"Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would "lief", or wish it to be. The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits with his preconceived ideas and wishes. Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be". Alan W. Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity.
So...what if I admitted that actually, nothing is wrong with my shaky, insecure world of falling upwards? That I do not have to seek conformity with any way of life; that I do not have to squeeze myself into any idea of how "it" -- God, love, life, family, men, community, religion -- should be? What if all I had to do is to accept, embrace and be grateful for my experience just as it is, without attempting to bring it to some "average" abstract normality? Whatever it may turn out to be, I want my life real. Then (shrug) just go and live it as it is.
yes yes YES! Once again M you come up with "the goods" at just the very moment when I need them. How strangely unconventional is my own life lived, as it is, in strange counterpoint to the Anglican Church and the Franciscan Third Order... sometimes it seems doubtful that all the disparate elements can work together in the same piece of music and then I read your blog and think, yes, well, just have to keep on with the dance, God composes harmoniously with crooked counterpoints :-)
ReplyDeleteLife is more or less an experiment in which we look and listen for the signs ( and we can find them). Belief and faith? : its all for the people who write self-important books to analyse such things. Marianna is truly and instinctively right though - LIVE IT AS IT IS
ReplyDeleteNot quite, Rijselman, and not instinctively, either ; the whole point is that « instinctively » I tend to do just the opposite, namely, try to bring life in conformity with different standards and ideas of how it should / shouldn’t be.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you can live your life “as it is” only if you have faith – the openness of mind, the willingness to embrace all experience as God’s gift – regardless of how it fits or doesn’t fit into your ideas, categories, expectations and fantasies about life. If you only have beliefs, you will never be living in a real world – only in a more or less pleasant fiction.
I am grateful there are people who analyse these things and write self-important books about them. This one, The Wisdom of Insecurity, is immensely important. Few books in my life came so timely and feel so much like a home-coming. I am fully on the side of those who try to understand, using analysis as a tool; but of course, I am just a Five :=))