01-07-2012, 05:18 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-07-2012, 05:22 PM by Bring4th_Austin.)
(01-07-2012, 04:25 PM)ShinAr Wrote:(01-07-2012, 01:06 PM)zenmaster Wrote: This is why I asked the question, because the definition is subjective and people will think they are talking about the same thing otherwise.
(01-07-2012, 10:30 AM)ShinAr Wrote: Faith is simply hope that what you believe will come to pass.
Perhaps this is so for you, but for me it's definitely not "a hope that what I believe will come to pass". For me, hope is nothing but another attachment. Also, "what will come to pass" exists in a necessarily make-believe future. Combine those things and you have yet more transient desire, because that desire is the only thing that can sustain hope.
For me, one description of faith would be something like a recognition of current participation in a universal, infinite connection and continuity. This is not one's particular desires or expectations as 'hope' might engender.
Zen,
Faith is choosing to believe in something that you cannot prove by scientific evidences. faith is hope that what you choose is actually true and real. I am unsure as to what you are arguing here.
I would agree with Zenmaster. Your definition of faith may be valid for some, connecting hope to the idea. But I also feel that hope usually only serves to detach us from our present experience. We can "hope" something is true despite the fact we can't prove it, or we can simply accept the current experience at "face value" without hope or fear, realizing that what we're experiencing will serve us in whatever way we need it to.
Faith in an afterlife seems to deal with a similar issue. Hoping that our experience doesn't end in death removes some importance on what we are experiencing. For me, it should be seen as a red flag. If we hope that an afterlife exists, how can we trust our own discernment regarding information involving an afterlife? We know that humans will believe what they want to. How do we know that we aren't attaching ourselves to a particular way of thinking simply because it promises that we will continue on after death? The bias of hope will affect our judgement. Realizing our experience isn't futile doesn't have to be connected to the idea of bodily death.
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The only frontier that has ever existed is the self.
The only frontier that has ever existed is the self.