For so long, I believed that blind faith was the crux of a spiritual practice. I lived it. I based all of my actions on ideas that could not be seen or proven.
As I grew, this took a toll on me. My brain wanted to learn more, more, more. I wanted to understand that I was walking on the right path.
One thing that I’ve found interesting is the concept that faith can be based on experiences. You can build it according to what you’ve learned in your life. It doesn’t have to be blind and unseeing.
“We have so many wrong notions and ideas; it is dangerous to believe in them, because some day we may find out that that idea is a wrong idea, that notion is a wrong notion, that perception is a wrong perception. People live with a lot of wrong perceptions, ideas, and notions, and when they invest their life in them it is dangerous.
The practice of Buddhism has very much to do with the removal of notions. In Buddhist practice, we aim at liberating ourselves from notions and perceptions, even notions and perceptions about our own happiness.
There is something more important than notions and perceptions, and that is our direct experience…If our faith is made of this direct experience and insight, then it is true faith and it will never make us suffer.
True faith is always true faith, but since faith is a living thing, it must grow. If we adopt that kind of behavior and know how to handle our faith and therefore our love, it will not make people suffer.
When we believe something to be the absolute truth, we are closed. We are no longer open to the understanding and insight of other people, and this is because the object of our faith is just an idea, not a living thing. But if the object of your faith is your direct experience and your insight, then you can always be open.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
I feel this so deeply. I believe I invested my life in wrong perceptions and ideas, and there were some consequences.
I now understand that faith is living. It grows! I can’t wait to see where it takes me.
This Sacred Life 