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My friends, do you dare to be faithful above being right? She is most needed who is faithful, in a world that often protects itself against the rigors of faithfulness through affirmations of collective agreement. And, the beautiful word “conviction” is reduced to the meaning of “preference.” And, this is more dreadful when God’s Name is blasphemed in religion by being called upon to support the preferences and prejudices that one affirms without the courage to seek the Truth, even at cost to oneself, and, thus, does dishonor to God, Who is Truth.
Nan-in, a Japanese Spiritual Teacher lived 1868-1912. A University professor came to ask him about Zen. The Teacher served the professor tea. He poured his cup full and kept on pouring. The professor watched in confusion, finally, saying, “It’s overfull. No more will go in!” Master Nan-in replied, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and theories. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
Belief and faith are two different things. Adopting a faith or being part of a faith is not the same as having faith, or what the New Testament calls “faith-ing.” Belief is a step from immediate experience, for belief is a structure placed over experience. Belief is an interpretation, and that it is claimed to be true does not annul the fact that it is secondary to the lived Reality. Likewise, that secondariness itself makes the interpretation subject to distortion, possibly always to some loss of the original purity of the lived moment. And, the belief is helpful to the extent that it comports with Reality; otherwise, the claim is a hindrance to faithfulness.
Faith, while not rejecting belief, nevertheless, is able to have an open mind and open heart, for faith is teachable. Faith is teachable for it does not allow belief to separate it from experience, from Reality, into a divided mind, which compartmentalizes Life into segments and, then, assumes that fragmentation itself is Reality.
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Once, I was professor in a Religion and Philosophy department of a small college. A visiting professor arrived to give a Saturday class on world religions. The following week a student came to my office, telling me about the class. I asked, “Did he ever point out any likenesses among the faiths? Or, did he just note why they are wrong?” The student replied, “He just told us how they are wrong.”
Few persons are willing to think honestly, even fewer think originally. Many consider that their affirmations, creeds, confessions, and exclamations make their truths the Truth. Whether this laziness disguises itself as fundamentalism or liberalism, it amounts to the same.
To understand means to “stand under.” Therefore, to be a seeker of Truth means one surrenders to Experience, to Reality, and is, thereby, informed, or the Truth becomes “in-form,” or “in a shape.” We speak of grasping the truth. However, neither can we distort or grasp the Truth. Truth is received by her who is a servant of Truth and allows Truth itself to give itself form to the mind humbly teachable:
I will tell you straight what I think. I am a Christian Theologian; and I am bound, not only to assert, but to defend the truth with my blood and death. I want to believe freely and be a slave to the authority of no one, whether council, university, or pope. I will confidently confess what appears to me to be true, whether it has been asserted by a Catholic or a heretic, whether it has been approved or reproved by a council. (Martin Luther)
And, Truth is not religious truth, nor is it philosophical truth. Truth is not spiritual truth, Truth is not scientific truth. Truth is not objective truth, Truth is not subjective truth. Truth is not Christian or Buddhist, Communist or Socialist, Theist or Atheist, your truth or my truth, or our truth. Truth is Truth, and one acts idolatrous to subject Truth even to the most sacred claims. Indeed, Truth will not subject itself to any system, but all systems are judged by Truth.
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