Belief and faith are not the same thing. Belief is about knowing and faith is about not-knowing.
Belief is about content: I believe this, not that. I believe there is a God. I believe there is no God. I believe people are intrinsically good. I believe humanity is going to hell in a hand basket. I believe life holds purpose and meaning. I believe we just live, and then we die.
Faith is a completely different animal. Faith is an attitude toward reality, a trust in unfolding without knowing just what that is. Rabindranath Tagore described it as “the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark“.
To me, faith is fierce. You know that you don’t know, yet you choose to embrace the moment boldly, completely and without hesitation. This kind of fierce faith doesn’t shore up your beliefs. Rather, it strips you of belief and wraps you in a “cloud of unknowing”.
Moving willingly into this cloud of unknowing, this place of uncertainty beyond our ability to control, can be frightening.
Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of beginning. Probably that’s why we decide we’re done. It’s getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.” Natalie Goldberg
"You talked about the first principle again, but I still don't know what it is," I said to Suzuki.
Belief pertains to the head which is cerebral whereas faith relates to the heart, the seat of love and compassion.
Narayanan
There are many obstacles I believe I can conquer, but without faith, I always fail. Sometimes that faith comes from other people – Without faith many times our beliefs simply dwindle away. Sometime what we believe is simply not true, and our lack of faith serves to protect us. Excellent post!
Peace, Light, Love and Faith!
C.
thanks for stopping by, chap.18! Cordie – yeah. So much of what I have believed in the past is now in the trash. The thought of my lack of faith having a protective effect…that is a novel idea.
I consider myself a deeply religious person, though not a believer. I think faith is a critical component of contemplative practice, and it is the deepening awareness of the benefits in our own lives, and perhaps then checking back on the teachings to confirm our own direct experiential understanding, which continues to strengthen our faith. As J. Krisnamurti said, “Belief implies accepting as true what we don’t know. You never believe in the rising sun, it is there.”
You might appreciate Ken McLeod’s post on belief & faith. I never self-promote (but here I am, as a conduit only), but you may also be interested in some of these quotes I’ve been collecting…
Katherine- thank you for the thoughtful comment. Your blog looks very, very interesting and I will be coming by later when I have some time to read and visit. I’ll check out the links you gave, too. Thank you so much for that. Namaste.