.
I used to think faith, as a necessary part of becoming deeply spiritual (finding the truth about what IS), was too irrational to be valuable. Why shouldn't a person find the 'truth' for oneself; without the need for trust in a teaching, or tradition?
The reason is belief.
If you haven't already found the truth (you'll recognize it when you find it!), you are looking in the wrong place; that is, you are allied with wrong belief...ignorance. Reality is not hidden from anyone. It's not difficult to find, but it's also only found when you are able to see clearly.
Belief blinds us, by limiting what we can accept as true.
A person can claim to be honestly looking for truth, but if they look closely at how they view reality they'll find 'self-imposed' limitations, causing forms of 'blindness'. Blinders have already been put on, and other ways of seeing are discarded (temporarily...but if they don't 'repent' they will never look where truth can be 'found'.)
I quote Jesus often, not because I think he knew best, but because his phrasing is so beautifully elegant.
Luke 14:33
"...any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
Jesus speaks about God's kingdom as analogous to a great treasure. A person must sell (give up, or let go of) everything one 'has' in order to 'purchase' it.
Faith frees a person from self-imposed limitations. When Jesus (and Buddha) state, 'The truth will set you free', this is what they're implying.
Matthew
I used to think faith, as a necessary part of becoming deeply spiritual (finding the truth about what IS), was too irrational to be valuable. Why shouldn't a person find the 'truth' for oneself; without the need for trust in a teaching, or tradition?
The reason is belief.
If you haven't already found the truth (you'll recognize it when you find it!), you are looking in the wrong place; that is, you are allied with wrong belief...ignorance. Reality is not hidden from anyone. It's not difficult to find, but it's also only found when you are able to see clearly.
Belief blinds us, by limiting what we can accept as true.
A person can claim to be honestly looking for truth, but if they look closely at how they view reality they'll find 'self-imposed' limitations, causing forms of 'blindness'. Blinders have already been put on, and other ways of seeing are discarded (temporarily...but if they don't 'repent' they will never look where truth can be 'found'.)
I quote Jesus often, not because I think he knew best, but because his phrasing is so beautifully elegant.
Luke 14:33
"...any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
Jesus speaks about God's kingdom as analogous to a great treasure. A person must sell (give up, or let go of) everything one 'has' in order to 'purchase' it.
Faith frees a person from self-imposed limitations. When Jesus (and Buddha) state, 'The truth will set you free', this is what they're implying.
Matthew
Comments
The following is a comment I meant to write to you, but ended up posting on another "Matthew's" blog, but got re-directed to the right place!
I have to give you credit for a paper I'm working on regarding suffering in the book of Job. You made a comment on Mysticalseeker's blog about the "narrow" path of discipleship (the post is "Bart Ehrman").
There is a narrow path of discipleship in the book of Job, too. Jog walks the tightrope. He stands between despair and angry resignation on one side (recommended by his wife), and the giving in to the simplistic religious absolutisms (recommended by his friends) on the other. In the end, he is the one who ends up with a vision of God.
Your comments helped me along the path to understanding this, as well as the outstanding books on Job by Gustavo Gutierrez and Daniel Berrigan.
(I would have sent this by email, but I don't see a place on your blog to contact you privately.)
While reason is important (just look at fundamentalism for the effects of a religion without reason), it is not the only thing. Its hard to experience things spiritual with your whole being if you are clinging to what can be "known". That's an exercise in fear.
I suppose this is another "narrow" path--many tend to live too much on either the "faith" or "reason" side, when in actuality the best is probably when you can hold both equally.