Faith and Belief

As one thinks within his heart, so he is. – Proverbs 23:7

`Ja hoye jay’ (`Whatever comes to pass is all right.’)  - Sri Anandamayi Ma

Comedian W. C. Fields once stated, “A man has to believe it something and I believe I’ll have another drink.”  Poor W. C. suffered from what many of us today believe is a disease popularly referred to as alcoholism.  This term was coined by a Swedish physician in 1849 and “the disease theory of alcoholism” was further developed by American physician E. Morton Jellinek who went on to outline the progressive stages of this disease.  Because his research has become so influential, alcoholism is also referred to as “Jellinek’s disease.”  Despite Jellinek’s research many people continue to deny that alcoholism, or addiction in general, can be described as a disease.  Interestingly, an important aspect of recovery involves faith in a “higher power.”  So we have the case of a questionable illness which can be managed (it is considered “incurable”) by a belief in what many consider to be an even more questionable concept. 

If we consider the world we live in in terms of our perception of it (and there is really no other world we live in) then we realize that it is all based on our beliefs.  As Jesus (purportedly) taught, "There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.” (Mark 7:15 – 16)  It is our thoughts, our beliefs and our desires which constitute the world of our experience.  These constitute our “vibrational level.”  If we consider an alcoholic as having a disease we might tend to feel more compassionate, after all we all know what it is like to be sick.  If we consider her to be in control of her behavior then we might consider her to be a “scumbag” and feel bitter and resentful.  Moreover, the way the person suffering from the disease views him or herself affects his or her ability to get help and to recover.

A few centuries before Christ, Buddha (purportedly) made the pronouncement, “The mind is everything.  What you think you become.”  Of course, Buddha didn’t arrive out of nowhere, he was the product of millennia of Vedic tradition.  The gist of these ancient “secrets” as reflected in the teachings of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, is that our inner world-view directly affects who we are and the world we live in.  In spiritual terms, our egos are basically a collection of conscious and unconscious beliefs.  We are our belief-systems.  Our world is the display of these beliefs.  This is also what the twentieth century movement of cognitive therapy teaches.  Fortunately this is not the entire story.  If it were we wouldn’t have much of a chance of awakening.

We do have access to a higher power.  We open it through faith and surrender.  Whether the ego is invested in how wonderful or how f’ed up we think we are faith opens us to the field of infinite potential, the abode of miracles.  It opens us to our true potential.  In this sense we can draw a distinction between belief and faith.  Belief in this sense is a closed intellectual interpretation.  When we “believe” we think we know what is, how it is and who we are.  Faith is the openness of the heart which is willing to see beyond limited interpretations, harsh judgments and intellectual pride.  We can’t really define who or what God, Self, Higher Power or even Reality is, only be aware that It is present and operating in our lives.  Paradoxically enough it might be working in our lives as our own power of belief.

Way back there in 1970s I became familiar with the work of John C. Lilly, a physician and psychoanalyst who went on to push the envelope and explore consciousness in new ways which included psychedelic drugs, flotation tanks, and human-dolphin communication.  He developed the concept of the “human bio-computer” to describe our mind/brains.  Through his research as a “psychonaut,” another term he invented, he attempted to explore the limits of human consciousness.  He came up with a formula for understanding the potential of consciousness, "In the province of the mind,” he writes, “what is believed to be true is true, or becomes true within certain limits to be learned by experience and experiment. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind, there are no limits."  (1972, The Center of the Cyclone)

We might try to more succinctly state this as “all beliefs are relative,” but it leaves out too much.  Our beliefs are the formulae through which we make sense of ourselves and our world.  We actually begin doing this at a very early age.  According to Thomas Bowlby, the founding pioneer of Attachment theory, each of us begins to develop an inner working model (IWM) of self and others in infancy based on our relationships with our primary caregivers.  The roots of our inner models are visceral, based in primary survival emotions and pre-verbal.  On this most basic level our beliefs are what enable us to survive.  Research has shown that our early attachment styles can dramatically influence the course of our lives.  Rather than astrology we might want to consider our early attachment patterns as predictors of our futures. 

Belief is closely associated with attachment, both in the sense of modern theory and the yogic concept.  We are first and foremost identified with our primary belief systems, our IWMs.  It really doesn’t have anything to do with objects, instead with our internal representation of them.  The self of self-psychology is really an internal representation as well.  It is us looking at ourselves in the symbolic mirror of the mind.  Because we are biologically and culturally predicated towards seeing and accepting the world through the medium of our symbolic representations it is scary to let go of those personal psychic artifacts that may be holding us hostage. 

Faith means letting go, opening up to the inner expanse of being which is undefined and indefinable.  We might do this in a number of ways but meditation is a discipline which allows us to do this more often and more consistently.  When we open to the true expansiveness of our being we experience a bliss which is beyond any “high.”  Faith means opening to infinite potential, possibility and intelligence.  For the ego this might seem overwhelming, even terrifying.  However when we are willing to surrender ego we discover our authentic being.  A belief is something we cling to, faith means letting go.

Abhyasa and Vairagya: Consistency and Nonattachment

Success in meditation comes through consistent practice and nonattachment. 

– Patanjali

Often attendees at a meditation workshop will ask me, “How can I make my mind be still?”  This usually happens after I have spent some time introducing and training them in an approach to practice.  It seems we all want a magic pill.  We want quick and easy results.  Sometimes we do have sudden breakthroughs, moments of grace when the mind becomes still and we marvel at the joy and beauty of pure being.  Then we “come down” and it’s back to the grindstone.  Many times I have had people report feelings of extraordinary peace, tingles of energy moving through them, or some such.  Then I don’t see them again. 

It’s not so much that I wish to keep them as students but I suspect that they go back to their regular patterns of stress accumulation.  The truth is that we’ve got to keep at it, be committed to spiritual practice for it to “work.”  Remember the old self-growth cliché?  “It only works when you do.”  As Swami Satyananda once put it, “I can teach you a method in a few minutes but it might take years for you to realize the results.”  Dammit, we might need to develop qualities which are increasingly vanishing in our society, like patience and perseverance.  It might be fun to fly to the top of a mountain and enjoy the view but is something different to experience the journey step by step.  The only we can sustain progress in terms of psycho-spiritual development is step by step. 

Patience is profoundly important.  Our minds have a tendency to keep rushing forward into an imagined future, sometimes with hope and sometimes with fear.  Hope and fear are like addictive drugs that we were born exposed to.  Patience means attending to what’s happening right now.  The crazy thing is that we are imagining some other state, some other time when we will experience reality when it is unfolding right before us.  Abhyasa means attending to practice in the moment, recognizing and releasing the thoughts that get in the way and opening to pure being.  Through consistent practice we continually ground ourselves in true reality.  It is the reality of the Self.

Abhyasa doesn’t mean attending an occasional class or workshop.  It doesn’t mean practicing for a few minutes each day, although this is a good place to start.  It means turning our daily lives into a constant practice of mindfulness.  This is the only way that we a chance of overcoming the powerful habitual patterns of our minds.  We all know about addiction and addicts who have become victims to substances or behaviors that take over their lives.  On a deeper level we are all addicted to samsara.  Recognizing this helps us open to compassion.  Conventional reality is also a bad habit, something we, as spiritual practitioners need to overcome.  Our conventional reality is often one of stress, alienation and spiritual blindness.  Effort is even more essential when we are embraced by and embracing the status quo.

Vairagya, or nonattachment is the counterpart to practice.  It means letting go of our habitual mental and physical objects of security and pleasure, separating ourselves from our habitual patterns of desire and aversion.  During meditation practice we encounter the desire mind operating all the time.  We might think of something we’d like to eat, purchase, or someplace we’d like to visit, someone we miss or would like to have sex with.  We might also be occupied with thoughts of worry and anxiety, thinking of all the things we don’t want or are afraid to lose.  As long as we are in the mode of attachment other people are also objects, things which we seek to satisfy our own needs and desires.  It is only when we are nonattached that we truly relate to each other as conscious beings. 

In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna teaches:  “When a man thinks of the objects, attachment to them arises; from attachment desire is born; from desire anger arises.  From anger comes delusion; from delusion the loss of memory; from loss of memory the destruction of discrimination; from the destruction of discrimination he perishes.  But the self-controlled man, moving amongst objects with the senses under restraint, and free from attraction and repulsion, attains to peace.” (2:62-64)

The insanity of attachment-desire can be readily seen in our world.  A recent article tells of an incident in which a young man was murdered for his iphone.  This is not an isolated occurrence, it is part of an international phenomenon known as “apple picking.”  Whenever new products come out there is a rise in these types of crimes as people all over the world are willing to do whatever they can to acquire them. 

I am pretty sure that none of my readers would kill for an iphone 5, still it might be good to for us to observe our attachment thoughts.  Our consumer oriented media create cravings for new products.  If we can detach ourselves from our impulses briefly we can question whether we really need or even want the product.  Why?  Do we really believe it will make us better, happier, more complete as a human being?  These “products” serve to distract us from looking inward, developing ourselves or making actual intimate contact with each other.  We don’t really need a special app to help us meditate or connect with each other, disconnecting from our devices works better.

Nonattachment doesn’t mean that we can’t own, use or even appreciate anything.  It is more about our minds and our emotional investment in things, in our pride, greed, and desires.  When we use other people to serve our needs and desires without respecting them as fellow conscious beings we objectify them.  As we progress along our path we come to realize that we are attached to forms and all forms are transitory.  We realize as well that we are attached to our world view, our interpretation of the way things are.  When things don’t turn out the way we want or expect them to we are prone to anger or depression.  Nonattachment means realizing that the world is “a passing show.”  The only permanent reality is the eternal witness within us. 

Faith and Surrender

Meditation seems so difficult for many of us.  Am I doing it right?  Why can’t I make my mind quiet?  Where is the bliss?  Meditation techniques are numerous and no one technique will work for everybody, (never mind all the hype over electronic audio assisted technology guaranteed to make you “meditate like a Zen master” instantly).  It is really about developing your own awareness, your own most intimate presence and awakening to that. 

We usually think of faith as something we put into something beyond ourselves.  In meditation we are learning to put our faith in who we are on our most fundamental level.  “You are It!” the Upanishad tells us.  The sacred essence of being is within you, right now and always.  It always has been as well.  As Krishna explains, “There is nothing separate from me.  The universe is suspended from me like jewels upon a string.”  When we are able to let go of all of the BS (belief systems) that tell us who and what we are we awaken to our authentic being.  It is all God.

The ego is primarily our sense of separateness from the all.  It is our identification with our BS on a personal level.  Ego is the fall guy in most spiritual teachings.  In the Yoga Sutras ego-identification is one of the five primary afflictions that cause us to reenter the revolving door of misery.  When we cling to our physical vehicle and to our personal narrative, we become caught up in an illusion.  When we surrender the ego in faith to our true being, we are liberated.  It is very simple really and yet, seemingly impossible for most of us. 

On the other hand, our ego is also an aspect of God.  We don’t have to strive to be individuals we simply are.  Our individuality is God-given.  God has created us as individual beings as a means of knowing and expressing Herself more completely.  As ego-beings we are like cells in God’s body; both individual and inseparably connected.   There is no reason to be afraid of going beyond limited ego-awareness.  There is no reason to despise it. 

Faith simply means trusting that there is something, perhaps someone, who is wiser, more powerful and loving than we think that we are.  It means allowing that our own intelligence, strength, sensitivity and vivaciousness grow out of something deeper, something universal.  Surrender is simply inevitable with this recognition.  “Resistance is futile.”  At the same time our resistance itself is an aspect of the Divine.  Whatever you are doing, thinking, feeling, experiencing is none other than It, none other than “I.”  In the universal scheme of awakening there is no way we can fail; “no soul left behind.” 

This doesn’t mean that we don’t have to contribute some effort.  Surrender requires an active commitment.  It isn’t just giving up.  If only it were that easy.  Giving up is a momentary capitulation to circumstances, surrender is a commitment to Spirit.  Surrender entails accepting given circumstances and seeing beyond them.  It is the opposite of giving up.  It is trusting, knowing, believing and accepting the fundamental beneficence of life. 

In the Yoga Sutras surrender is called isvara pranidhana.  It’s a mouthful, I agree.  Isvara, or Ishwara, means the higher consciousness which we have access to when we quiet our mental chatter and attune to it.  Pranidhana means dedication and devotion.  It takes conscious effort to attune to and to stay connected with higher consciousness.  We can surrender to fear, to anger, to loneliness, or unworthiness without effort.  Surrender to God requires focus, awareness, commitment and dedication.  Never, never give up because once you are connected you taste freedom. 

Faith, or shradha, is a profound power within us.  It can propel us into new dimensions of consciousness or it can keep us stuck.  There is a story of a woman who heard that her faith could move mountains.  She sat in meditation for an extended time trying to remove the mountain in front of her.  When she opened her eyes it was still there.  “I knew it wouldn’t work,” she said.  Our problem is that all of our faith, all of our belief is invested in things-as-they-are.  This is what we are accustomed to as “reality.”  Our reality is the display of our beliefs.  We are locked into a shared reality, a collective hallucination that keeps us from realizing our inner power of faith.  We have been lead to believe that our outer circumstances are ultimately real.  In truth they are created from within us through our limited beliefs.