Weekend competition to define 'faith'

Faith

Some thoughts:

Faith is the hope that there is something absolute.  Absolutely good. Sometimes it is hard to find this faith, especially in a totally dedicated way.  At such times we may pray.  Who answers us?  The hearts of all? The minds of many?  Is God the collective of the Buddha natures?  Progress requires enough energy put into the situation to enable correct evolution into the Ongoing Way.  The Way may be blocked.  It can be correctly unblocked by anyone of clear and consistent goodness and it seems to requires vigilant maintenance at this time.  

Faith means to have the courage to face the truth about how serious our problems are.  We must individually and collectively understand the nature of the problems and address them forthrightly.  This is just the first of the unpleasant pains we must deal with, but there is no time left to avoid this.

Nichiren's Buddhism and practice are very helpful as they enable one to clarify what the problem is really, evaporating illusion with gongyo and daimoku.  Ikeda once told me that the first thing one should do is practice enough up front to find out what the hell is really going on so one does not waste time addressing offshoots instead of the core root of a problem.  If we don't understand this prime point, we will waste our time, possibly indefinitely.  I thank him for this wisdom.

Faith needs to be an constant set of mind, "minds", really, joined together collectively to empower the needed evolution of the Ongoing Way.  There is a critical mass of energy that is needed to solve each problem and it cannot be done by one person, but by those who understand and who are committed with total goodness in mind and determination.  As Nichiren said, "Many in body, one in mind."  With a correct and fundamental understanding of problems we can send appropriate energy and daimoku to solve them, re-energize and enable the potential and assurance of positive change.

The only absolute goodness that I have found yet in much looking has been at the core of my own heart and the core of the hearts of others.  I would think that's my Buddha nature.  Is it out there, too?  Ah, yes, I do think so.  It must be.

 

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by: Armchair @ Sat Jun 27, 2009 at 10:24:52 AM CDT

Defies simple definition

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Armchair. I do feel there is an element of hopefulness in your description of faith.

As for the "competition" to come up with a definition, I find it stimulating. Many times while reading the proposals posted by readers of the New York Times, I found myself in agreement.

Clearly, the word Faith defies simple "twitter" definition of 140 characters.

On a related note, did you see that Tricycle was soliciting twitter definitions for the word Karma?

The winner: "If what you do and who you are don't match now, they will, for better or worse."

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by: auntie @ Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 14:38:13 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Consensus definition

From the NYTimes:

Faith is, among other things, hope with a track record; the opposite of critical thinking; stubbornly disagreeing with your own best arguments; the basis for accepting the mandate of total sacrifice; the stick Blind Reason taps before; an excuse for ignorance; a sweet-tasting, slow-acting poison; the leap from reason to certainty; a hunch you bet your life on; and - of course - a George Michael song.

Check out the related links.

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by: brooke @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 14:25:09 PM CDT

Faith Based Delusions

Faith is almost like delusion except that you are really convinced that your non-fact based assumption is really true. Oh, wait! They are exactly the same.

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by: clown hidden @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 11:52:35 AM CDT

Faith/delusion

Now, Clown,

I have faith that you have already attained Enlightenment or are sure to. That's not a delusion is it?

Armchair sofa

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by: Armchair @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 21:17:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

delusion or enlightenment

You may have faith that everyone will attain enlightenment sooner or later but how do you know it's not a delusion? Enlightenment comes and goes, you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but I'm not convinced you can't fool all the people all the time. Just look around. It is as much our nature to be deluded as to be enlightened and it's hard for me to tell the diference.

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by: clown hidden @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 12:44:25 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Faith/Enlightenment

Actually, my comment was directed to you, specifically, Clown.  You have said some very sensible things that have mattered to me.

In fact, at this point in time, I DO NOT have "faith" that 'everyone will attain enlightenment sooner or later'.  I know some incredible jerks.  Two incredible jerks at the dean level died in one week last week at my university.  Accident?  One was 56.  Did Life say, "Come with me you creeps, you aren't going to teach these students ethical crime."  How do I know?  It was well-known what these two were doing and it is well-known we are having that sort of challenge here.

I know some enlightened people.  Buddhists.  They behave sensibly and kindly all the time.  They tell me what I need to know, when I need to know it, like Shakyamuni did for people he was speaking with.  They don't condescend to me.

They are compassionate to the very core.  They chant with me and for me when I am suffering and never make me feel like a fool when I don't understand yet.  If they make a mistake, and they sometimes do, they apologize and vow to chant to see it coming next time and never do it again.  

I always feel warmed by their lives and not threatened but they have caught my collar strictly when I was acting in ignorance and was in danger because of it.  They radiate energy and light and Life and I feel safer knowing them.

They make me want to chant more, celebrate life, change my karma. They are never hateful or deliberately rude.  I feel I could trust them with my life and some have stayed up all night long to care for me when I was sick.  They inspire me and make me want to be like them.  

I am working on it.  It's a long process.  For me.

Armchair

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by: Armchair @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 20:34:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

my faith in enlightenment

If I were to consider myself enlightened I would say my enlightenment consists of knowing I'm deluded. If I ever understand the full depth of my delusion then I wioll have complete enlightenment. The sun is coming up.

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by: clown hidden @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 11:21:59 AM CDT

[ Parent ]