Starting With Faith And Trust … Really?

Being told to have faith and trust suggest intimidation.

Why would you start with ‘faith’ and ‘trust’? There has to be a reason to have faith and trust in the first place, so we start with reason. Just because someone with an exotic name tells us to trust them doesn’t mean that they are trustworthy. How do you know? Cult mentality works like that.

We must walk before we can run, and before we can do more advanced practices. We may have the idea that advanced practices are more elaborate; that is lower vehicle thinking, with its dos and don’ts.

In actuality, the more we advance, the simpler it all becomes.
This is the experience of the different levels.
In the moment of realisation, there is nothing to practise.

We start our path to enlightenment by being dissatisfied with life, recognising suffering in ourself or others. This inherent and profound feeling creates opportunities to meet someone or read something that causes a stir of recognition in the mind – which doesn’t mean that this is the path; it is just something that attracts or starts to makes sense. Faith enters our decision-making when we are on the verge of our next step.

Faith:  complete trust or confidence in someone or something. strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof.

If we have to rely on faith from the very start, we aren’t being taught properly. Reason promotes understanding, and then refining that understanding. We need 98% understanding and 2% faith 🙂

Personally, my trust and faith came from dropping ‘official’ teachings to see what I actually knew and could rely on. Turns out my path is much simpler than all the elaborate projections.