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Faith - Without It One Is Lost

7/21/2025

An ancient Chinese Poem, "Affirming Faith in Mind," contains the passage, "When faith and mind are not separate, and not separate are mind and faith, this is beyond all words, all thought, for here there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow."

Over the years I have come to realize the wisdom of that poem. Living a spiritual life is all about faith—faith and humility. If faith is not at the core of your practice, you will not become free of your ego-mind regardless how disciplined your practice is and how far you've come in adopting the various practices, such as The Heart's Embrace, that I have recommended in this blog and in my books.

Without faith, you cannot follow the Serenity Prayer—accepting the things you cannot change, the way things are at the moment, and the courage to change the things you can (see my post, "The Serenity Prayer"). Without faith, you cannot implement the Acceptance Prayer (see my post "Acceptance Is The Answer").

But if faith is at the core, then a truly spiritual life becomes possible. Nothing will press your buttons and you will view all things with equanimity.

As for what is faith, see my post, " Faith - What Is It and Why Is It Essential?" I can say no more about faith than I have in my previous posts.

But I do need to once more emphasize the fundamental importance of faith. There's a Bach chorale, based on a hymn by Martin Luther, titled, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," which translates as "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." While the hymn's words are about the power of God, the same could be said of the power of faith, of faith in the god within us, in the child of the Universe within us. Indeed, a mighty fortress is our faith.

This faith just is. It is not a function of the mind, of rational thought. It is a function of one's belief in the divinity within you, the Buddha nature within you, the child of the universe within you. These are supernatural thoughts that have no grounding in rationality. They just are.

But how does one come to have faith then? As with many Buddhist beliefs, It does start with rational thought. When I read my first Buddhist book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche, the light bulb kept on going on in my head, "So that's why I [whatever]," or "So that's why [whatever] is the way it is." After reading that book, I had a very deep and completely rational faith in the Buddha dharma. But that didn't get me very far in my spiritual practice.

Only after years of meditating, did I begin to experience the truths of the dharma from within myself. It just happens. Then about 5 years ago, I came to the realization that Buddhism and the Buddha are inextricably connected to the unknowable power in the universe, the divine force. Buddha nature and divine essence are in fact one. (See my post, "Buddhism and the Divine.")

And it is this, somewhat heretical, belief that has enabled me, after several more years of meditation, to experience faith from within. No matter what is happening around me, no matter how my ego-mind tries to distract me, I have found that my faith is unshakeable. I know that things are the way they are at this moment because it's just the way it is; it is meant to be and all is ok (see my post. "It's Just the Way It Is - Take III"). And I know that I will be ok, safe spiritually, regardless what happens in my life because I will always come home to my true Buddha nature, to the child of the Universe within me, and so be at peace and happy.

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Acceptance - Or Else

7/9/2025

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There are all sorts of reasons why people, including those on the Buddhist path, do not accept their life as it is at this moment or was in the past. We are angry and self-righteous about how we have been dealt with, mistreated, whether by our family or the world. And for most people, displaying that anger is a way of defending themselves, of saying I'm not going to put up with this anymore.

But what does the lack of acceptance accomplish? How does it move one's life forward? The answer is that it does not move one's life forward.

It does nothing but cause suffering because lack of acceptance is the source of our cravings. And cravings are the source of our fear of what will happen if we don't achieve what we feel we must have. And it is that very fear that holds us back from doing what we need to do to achieve our goals; fear incapacitates us. As the saying goes, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Thus ironically, our lack of acceptance actually makes it almost impossible for us to escape our current situation. On the other hand, if one accepts the present and the past as being just the way it is/was, you are put in a calm, relaxed state.

Before going further, I must clarify for you what "acceptance" means or implies, because there is a lot of misunderstanding and that is a large part of the problem. It does not mean saying that you feel something is good, fair, or right. It does not mean forgiveness. It just means saying, that's the way it is. No value judgment. You can feel that something is wrong, but at the same time say it's just the way it is. The point is to have equanimity about it, rather than an emotional reaction.

For example, let's say you were neglected as a child Acceptance means saying that it's just the way it was. You feel it was wrong, you feel hurt, but you do not react emotionally. You do what you need to do now, calmly, to make yourself strong. Just to be clear, though, revenge is never an unemotional response, even if you proceed calmly. You are hurting someone.

When you practice acceptance, nothing about the past or the present offends you. So you are able to approach your life and any changes you choose to make with equanimity. Such desires do not generate fear because your attitude is not, "I must have this." Instead, it's "It's great if it happens, but if it doesn't, that's ok too." And so you are able to exercise good judgment, act in your best interest, and be more likely to achieve your goal.

Lack of acceptance is being self-indulgent. Acceptance is being strong. Lack of acceptance brings suffering. Acceptance brings peace.

You have a choice to make. Which will it be?

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