I have written many posts about faith that reflect the state of my practice at the time. My faith has developed from being reason-based to coming from my realizing truths from within myself. Even when I am following a teacher, deep faith comes not from respect or reason, but by meditating on the truths presented and coming too be aware of them from within, putting them in my own words. This is consistent with Buddhist teaching – faith comes first from the intellect and then from the heart.
For example, when I read my first Buddhist book, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Sogyal Rinpoche, the light bulb kept on going on in my head, "So that's why things are the way they are, or why I experience what I experience." The intellectual experience was very powerful and resulted in a strong faith, a certainty, in the Buddha dharma that supported me as I walked the path. But it was only many years later that I gradually learned those truths from within through meditation.and am still learning truths.
The simplest statement of my faith is that I believe that I will be ok, safe, regardless what the universe provides (or when or how) because I have returned home and will always return home to my true Buddha nature, am sustained by the love of God within me, know that the presence of Buddha/God, the universe, within me is the source of my supply of abundance and good fortune, empty myself of myself saying your will not mine, and so I am one with the presence of Buddha/the universe/my divinity within me and always experience abundance and light, peace and equanimity, happiness and contentment, faith and strength.
So faith concerns my existence; it is about my psychological safety, the safety of my spirit. Faith is not about whether I achieve something specific, whether something specific happens to me. I do express my heart's desires in very basic terms to the universe/my divinity/Buddha nature, and I let it decide how best to provide what I desire.
You may be surprised by my interchangeable use of the terms "Buddha," "God," and "the universe," but that reflects my realization that these forces are all one. Note that the "God" I refer to is not the God of the Old or New Testament; the father figure who one prays to and micromanages our lives. Instead, it is the essence of God that is within each person, the cosmic force, which is light, love, faith, trust, compassion, gratefulness, humility, joy, contentment, strength, courage, and wisdom See my post "Buddhism and the Divine."
In using the phrase, "whatever the universe provides," I am reflecting my experience as related in my post, "Happenstance." Although at the time I wrote that post, back in 2016, I had not come to the awareness that these happenstances don't just happen accidentally; there is some force in the universe that I connect to within me (Buddha, God, the universe) which presents opportunities to me and which I either follow up on, or not.
I do believe and have faith that the universe wants each individual to experience abundance and good fortune. If we don't, it's because the working of our mind presents a barrier to achieving that faith because it is grounded in fear. That is the mind's faith, and if that is what controls you, you will have no faith in your deserving and obtaining abundance and good fortune, and so you will not in fact obtain it. If you live in fear, what you fear will come to pass.
Note that abundance does not necessarily mean wealth. There are millions of people who are financially poor or suffer disaster who experience abundance and light because that comes from their faith, their self-knowledge. No material situation can take that away from them.
I have always said and written that faith is the beginning and end of spiritual practice. Without faith, one is lost, subject to the control of the mind/ego, and thus subject to all the fears and anxieties and perceptions that cause human suffering. It is faith that enables one to have positive energy regardless what is happening in life.
Some people may say this sounds like an opiate. Not so; opiates, drugs, obscure what one fears and so provide an escape. But when one has this faith, one is very aware of the circumstances of life, nothing is obscured, yet one doesn't obsess about it, one doesn't run from it. Instead, one is aware of the light within you regardless, that you have everything you need to be at peace and happy within you right now.
For example, when I read my first Buddhist book, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Sogyal Rinpoche, the light bulb kept on going on in my head, "So that's why things are the way they are, or why I experience what I experience." The intellectual experience was very powerful and resulted in a strong faith, a certainty, in the Buddha dharma that supported me as I walked the path. But it was only many years later that I gradually learned those truths from within through meditation.and am still learning truths.
The simplest statement of my faith is that I believe that I will be ok, safe, regardless what the universe provides (or when or how) because I have returned home and will always return home to my true Buddha nature, am sustained by the love of God within me, know that the presence of Buddha/God, the universe, within me is the source of my supply of abundance and good fortune, empty myself of myself saying your will not mine, and so I am one with the presence of Buddha/the universe/my divinity within me and always experience abundance and light, peace and equanimity, happiness and contentment, faith and strength.
So faith concerns my existence; it is about my psychological safety, the safety of my spirit. Faith is not about whether I achieve something specific, whether something specific happens to me. I do express my heart's desires in very basic terms to the universe/my divinity/Buddha nature, and I let it decide how best to provide what I desire.
You may be surprised by my interchangeable use of the terms "Buddha," "God," and "the universe," but that reflects my realization that these forces are all one. Note that the "God" I refer to is not the God of the Old or New Testament; the father figure who one prays to and micromanages our lives. Instead, it is the essence of God that is within each person, the cosmic force, which is light, love, faith, trust, compassion, gratefulness, humility, joy, contentment, strength, courage, and wisdom See my post "Buddhism and the Divine."
In using the phrase, "whatever the universe provides," I am reflecting my experience as related in my post, "Happenstance." Although at the time I wrote that post, back in 2016, I had not come to the awareness that these happenstances don't just happen accidentally; there is some force in the universe that I connect to within me (Buddha, God, the universe) which presents opportunities to me and which I either follow up on, or not.
I do believe and have faith that the universe wants each individual to experience abundance and good fortune. If we don't, it's because the working of our mind presents a barrier to achieving that faith because it is grounded in fear. That is the mind's faith, and if that is what controls you, you will have no faith in your deserving and obtaining abundance and good fortune, and so you will not in fact obtain it. If you live in fear, what you fear will come to pass.
Note that abundance does not necessarily mean wealth. There are millions of people who are financially poor or suffer disaster who experience abundance and light because that comes from their faith, their self-knowledge. No material situation can take that away from them.
I have always said and written that faith is the beginning and end of spiritual practice. Without faith, one is lost, subject to the control of the mind/ego, and thus subject to all the fears and anxieties and perceptions that cause human suffering. It is faith that enables one to have positive energy regardless what is happening in life.
Some people may say this sounds like an opiate. Not so; opiates, drugs, obscure what one fears and so provide an escape. But when one has this faith, one is very aware of the circumstances of life, nothing is obscured, yet one doesn't obsess about it, one doesn't run from it. Instead, one is aware of the light within you regardless, that you have everything you need to be at peace and happy within you right now.
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