faith and beliefs role in enlightenment (absolute truth)

[andyjohnsonman]

I am not enlightened and am at a stage where I am questioning both realism and idealism. I meditate daily and can have spells of no thought but the sense of a self behind the head remains. At my current stage how important is it to have "faith in "absolute truth"? I think this can easily be taken as a religion/dogma and I include enlightenment with this where you are looking for a solution to make all your problems go away and that maybe there is no transcendent reality. I am however open to it but still think it's important not to take it on as a dogma until it is experienced (if it can be). I am however aware that faith can be important but at the same time isn't it possible that faith and belief can be mutually exclusive and therefore when you do something like psychedelics the belief in absolute truth shapes your trip to believing in this? 

[Cepzeu]

@andyjohnsonman

Enlightenment and non dual experiences strike you like lighting bolts. It will happen when you least expect it to and you will know that it's happening. Until you have at least one of these then yes, it is very faith based, so my advice is to hang in there. Once you have a few experiences it will become clear why this work is important.

One thing that can help is knowing that meditation and spiritual practices help raise consciousness in general which will help you in all areas of life, not just on the journey to enlightenment.

[Amun]

The Chineese say you need 3 things to attain your true nature: Great doubt, great faith and great effort (or another way to translate it is "great courage"). Have faith but keep your doubt as well. Good luck.

[cetus]

@andyjohnsonman  Give faith a chance for the sake of faith alone. No concepts or beliefs. just giving everything away to total faith. Even the idea of the self give to faith. Experiment on your own and see what happens when you surrender everything. Who knows, you may even get a glimpse of the absolute.