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.