What is Faith?

[Intraplanetary]

I'm contemplating on it and also want to hear your POV 

 

[peanutspathtotruth]

Faith is the deep trust from direct knowing that all is one and all is God - and that all is Love. Even if right now it feels different. In my view, it's not a belief. It has to be grounded again and again through direct experience of what's true. Although I've gone astray so many times - I've had such unmistakably clear encounters with Self/God that there is a faith in my heart that will never be completely quenched, no matter how dark it gets. The faith becomes very quiet, and my mind acts like it's just a fantasy. But the moment you open your heart, the moment you trust, grace grabs you.

When most people say they have faith, they may mostly just believe blindly. But never forget, this is all God. God plants the seed of returning/forgiving/realization into all of us. An awakening feels like you have always known, but just forgot in your cloudiness. This knowingness is, I think, always present, very diffracted and distorted, but it's there.

Edited January 12, 2022 by peanutspathtotruth

[RMQualtrough]

Belief without evidence.

[The0Self]

The wholesome forms of faith, as I see it, are as follows:

Ultimately, surrender to truth.

In the context of practice, faith is withdrawal from the useless unanswerable doubt, so that one can remain single pointed in their goal.

Edited January 13, 2022 by The0Self

[Khan 0]

On 1/12/2022 at 9:30 PM, Intraplanetary said:

I'm contemplating on it and also want to hear your POV 

 

First step to spirituality.

[Loba]

Faith is an inner knowing that you can use like a compass to direct yourself closer to truth.

[The0Self]

Belief is married to doubt. Whereas true faith is the absence of doubt, and therefore also the absence of belief. Just the way I see it. But it can start out as belief in what seems to likely be a fact -- taking a risk by diving into a new paradigm.

[Breakingthewall]

faith means: abandon yourself. let go of the grip of the ego, the false control that does not control anything. relax and trust. dissolve in the reality that you are, indefinable and without limits

[caspex]

There are multiple ways you can define "faith" because it's relative to the context you use it in. However the most common definition is that it means "blind belief". It is something that is usually religious and dogmatic. Most commonly used as a defence mechanism against contemplation into one's own worldview. What's interesting is that this definition is a degraded version of what the word actually means. See, truly "Faith" means a deep trust into the workings of the universe. This trust, only comes about when you experience an awakening into the perfection of existence. Unbeknownst to many, one of the qualities of existence is that it's perfect in every way, however the human society is too ignorant to realize this by default and therefore an average human mind would be required to do much effort before it can see this quality of existence. Once seen however, it's becomes obvious as to what 'Faith' truly means. You do not need to worry, you do not need fret over what you think is wrong anymore, precisely because everything is seen to be perfect and that the existence of 'wrong' is just an illusion. The foundations of the existence of 'wrongness' or 'imperfectness' is rooted in relativeness. Relative to your survival. When reality is realized to be perfect, this illusion is seen through because survival isn't a concern anymore. 
How the current definition faith came about is due to the average human not being able to grasp the true meaning of this word. That's why to an unrealized mind, what faith seems like is "blind trust into workings of existence", as opposed to "clear trust, verified by one's own direct experience, into the workings of existence". Furthermore, the definition is degraded even more, that now it's not just "blind trust in the workings of existence" but "blind trust into the workings of a particular authority". Now this authority could be a your ideas about God, an institution, a book, your parents, etc. All of this happens simply because collectively we are not evolved enough to keep this word's true meaning intact. And this goes for various other words as well, such as "Love' "God" "Truth" etc. 
Therefore it becomes very important that you know the true meanings of these words because it aids in quenching your thirst to know what's true. "Faith", really, is rooted in direct experience, rather than blind belief. This kind of faith, provides you with feeling rooted in your trust towards the perfection of life. You do not care if the universe is for you or against you. You do not care if according to God's plan, you'll have to suffer immensely the rest of your life and die a miserable death because whatever existence manifests itself as is seen to be perfect. At this point, anything and everything becomes self-evidently perfect. You are not the point of concern anymore, unlike the degraded meaning of 'Faith'. In the degraded meaning, you are concerned that you will have to assume responsibility of your own worldview and that you can't just ask a higher authority for the truth. But in the true sense of what 'Faith' means, not only you assume full responsibility, but also are not concerned with yourself anymore. In fact there are no points of concern anymore. 'Faith' really is a quality that makes one indestructible, rather than making them akin to a flimsy house of cards.

[RickyFitts]

On 12/01/2022 at 6:35 PM, RMQualtrough said:

Belief without evidence.

Wrong. Belief and faith are two completely separate things. Belief is of the mind, faith is of the heart. The majority of people don't know the first thing about true faith, because they're so caught in their thinking.

[RMQualtrough]

6 hours ago, RickyFitts said:

Wrong. Belief and faith are two completely separate things. Belief is of the mind, faith is of the heart. The majority of people don't know the first thing about true faith, because they're so caught in their thinking.

Both are without evidence. You either know, or you don't. Faith is reading a Leo post and being like "yep! I have zero proof but I'll just believe it anyway because it makes me feel good".

The things being discussed aren't religion where you need "faith". It can be known. Kick faith to the curb, attain knowledge.

[The0Self]

46 minutes ago, RMQualtrough said:

Both are without evidence. You either know, or you don't. Faith is reading a Leo post and being like "yep! I have zero proof but I'll just believe it anyway because it makes me feel good".

The things being discussed aren't religion where you need "faith". It can be known. Kick faith to the curb, attain knowledge.

Not quite. Any claim to knowledge is a confession of ignorance. True faith (very much to your point though, not fear-based faith) is much closer to absolute knowledge than knowledge as it's generally conceived.

[Tim R]

Faith = Letting go = Trust = Love = Selflessness 

[Intraplanetary]

On 15/01/2022 at 11:38 AM, Swarnim said:

"Faith", really, is rooted in direct experience, rather than blind belief. This kind of faith, provides you with feeling rooted in your trust towards the perfection of life.

this

[Intraplanetary]

On 15/01/2022 at 7:01 PM, Tim R said:

Faith = Letting go = Trust = Love = Selflessness 

Yap, that's how it goes

[RMQualtrough]

On 15/01/2022 at 6:55 PM, The0Self said:

Not quite. Any claim to knowledge is a confession of ignorance. True faith (very much to your point though, not fear-based faith) is much closer to absolute knowledge than knowledge as it's generally conceived.

Claims to knowledge can be based on absolutely true revelations. There are various aspects of reality and the nondual proposition that can be known without question, based on evidence.

Faith is the opposite of what Buddha taught. Also very opposite to Advaita Vedanta as initially taught. TRUE religions don't need you to blindly trust some BS in a book, and actually WANT you to find out for yourself.

[Rahul yadav]

faith is realising that its all you. there is you and your intelligence in everything you see and this intelligence is working for you to serve you to bring you all that you want in life. so learn to trust everything that happens in you or outside of you. learn to trust your thoughts, feelings and intuition << this is key. 

[The0Self]

2 hours ago, RMQualtrough said:

Claims to knowledge can be based on absolutely true revelations. There are various aspects of reality and the nondual proposition that can be known without question, based on evidence.

Faith is the opposite of what Buddha taught. Also very opposite to Advaita Vedanta as initially taught. TRUE religions don't need you to blindly trust some BS in a book, and actually WANT you to find out for yourself.

In order to find out for yourself, there first has to be the faith that absolute knowledge is possible. Faith in the practices. Faith (really, trust) of this sort eventually transcends itself. And the culmination of absolute knowledge is not a dualistic knowing. Any ideas about nonduality are false. Only the direct lived-reality will do, and it's the absence of doubt or belief -- i.e. faith. I can tell which faith you're talking about, and I agree with you, but that's not the faith I'm talking about.

[RMQualtrough]

3 hours ago, The0Self said:

In order to find out for yourself, there first has to be the faith that absolute knowledge is possible. Faith in the practices. Faith (really, trust) of this sort eventually transcends itself. And the culmination of absolute knowledge is not a dualistic knowing. Any ideas about nonduality are false. Only the direct lived-reality will do, and it's the absence of doubt or belief -- i.e. faith. I can tell which faith you're talking about, and I agree with you, but that's not the faith I'm talking about.

You mean "being" as opposed to "knowing" right? I know that nothingness cannot be known or observed except by being it. I find I can verbalize it, though.

[The0Self]

9 hours ago, RMQualtrough said:

You mean "being" as opposed to "knowing" right? I know that nothingness cannot be known or observed except by being it. I find I can verbalize it, though.

Yes.

But the knower is the very one who is the primary illusion.