TurquoiseB: > This morning I'm pondering the notion of "faith," which > I define as believing that one knows "the truth" about > something (or more likely in spiritual circles... > You didn't define the word 'spiritual'. Is that a belief in 'spirits'? Do you really believe in the spirits of the dead? What is a spiritual path?
You have to have faith that there is a spiritual world beyond the world of the senses. Without faith that the goal of enlightenment exists, there would be nothing to strive for. You were not born with an innate sense of the goal of enlightenment - you have to take on faith what your teachers tell you about the enlightened state. Or, maybe you read about enlightenment in a book or magazine, and you have faith that there is a transcendental field. Enlightenment is not something that you know about apriori. The question is really, are we free or are we bound? If free, then there is no need for a yoga; if bound, by what means can we free ourselves? Not sure exactly what kind of Buddhist you think you are, Turq. Traditionally Buddhists throughout the Buddhist world consider that the universe contains more beings in it than are normally visible to humans. Buddhists have no objection to the existence of the Hindu Gods. Nevertheless, Buddhists can't take refuge in the gods because the gods are not Buddha. That is, they are not enlightened. All the Hindu gods, for all their power, are not the final truth of things. Power does not necessarily entail insight. For Buddhists, the gods do not have the liberating insight. But, none of this entails that the gods do not exist or that the gods cannot have a powerful influence over our lives. Thus, the Buddhist has no problem with the gods like you seem to have. Work cited: 'Buddhist Thought' by Paul Williams Routledge, 2000 Read more: 'Buddhism in Practice' ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton Readings in Religion, 1995
