Hi All, I set out in this thread to see if we could redescribe faith as being opposed to dispair rather than disbelief. Matt pointed out that hope as well as faith can be viewed as the opposite of dispair, so our sense of well-being may be tied to two contradictory notions:
Hope: The notion that our personal investment in making the world a better place is sustained by the belief that things actually can get better. Faith: The notion that the world as it is now is perfect and that changing it would only ruin it. How do we reconcile the drive to improve ourselves and our world with a sense of the world as it is as already perfect? We are sustained in our efforts by our hope that what we do matters--that we can improve the world and ourselves. This hope sustains us even through hard times because we believe things can get better and that our hard times are only temporary. The wise among us have recognized that while we can't stop the waves, there is an ocean of calm beneath the waves--the highs and lows of life. They find bliss in identifying with this ocean of calm rather than with the waves, the static patterns. This is what Pirsig referred to as "180 Zen"--identifying with "Big Self" or dynamic quality rather than "small self," the static patterns of value. While this is a nice nourishing place to visit, it is nowhere to stay for long. It is in fact nowhere. The wisest among us have not only quit trying to stop the waves, they have also learned to surf. Nirvana is samsara. "Big Self" is "small self." The static patterns are Quality. The despair of "small self" is the absurdity of thirsty water. The wise still invest whole-heartedly in the betterment of the world, but all the anxiety is gone. What we do matters, but it is part of the inexorable ongoing migration of static patterns toward dynamic quality. Nothing we could ever do could stop this relentless process of life, nor would we ever want it to stop. The world is unfolding exactly as it should be, and we and all of our highs and lows are part of this process. This is "the return" in the hero's journey. This is competing the circle of "360 Zen." This is Buddhahood. This is faith, and this faith is not a hostage to any belief. This is why I am so unimpressed by the "I have something that you don't have" claims to faith made by many of the "faithful" I encounter. It seems to me that what they have is belief rather than faith. If their beliefs help them achieve faith, then super, but those claiming to have been "reborn a new being in Christ Jesus" so often seem to be the same assholes they were before their "miraculous transformative experience." They still have all the usual anxiety as the rest of us non-Buddhas. According to the Gospels, we are supposed to know they are Christians by their love, but more often than not, I just don't see it. If those who have had the "miraculous transformative experience" that such Christians claim to have had really were more loving than their neighbors, their proselyting would be more successful. Instead we are just asked to imagine how much worse they would be without Jesus. Of all the failed prophecies of all the religions, "they will know you by your love" may be the most disappointing. What do you think? Best, Steve Pirsig to McWatt, January 14th 1994 "The Sioux concept of self and higher self is one I hadn’t heard of. At first sight it seems like a striking confirmation of the universality of mystic understanding. In Zen Buddhism ‘Big-Self’ and ‘small-self’ are fundamental teaching concepts. The small-self, the static patterns of ego, is attracted by the ‘perfume’ of the ‘Big-Self’ which it senses is around but cannot find or even identify. (There is a Hindu parable in which a small fish says, ‘Mother, I have searched everywhere, but I cannot find this thing they call water’). Through suppression of the small-self by meditation or fasting or vision quests or other disciplines, the Big-Self can be revealed in a moment sometimes called 180 degrees enlightenment. Then a long discipline is undertaken by which the Big-Self takes over and dissolves the small-self into a 360 degrees enlightenment or full Buddhahood." Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
