questions. I will say, from my experience this weekend and the rewards of the efforts of preparing for today, that setting clear intentions definitely helps!!!

Exploring Faith, Recognition, Obedience and Openness

The idea of faith is something I’m still struggling to get my head around. For most of my life I have thought of Faith as necessarily involving some act of blind trust. In fact, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has told us quite explicitly that faith should not be blind:

“By faith is meant, first, conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds.” -‘Abdu’l-Bahá

The first time I read this quote I wondered if the ordering of the sentence, with conscious knowledge “first,” was to be taken literally – a.k.a. that conscious knowledge is a precursor for us to be able to truly practice good deeds. I actually see this as a sort of chicken and the egg kind of problem: conscious knowledge and good deeds are mutually reinforcing – we consciously know things by experiencing them through our deeds, and conscious knowledge through investigation the holy writings also guides our actions by providing us with an ideal standard for our deeds.

I find that this relationship between knowledge and deeds is further illuminated by the following passage, which L recently directed me to:

“The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation. Whoso achieveth this duty hath attained unto all good; and whoso is deprived thereof hath gone astray, though he be the author of every righteous deed. It behoveth every one who reacheth this most sublime station, this summit of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world. These twin duties are inseparable. Neither is acceptable without the other. Thus hath it been decreed by Him Who is the Source of Divine inspiration.” (Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 19)

Here, “recognition” and obedience (“observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world”) are noted as being “inseparable.” For me, this dynamic relationship between recognition and obedience and the inseparability of the two is the underlying point. Simply saying you believe things or merely recognizing them with your brain means little if your actions do not work in accordance with that belief. This quote also states that the opposite is true: simply doing goodly deeds is insufficient without the recognition of God. That seems a bit hard to grasp, no? For me personally, this is far more challenging to accept (because aren’t good deeds still good without recognition of God?) This makes so much sense in today’s context, but this ignores an investigation of the origin of how certain deeds have normatively arisen to be good for society… which I understand to be through the teachings of various incredibly wise teachers throughout history… Manifestations, prophets, whatever you want to call them...

Brief aside: I do wonder to what extent recognition is here meant to be the same as “conscious knowledge,” for that would certainly be more in line with how I’ve understood the notion of faith through the Christian perspective. That is to say, while one should investigate the writings and teachings of any manifestation as much as possible, at some point one consciously chooses (or not) to recognize/accept those teachings as being reflective of God. I’d be curious to hear others’ thoughts about whether this is what is meant by conscious knowledge?

Coming back to the quote from The Aqdas, one must be careful in reading this not to put a fundamentalist bent to it… even when we accept certain teachings as the truth and work to align our deeds as much as possible with those teachings, we should always be open to being proven wrong, be open to a new truth emerging. This is absolutely necessary because, as humans, our understanding of the truth is always going to be partial. At one of my recent visits to Bosch, we were discussing this relationship between recognition and obedience. R mentioned that recognizing and obeying simultaneously is obviously very challenging. There might be times where we’re better able to align our deeds with the “ordinance” of Bahá’u’lláh (or Christ, or Buddha, etc.) but we’re struggling with the recognition and conscious knowledge part of the equation. Similarly, the reverse can be true. Dear wayfarers, I do not think we should despair when this is the case. Bahá’u’lláh is providing us with an ideal standard towards which we should work, and clearly this is incredibly hard to attain with perfection. My sense, from my own experience, is that the more that we’re able to make progress in one of these dimensions, the more likely we are to progress in the other dimension as well. Perhaps the twin nature of the inseparability of recognition and obedience could even be interpreted to mean that progress in one dimension inherently implies progress in another… what do others think?

To close, I was recently incredibly relieved and comforted to read the following quote by Shoghi Effendi, which also provides a useful warning to heed us from fanaticism.

“It must be remembered, however, that the maintenance of such a high standard of moral conduct is not to be associated or confused with any form of asceticism, or of excessive and bigoted puritanism. The standard inculcated by Bahá’u’lláh seeks, under no circumstances, to deny anyone the legitimate right and privilege to derive the fullest advantage and benefit from the manifold joys, beauties, and pleasures with which the world has been so plentifully enriched by an All-Loving Creator. ‘Should a man,’ Bahá’u’lláh Himself reassures us, ‘wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him. Eat ye, O people, of the good things which God hath allowed you, and deprive not yourselves from His wondrous bounties. Render thanks and praise unto Him, and be of them that are truly thankful.’"
-Shoghi Effendi (The Advent of Divine Justice)

Between Faith and Doubt

Yesterday my mom was telling me about the sermon given at Elim that morning. In it, the pastor drew from the following gospel reading about Jesus walking on water.

Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance[a] from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

The most striking part of this reading, said Pastor P., is not so much what it reveals about God but what it reveals about man. Each one of us, like Peter, is caught between faith and doubt. Though I didn’t hear the details of the sermon, this message struck me.

Surely it must be true. Each one of us is at different points along the continuum between faith and doubt, between certainty and uncertainty. Furthermore, each one of us moves forward and backward along the continuum at different points in time. I’m still sorting out what we must do to move closer to faith; surely our actions (to the extent that we are able to follow the teachings of Jesus or the other Manifestations) become reinforcing of our progress.
How often we, like Peter, let our fears overcome us in the present and even detach ourselves from evidence of our progress even as it’s happening right before our eyes. Our fears become blinders.
A bunch of metaphors for this very human way of progressing come to mind, but I’ll mention just one (humbly admitting that nothing I can come up is quite as powerful of this message of the Gospel). When climbing a cinder cone volcano, one takes two steps forward and slides one step back pretty much the whole way up. Such a hike is quite arduous (I think I’ll avoid all cinder cones in the future). Yet, with patience, faith, determination, and effort, we can reach the summit.