Sometimes it is said in spiritual endeavor that the student must have complete faith -- in the teacher or teachings or whatever. Have...no...doubt!
OK. As far as it goes, it sounds pretty good. Hard, perhaps, but ... well, OK.
Complete faith.
No doubt.
The fly in the ointment is that often (always?) the matter of faith is equated with belief ... to have an unalloyed faith is to believe in the teacher or teachings.
Anyone who examines belief knows that without doubt, belief hasn't got a leg to stand on... it's like talking about water and wetness.
And from this, I figure it is fair to deduce that complete faith points to something other than any belief, however well-adorned it may be.
It's not a criticism. Just an observation.
Nature is my teacher, which is...
ReplyDeletesight/site
sound/om
feeling/silence
reaching
believing by
baah
be leaving be leave be left
out
over
under
covers
standing
in the light
of day
and darkness
of belief in it
wordless
true
no
yes
This reminds me of my former teacher, Albert Low.
ReplyDeleteHe would prod me constantly during dokusan about having more faith in him as my “spiritual guide” (to which I would repeatedly respond that I had faith in nobody other than myself- and even then- but that I was there, wasn’t I?) Eventually, during a major crisis, I asked Albert point blank why anyone should practice at a center and in a zendo, under controlled conditions including dokusan where students had to pose questions formally to a guy posing as a teacher. The shrug I got in response and the glimmer of wounded pride in his eyes- he took my doubt personally it seemed- led me to the decision to leave the sesshin mid-way in order to avoid insulting the man further with my hypocritical presence in his zendo.
Call it faith or doubt, it was complete honesty.
I found my membership cheque in the mail some days later. It had been returned to me right after sesshin. The message was clear: don't come back.