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the five spiritual faculties: faith
May. 12th, 2019 04:54 pmContinuing the previous post on the five faculties:
"Faith" is a word that has become a dirty word in a certain segment of society, one in which I frequently find myself: politically progressive people, concerned with social justice, and largely agnostic or atheistic or both. The word has come to mean "believing in something without evidence", and even theists seem to argue with this meaning when they counter that atheists must also have faith to believe there are no gods. To me (an atheist), this seems to largely miss the entire point of faith, which is much richer and more beautiful than simply believing or disbelieving something.
Faith is not simply believing something. It's believing in something, it's having a conviction which provides you with psychological and spiritual nourishment, from which you can draw strength. Now, it is the case that faith can become poisonous. The conviction that your viewpoint is the absolute truth can lead to forcing that viewpoint on others, and acting in ways that harm others because you believe you are right. This is faith out of balance; faith needs to be tempered by wisdom, and kindness, and compassion.
Buddhism is different from other faiths, because we don't put our faith in a deity. Indeed, this sets us apart from all of the other religions. For virtually every other religion, there is some loving, all-powerful God, and the goal is for the adherent to enter into a relationship with that God, and from their faith in that God, they draw the strength and derive wisdom that leads to their self-improvement. They have to deal with the problem of suffering, of course, but it's almost ancillary: It arises because if there's an all-powerful, loving God, why would that God allow suffering to occur? An explanation must be devised, and rooted in the faith (as well as in the natural human capacities upon which both Buddhism and humanism rely), a solution found, generally involving the God in some way.
In Buddhism, our starting point is the existence of suffering. It isn't a side-quest that we go on in our greater quest for understanding God. Understanding suffering and achieving liberation from it is the quest. So, then, what role does faith play?
( Read more... )
"Faith" is a word that has become a dirty word in a certain segment of society, one in which I frequently find myself: politically progressive people, concerned with social justice, and largely agnostic or atheistic or both. The word has come to mean "believing in something without evidence", and even theists seem to argue with this meaning when they counter that atheists must also have faith to believe there are no gods. To me (an atheist), this seems to largely miss the entire point of faith, which is much richer and more beautiful than simply believing or disbelieving something.
Faith is not simply believing something. It's believing in something, it's having a conviction which provides you with psychological and spiritual nourishment, from which you can draw strength. Now, it is the case that faith can become poisonous. The conviction that your viewpoint is the absolute truth can lead to forcing that viewpoint on others, and acting in ways that harm others because you believe you are right. This is faith out of balance; faith needs to be tempered by wisdom, and kindness, and compassion.
Buddhism is different from other faiths, because we don't put our faith in a deity. Indeed, this sets us apart from all of the other religions. For virtually every other religion, there is some loving, all-powerful God, and the goal is for the adherent to enter into a relationship with that God, and from their faith in that God, they draw the strength and derive wisdom that leads to their self-improvement. They have to deal with the problem of suffering, of course, but it's almost ancillary: It arises because if there's an all-powerful, loving God, why would that God allow suffering to occur? An explanation must be devised, and rooted in the faith (as well as in the natural human capacities upon which both Buddhism and humanism rely), a solution found, generally involving the God in some way.
In Buddhism, our starting point is the existence of suffering. It isn't a side-quest that we go on in our greater quest for understanding God. Understanding suffering and achieving liberation from it is the quest. So, then, what role does faith play?
( Read more... )