Help
Sign In
faith
September 2009 
There is no multiplicity of FAITH
Posted on Jun 10th, 2009
by 
Eli
Eli
In a recent private communication, a bright gaian soul asked me this question : ”do we share same faith or two good faiths.”
FAITH is ONE. There is no multiplicity of FAITH.
An attempt to identify the underlying spirit and intention of the UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS is important and useful. However, there is also this risk that such exercise may lead people astray. By the very nature, these attempts remain explained in analogies and abstract ideas only. We should reflect on these and discuss them keeping in mind that in the final analysis we must always resign ourselves to never fully knowing God's wisdom and mercy.
“God disdains not to use the similitude of things, lowest as well as highest. Those who believe know that it is truth from their Lord; but those who reject Faith say: “What means God by this similitude?” By it He causes many to stray, and many He leads into the right path; but He causes not to stray, except those who forsake (the path).” (Al-Baqarah 2: 26)
We know that different traditions have different ideas about the nature of Ultimate Reality, but in the final analysis, this Reality is a Mystery which lies beyond the reach of any thoughts, ideas, words, or concepts whatsoever.
Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, opened his The Tao Te Ching with these famous lines:
"The Way which can be verbalized is not the true Way."
Dionysius the Areopagite, the 6th century Christian mystic wrote:
"That One which is beyond all thought is inconceivable by all thought."
Again, Sufi Al-Junayd said similar words:
"Whatever may be imagined in thy heart, God is the opposite of it."
Sufi Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi maintained:
The fact that we describe God as having all these attributes in no way bestows any attribute on Him: our description is merely our own attribution, an account we give of an attribute which exists through Him.
The Upanishads declared:
"The Spirit supreme is immeasurable, inapprehensible, beyond conception, never-born, beyond reasoning, beyond thought. His vastness is the vastness of space."
Nagarjuna the Buddhist sage said:
"The ultimate truth which is indeterminate is the unutterable dharma. There the sphere of the speakable ceases, the activities of the mind come to an end."
Buddha said of his own teachings:
"These teachings are only a finger pointing toward Noble Wisdom … They are intended for the consideration and guidance of the discriminating minds of all people, but they are not the Truth itself, which can only be self-realized within one's own deepest consciousness."
Actually, it is ONE LIGHT , MANY WINDOWS.
Access: Public
Highly appreciated.
Thank you dear friend
Thank you Eli for sharing such wisdom - great picture
Tai
Thank you Tai for appreciation
It is such a difficult task to describe the unity one experiences when they have gone beyond mind! Mind is duality, its nature is duality. And faith is greatly needed to go beyond this duality, this mind. Without faith, how will one release what they feel is themselves, their life? One has to have great courage, the courage to enter one's own death. and great passsion and skill and determination to experience what is beyond mind. And then the terrible task of relating what is beyond duality to the dualistic mind! What compassion. The ones that have gone beyond and known this great bliss, sees us here flopping around like fish…gropping in the dark..not knowing our own nature. And they have no way to explain this…the difficulty must be great.
Personally, this is why I feel the learning and teaching of the practices is more important…the theory cannot be perfect…no matter how you try…a nondual knowing cannot be recevied perfectly by a dualistic mind. But with faith in what the Masters say, we will can take that leap beyond mind. But you must have faith. Otherwise, how will you allow it, how would you transcend?
Thank you, Eli, for your invitation!!!!! It is the greatest pursuit - the knowing of reality!
Big,big, big hug!!!!
Love,
Cheyenne
Cheyenne, your words are pearls threaded together in the form of a sublime necklace…
Deep Bows
Eli - a lovely reflection of the work you do. The picture made me think of the pic I posted on my blog - as you say - it's all ONE.
Big love
Good God Man! I think you've been reading my mail. I've been feeling this movement for the past couple of weeks. Thank You for putting you stamp upon it. It's all about ONE.
Namaste'
~lars
Is a wonderful compilation.
Much appreciated indeed.
Thanks for the link.
Love and Prayers,
Tharlam.
Thank you Eli for the invitation of this wonderful post. So much wisdom here througout the ages, expressed in many ways, yet all pointing to that Beingness I like to call Grace.
Sometimes some of us might experience moments of this Divine beyond mind God-Isnesss and the sheer Bliss of it, I have, but only to have found myself slipping back into a world again where our minds build “towers of importance as milesstones in time” again and again.
In one way I agree with what beloved Cheyenne says on how we need faith to go beyond this duality, Faith as a necessary ingredient seen from the standpoint of mind, yet faith doesn't make anything happen, we cannot make anything happen, there's nothing to release really, in the moments of Beingness there's noone to have Faith, there's only grace in Gods unfolding, God happens to us so to speak.
Thank you,
Love and Blessing.
Beautiful words, dear Eli. Coming into duality from the one source. And the words of the visitors here, area also so beautiful.
I've been thinking of communicating with both 'sides' of the brain nowadays, so if I may put a physical spin to it; perhaps the bridge of faith is the corpus callosum that brings our two brains together.
Or beautiful thoughts of different faiths that form the bridge between the question and answer.
I am truly overwhelmed by the responses. Deep thoughts and expressions in each comment. Thank you Anna, lars, Tharlam, Alluvja and Meenakshi.
As you can read, this was my response to a personal question by one of our Gaia friends. Actually, before this question, I was asked ” Sir what is most precious possession of a person.”
And my answer was:
Faith is the most precious possession of a person.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said,
“You will not enter Paradise until you have faith, and you will not have faith until you love each other. Shall I direct you to something which if you fulfill you will love one another? Spread peace among yourselves”
Yes, Eli, I agree with what is said about “understanding” the Truth, it is because of this that I differentiate between mental activity, which I term menting, and neoption. The truth is beyond the capacity of the former whilst the latter is the means to the awareness.
In this regard readers may wish to search my journal for these two words.
wonderful blog, thanks for bringing me here. I have fallen behind with blogs…
Eli, I am sorry I don't have much time to participate in OLMW, an initiative I believe very greatly in. It is pleasing that at least this 'bright Gaian' decided to ask the question! Isn't it?
I believe the closed mind is a greater danger to building universal consciousness and on a smaller scale, global community, than anything else. It is what leads to 'zealots' and fanatics and all of those extremes which scare us among our own kind.
It is fine to follow a 'religious' path on the way to greater learning; it gets 'iffy' when we convince ourself that this is the sole way to get there. Granted, I think invariably we all end up in a similar space, which is acceptance of the Greater Force than us and an ultimate submission to It, but the route is convoluted.
We do very well for ourselves and others to try to stay open to alternate ways; be they cultural, religious or what you may.
I do know it is good to share the walk with open minded people like yourself who I have never seen, but do know that we connect spiritually and mentally, innately.
May I share a very good article which was directed to me by a Pakistani friend and which I have been trying to 'move around' my circle as much as I can? It is quite convergent with your ideals, I think. I hope you like it!
The Politics of Convergence… by Etsko Schuitema from South Africa. I like it very much.
Thank you for continuing to bless us with your wise insights.
Take care,
Best, Sherrilene
Ian, thank you for your words. I wanted to put the link to your journal here but unfortunately I don't have it. I am sure those interested would visit your home page and read it.
Nicole, your fantastic tap dance across Gaia has always amazed me, you are one AWESOME lady. Thank you for leaving your heartprints
Sherri, OLMW is a Gaia community project, and it will hopefully be here for all Gaians to help develop into a meaningful database long after I am gone. There is no hurry, take your time and when you are free to participate, join hands.
I thank you for the link to this article.
Eli, I have some minutes ago sent you a message with all the information but, on seeing your question above, I may have given you too much as the journal to which I referred is my Gaia journal - or blog.
:-)
Ian, thanks for your mail, but now that you have already explained it here, my objective is done. Thanks again for dropping in
_()_
How wise and how well you put this Eli, yes truly One faith, One brilliant light, at the same time beautiful, gentle, peace, love, warmth, compassion and tranquility and so much more. Namaste my friend.
Wonderful posts and replys,
inspiring and filled with connection…
Thank you..
Love
Ange..
Thank you Gael, I have missed you here. Namaste to you dear friend
Thank you Ange for leaving your warm heartprints
Eli, am still your friend, my friends number 350 + it's a lot to keep in touch with!!
Always pleased to hear from you, I tend to pick up on friends blogs, and I always respond when someone contacts me. Also Mum is in hospital again and more time consuming when she is at home bless her, she is keeping the hospital on their toes!!! I see your warm footprints often my friend, hugs.
Onetowe I like to think of it as each is one but discover together there is a we to it all, and that is the one in all of us. Travel one to we and we are one.
J.M.