QUESTION:
What role does "faith" have in our understanding?
I'm not speaking of blind faith, but I was reading one of your transcripts this morning where you talk about the fact that our times are not the same as times past when metaphysical writers spoke or wrote as they did.
What struck me about that was the idea that many of the "Absolute" writers are quite irreverent regarding faith per se ... especially Alfred Aiken.
I don't feel comfortable with blind faith, but I do feel confident in what I KNOW is true vs what I seem to "see" with my eyes. To me, there is a type of faith in that confidence. But it isn't personal.
ON THE OTHER HAND, I am aware of what you wrote to me recently about SILENCE being the avenue of understanding rather than trying to obtain it from the "outside."
Sincerely listening,
~C
ANSWER:
… It's very simple, true Truth is a living Truth and as such offers us the opportunity, as Awareness, to honor our own "feelings" and, more importantly, our own Knowing.
To me, faith inevitably morphs into Knowing at some point, but I feel there are instances where one needs both, and that seeming sequence.
The main reason that Absolutists don't like the word, I think is because it implies time. "Something "better" is going to come along with_____ if I have faith." In other words, it's a denial that it isn't all perfect now.
To me, "faith:" is a knowing, that I dare not judge by appearances at all, that they have no Reality... that Reality IS, all it is ever going to be... Perfect, as Consciousness, no matter what seems to be happening with the contents of that Consciousness.
So, in a sense, when we are still, doing nothing about the appearances, we could be said to be having faith. Because, we Know and trust that all is well. So we leave the reflection in the mirror alone, if you get the metaphor.
RESPONSE:
It's almost impossible to articulate this in words. I'm afraid words will butcher it.
"Truth is a living Truth and as such offers us the opportunity, as Awareness, to honor our own "feelings" and, more importantly, our own Knowing." (Your words)
THAT RIGHT THERE is what broke through for me. YEARS spent in diligent seeking to BECOME instead of knowing I AM.
The "silence" we go into enables us to turn off the faucet of (human, so-called) thinking about and to BE WITH the flow of IS NOW ness.
What a breakthrough to realize that no one has more of ALL. "All" just IS. Every "where" and every ONE.