Belief vs. Faith

Do you believe in enlightenment? Do you believe what Castaneda wrote? Do you believe that the sun is coming up tomorrow morning? Do you believe in such a thing as a 'Nagual?' 

When questions like this arise in our life, the thing we always need to find out is: What difference would it make in my practice if I knew the answer to this?

But I think that before we can answer this important question, we have to take a look at how we are using language. A comment as an example: "...do you believe we have a purpose in life?"

I don't "believe" that we do, and I don't "believe" that we don't have a purpose. There is a big difference between the word "belief" and the word "faith." When I believe something to be so, then I tend to see everything as if it backs up that belief, and distrust or reject anything that clearly doesn't support that belief. In other words, belief is narrowing down, or limiting, of that which can be experienced "as it is."

Whereas if I have faith, there doesn't need to be any object of that faith. Faith is an opening, an acceptance, and it provides an ability to be with whatever arises in confidence. So belief is quite limiting and therefore somewhat dangerous, while faith is freeing.

So, now let's return to the important question: "How will this help me in my practice to know this?" What is my practice?

My practice is to be completely present in this moment and to experience whatever arises fully. And that's it. There is nothing more, because everything else is imagined or constructed. We have sensation, we have emotion, and we have thought. All three of these arise, often simultaneously, and we invariably take them to be fact, while actually, they are only the movement of energy.

If we look, we can notice that there is an awareness that is aware of all these movements, but is not a part of them, and is not effected directly by them. This awareness we tend to call "I", but when we fall into this awareness, we find no "thing" there that could be identified as an "I" or a "person" or a "body". It is the direct experience of this causeless awareness experiencing itself that is the purpose of my practice.

So, I suppose I can say that I believe and have faith in being present in this moment and experience whatever arises fully. My purpose is the focus of my attention at this moment.

TMMK