I can't understand faith

[Jenkins]

I like to have everything figured out in my life, and have control over everything.

One thing I can't seem to master is the concept of faith.

If I delete the notion of my life, bad outcomes tend to happen.

If I believe in it, things go well.

And if I try to analyze it too much, bad outcomes tend to happen again.

Can anybody enlighten me in regards to this topic?

[ivankiss]

(Over)Thinking pollutes your being and blindfolds you, so you make poorer choices and get poorer results. When you set an intention and then just let it go and 'have faith' that it's going to work out somehow, while you continue staying on your path, you have a lot more space and clarity in your being, you're lighter and more efficient, and that should enable you to be where you should be, when you should be, doing what you should be doing, in order to get the results you want, and better.

[Ayham]

You need to have faith in the process of your life, why would you get rid of that? 

Having faith makes you not give up and preserve towards your vision which is necessary. 

Until your vision is actualized, you will need faith. 

If you are talking in regards to enlightenment, yes you should still have faith, you should have a strong desire to awaken in the beginning, contrary to what most teachers say, until at some point you won't need that desire and it will naturally disappear. 

[itsadistraction]

Faith in what?

If you are talking about faith in a religion (as in belief in a religion without evidence). Then you are just brainwashed to think you need it. 

If you are talking about faith in yourself (as in belief things will go well for you without evidence). Faith is a good thing. 

Maybe you are a shaman the ancients spoke about and your beliefs effect reality, have you considered that? 

[itsadistraction]

Furthermore, you can't ever understand anything, because everything is reduced down to consciousness and consousness is inherently mysterious. 

 

[hyruga]

You need faith to do things. Like even if you are an admin staff, you still need the basic belief that you can do the job. 

[gettoefl]

there is faith and there is self discovery

there is nothing else

self discovery is time consuming

so we use faith as a short cut

all of childhood is faith, if you self discover you went beyond the requisites

so faith is only meaningful beginning adulthood since in that case you exercised choice

[Princess Arabia]

On 8/13/2023 at 6:35 AM, Jenkins said:

I like to have everything figured out in my life, and have control over everything.

One thing I can't seem to master is the concept of faith.

If I delete the notion of my life, bad outcomes tend to happen.

If I believe in it, things go well.

And if I try to analyze it too much, bad outcomes tend to happen again.

Can anybody enlighten me in regards to this topic?

The desire to have everything figured out and wanting to control everything seems like a lot of work to me. Lots of suffering comes with that desire. That just comes from fear. Instead of trying to control everything, try loving everything instead. See what happens. The outcome of that is more rewarding.

[Selfnaught]

@Jenkins
 

Not sure if this will be helpful to you:

Faith is not the same as belief.

faith = pistis (Greek) = trust, have confidence. 

believe = peitho (Greek) = to be persuaded. 
 

Faith comes once you are persuaded.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Selfnaught

[itsadistraction]

1 hour ago, Selfnaught said:

@Jenkins
 

Not sure if this will be helpful to you:

Faith is not the same as belief.

faith = pistis (Greek) = trust, have confidence. 

believe = peitho (Greek) = to be persuaded. 
 

Faith comes once you are persuaded.

Faith comes from Latin no? 

[Selfnaught]

10 hours ago, itsadistraction said:

Faith comes from Latin no? 

It does. Faith = fides, which is Latin root. 
 

The meaning of the two words do not change however. When studying words one has to go deep. The Bible is the example here, any bible you pick up just scroll the New Testament and you’ll find the word “faith”. The NT however was written mostly in Greek so one must use the Greek word for faith here. Most people when they talk of faith especially when they use it in the context of the OP they mean it in the form of a Christian understanding - which is usually wrong. “Oh you just gotta have faith, just gotta believe”. People use these two words as if they mean the same thing and they don’t. Belief comes before faith, that is the point I’m trying to make here. 

[Yimpa]

Faith - when you’re backed into a corner with absolutely no way out; yet somehow, something deep inside you comes out and dispels the darkness. 

You cannot experience this if you stay in your comfort zone and allow life to run you. You must take back your life, and that’s when faith has an opportunity to shine its light.

[universe]

You will never have control over everything.

But you can always have faith.

[Sugarcoat]

Faith could be seen as having trust in that some intelligence beyond you will move things in ways that will be in your favor ultimately . It might be experienced as letting something else take over but it’s just that this intelligence hasn’t been integrated into your sense of self yet. Ultimately it is an aspect of you operating 

Edited August 15, 2023 by Sugarcoat

[SeaMonster]

On 8/13/2023 at 6:35 AM, Jenkins said:

Can anybody enlighten me in regards to this topic?

Your ego-identified parts (I like to have everything figured out in my life, and have control over everything) are more important to you right now than good outcomes.

Sounds crazy, right?

But that's how the ego rolls.

Faith isn't to be "understood."  That's the whole point.

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by SeaMonster

[Consept]

Here's the thing you have faith in something regardless. So you might have faith that everything can be 'figured out' by your mind and then you might be have faith that you are your mind. You have absolute faith in this to the point where you are lost because you can't figure out faith itself with your mind. 

So really it's more a question of where do you place your faith, do you place your faith in your separated ego or do you place in something higher than yourself? If your ego is not real then you are putting faith into something that doesn't exist but it's hard to drop the ego without faith that something else will catch you. 

[Yimpa]

On 8/13/2023 at 5:35 AM, Jenkins said:

I like to have everything figured out in my life, and have control over everything.

Letting go of control and the need to figure anything out is also an option

[caspex]

Faith is trust and trust arises when you dissolve the distinction you hold towards something. In this case, you must be talking about having faith in the workings of life.

If you see the workings of life as simply yourself, or something that ultimately works in your favor (love), then you trust life and that's what you'd call faith.

The reason having faith works well is because when you dissolve your distinction between you and the workings of life, you align yourself with life and consequently your actions. So it seems like life is aligning in your favor, but in fact it was YOU who aligned in life's favor.

In other words, letting the flow of the river(life) take you instead of resisting it.

[Ajax]

Have faith that whatever you get yourself into, you can get yourself out of it. HAHAHA don't mind me, I am being silly.