John's Letter Archives | SERENDIPITY RETREAT
SPRING 2005
NAMASTE,
Anytime you look at or listen to the media these days, you are almost certain to encounter the word faith. This is, of course, because of the very public emphasis President Bush has put on the role of "faith" in his life and his approach to governing. If you are a church-goer, you probably encounter the word faith in the context of your religion as well.
My dictionary (Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary) defines faith as: 1) unquestioning belief; 2) unquestioning belief in God, religion, etc.; 3) a religion or a system of religious beliefs; 4) anything believed; 5) complete trust, confidence, or reliance; 6) faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty, allegiance to some person or thing; 7) credibility or truth.
As I currently see the word being used in the media in discussing "faith-based issues" or "a man of faith", I assume that it is intended to involve belief in a Supreme Being of some sort and to have a religious connotation.
If you are yoga student, you may or may not encounter the word faith in the course of your studies and practice. Nevertheless, faith can be an important element of your practice, whether you are conscious of it or not. Faith is, in fact, an integral aspect of classical Yoga.
Yoga is not an easy path. In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali speaks of the obstacles (vikshepas) that must be overcome to proceed. The practitioner may be overwhelmed by any of the obstacles and lose his way. He must, therefore, develop certain qualities to meet the challenges these obstacles present. Fortunately, Patanjali also offers us guidance in this regard by describing several important attributes for successful practice: faith (shraddha), energy, memory, absorption, and wisdom. Faith in this context means trust and confidence. To persevere on the path, one needs to have faith that the path will yield the results one seeks.
Where does this faith in yoga, this trust and confidence that our practice will carry us to our goal, come from? There are three principle sources.
One source is other people. We read or hear the accounts of practitioners and teachers, grow to trust them, and have faith in what they tell us. Our yoga teachers may, as they teaches us the yoga poses, show us how the various parts of our body, the actions that take place between those parts, and the relationship of those actions to our state of mind are all connected. They may use this palpable example of the interconnectedness within our bodies and minds to speak to us of the interconnectedness of all things, of the experience of the oneness of all creation, and of the ultimate freedom of the spirit. Their words can inform, stimulate, and entrance us. They can remind us of past feelings we may have had of being part of something bigger than our individual selves and rekindle our passion. The faith we have in the testimony of others can be powerful in propelling us along the path. But this source is the least potent of the three and the most easily shaken.
A second source is our own reasoning and analysis. We observe, for example, that the leaves that fall in autumn decompose during the winter and become the soil that nourishes the seeds that sprout in spring. The summer sun stimulates the sprouts to spread their leaves and blossom. Bees come to sip the pollen and fly off to fertilize other plants; the fall returns, and the cycle replays. In this way we see that on this Earth all things are interconnected, and so we infer that everything is, in fact, a part of the vast web of being. By seeing the dance of all living things, we develop faith in the oneness of the universe. This faith is more secure than relying solely on the testimony of others, for we have come to this belief on our own.
The third source of faith is direct experience. Someone can tell you about the oneness underlying all existence, or you can, through thought and reason, deduce the interconnectedness of all things. But an idea or a thought or a feeling about union is not the same as knowing within the very core of your being that you are inextricably bound up in and inseparable from everyone and everything else. The actual experience of the underlying unity of all creation creates faith that is far more likely to withstand the onslaughts of doubt, delusion, and other obstacles than faith founded on inference or testimony. The certainty that comes from direct experience of something has tremendous power to it. We are much less likely to be shaken in our belief of the existence of something when we ourselves have experienced it first hand.
This clarity and certainty can be a source of strong faith as well as evidence of it, but it should not be confused with rigidity or dogmatism. The definitions cited above include an "unquestioning belief". Such a faith is not a proper part of yoga practice, for yoga is a science as well as an art, philosophy, and religion. The faith of the yogi is anything but unquestioning. Part of our work as practitioners is to set aside preconceptions and conventional thought and look for ourselves to discover what is real and true. This means opening our eyes and examining the evidence at hand. If it comports with what we believe to be right, then we are fortified in our beliefs. Our faith is strengthened. If, on the other hand, what we encounter contradicts our beliefs, then we must willingly let go of those beliefs and change our minds. Even the Buddha said to his followers, "Monks, just as the wise accept gold after testing it by heating, cutting, and rubbing it, so are my words to be accepted after examining them, but not out of respect [for me]."
The questioning of belief is not the same as doubt. Doubt, one of the obstacles mentioned by Patanjali, has a negative quality to it. Filled with doubt, the seeker seeks not to see what is true, but expects to find what is untrue. His negativity undermines his faith and robs him of the energy he needs to persevere in the face of difficulty.
The flip side of doubt is hope. Filled with hope, the seeker seeks not to see what is real, but anticipates finding what he wishes for. Hope is a problem in that it invites another one of the obstacles: delusion. The seeker thinks that what he sees is true, when, in fact, it is not true at all.
Both doubt and hope involve projecting a set of beliefs into the future in a way that distorts how one perceives the present moment. Unquestioning faith may also involve projecting a set of beliefs into the future that may distort how one perceives the present moment. When one has unquestioning faith, evidence contrary to what is expected is set aside and neither truth nor reality can be seen.
Blind faith is the enemy of the seeker. Faith instilled by the words and examples of others and nurtured by our own questions, observations, and thoughts can set us on the path to that which we seek and set us straight when we go astray. Faith built on our own living experience of the truth acquired through practice, grace, and surrender can help us overcome any challenge, persevere through any difficulty, and see us through to the end of our journey. Have faith.
Return to top
