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We simply cannot think ourselves into the life Life wishes to give us, to bless us with. Yet, we can easily think ourselves out of the adventure Life offers us.
To live by faith means, often, faith in "God." Persons say things like, "I trust God" or "I have faith in God" or "Have faith and all will be well." I do not criticize this, and in Presence, or Oneness, such devotional faith can arise. This treats "God" as an object, however, and One whom to have faith toward. In Presence, or Grace, faith is called pure faith, arising as Life Itself. This faithing is not toward anything, anyone, "God," and, so, is an inner certainty spontaneously arising and spontaneously disappearing as one means of Life expressing Itself. The more, then, the mind-and-body is drawn back into Presence, the more faithing arises for us. We do not think ourselves into it, we do not project it toward someone or something outside. Faith is; faith happens. Most fundamentally, this faithing is Life trusting Itself. In this, one cannot say, "I have faith," for faith is seen not to be a personal possession to have or to express.
* * *
I recall a creek near my childhood home. I had never walked it. One day, a few friends and I decided to walk it. We wondered, "Where does this lead?" We stepped into the water and began the adventure. We quickly got disoriented. At first, this was scary. We had no idea of where we were going, or the direction we were going in. We kept walking and suddenly found ourselves stepping out onto some open land. We, still, did not know where this land was. After walking more, we found out where we were and, from there, how to get back to a road leading us home. Looking back on this, I see we had an adventure. We wanted an adventure, we got it. If we had known where we were and where we were going, would it have been an adventure? Getting lost is essential to life as adventure; faith can lead one to being lost, as well as being found.
* * *
With what I am going through presently, the following scripture from the Jewish Scripture and Christian Bible has come to mind, a favorite of mine for many years, when I was a Christian clergyperson. In this, Genesis 12.1ff, promises are made based on Abram following the directive given. He is in what came to be called the land of Assyria, far from what came to be called by varied names, including Caanan, Israel, Palestine, the Promised Land.
The LORD spoke to Abram (later, Abraham), "Leave your native land, your people, and your kinfolk, to the land I will show you."
As a young Christian preacher and pastor, I found this a wise teaching signifying how we often have to leave somewhere before we are shown somewhere else. We make a decision to move on in some way ~ relationship, job, home ... ~, not knowing what awaits us. Life says, "Time to go, afterward I will show."
* * *
I sit here writing, many years after the adventure in the creek and speaking on the Genesis scripture, now surrounded by the scattered mess prior to another move. After relocating I estimate some 30 times in the last 39 years, I am moving again. Having always lived in the deep South of the United States, now in Florida, this transition is to the far Northeast, off the Atlantic coast.
I have written of walking away from my job, without other income, in early this year and solely on an inner sense of rightness: we could call this inner knowing or a heart knowing, contrasted with a reasoned decision based on conventional sense, often called common sense only for being common. ~ Yet, Life is not interested in prioritizing the common, the conventional, the majority way.
I have written of months later declining an offer at my dream opportunity of living at a spiritual retreat and offering teaching; that was declined for peace did not arise to say "Yes." I wondered, later, if I had made a mistake turning that down, even wrote later to attempt to open the possibility up again ~ thankfully, my offer did not receive even the politeness of a reply, leaving me without having to consider it once more. This confirmed the right choice had been made not to accept. I became grateful that I had not accepted a move that would not have been right for me, regardless of it appearing what I had wanted for years.
And, now, to move based, again, on the sense of rightness, an inner, heart certainty, and to a place I know no one, have never been, and was first alerted to as a potential place to live through a movie about 20 years ago. Ever since watching that movie and seeing the beauty of the land, I had never forgotten that as the one place I would like to live.
Now, many persons would ask, "Why?". Again, Life does not operate always through common sense or logical reasoning, and Life knows much more than we do both about ourselves and what we most deeply need or long for. We see ourselves as logical beings, while logic far exceeds thinking. We simply cannot think ourselves into the life Life wishes to give us, to bless us with. Yet, we can easily think ourselves out of the adventure Life offers us.
* * *
We are taught knowing where we are going is normal, not to know where we are going is unwise, impractical, inadvisable. We are taught this knowing is a thought, an idea, a mental plan excluding knowing arising from before, so outside, the mind. We extend this beyond decisions of everyday life, like what job to accept or where to move to live or our vacation destination or whom to marry, to thoughts about previous to birth, as in previous lives, to a so-called afterlife. This neediness to know is not a need of Grace, of our True Self, but of the sense of ego seeking security as a priority over faith and adventure.
So, is this knowing-as-thought really normal? Normal sometimes, not always? Only one way of knowing? Might it be possible the insistence to know in making decisions can as easily, maybe more easily, mislead than rightly lead? There is always so much more involved than we know mentally, after all. And, thought cannot embody what is before it, what cannot be interpreted into an idea, a reasoned-out plan. If we rely solely only on the mind, we exclude a vast landscape unseen from our decision-making.
* * *
So, when we are living from Grace, from Oneness, we are receptive to an inner and spontaneous certainty not prelogical as to time, but translogical, for prior to prelogical as to time. Simply put, Life has its own wisdom which is not within time. As to time, there was never a time when this wisdom was not, for this wisdom is Life.
This inner certainty does not exclude thinking, yet takes priority over thinking. In some matters, thinking will be all needed and useful, indeed, and thinking is itself an expression of Life.
* * *
Thought, being a reduced aspect of the knowing of Life, the latter including all potential information, is to serve Life, not Life serve thought. Life postures us to be receptive to an inner knowing, a pure certainty free of thought; in following this guidance we sense a clear peace and subtle joy. The more we allow Presence to come forth and mind to recede, putting mind into a position of subjection to Presence, we find this inner knowing to grow. Over time, we slowly adjust to this heart wisdom, this inner knowing. We, likewise, rely less on the advice of others ~ most of whom would direct us to common sense, rather than the knowing of and by Grace. And, we learn patience in letting the way show itself, rather than pushing toward making things happen as we think they ought and when we think they should. Seeing how this wisdom-of-Life works, we grow to live by pure faith. We no longer try to figure Life out, rather Life shows Itself to us. This frees us to live more contentedly and more free to be where we are fully and with the way unfolding, our being-with Life in a grateful communion. All of this reminds us of the wise words of Joan Tollifson, in Painting the Sidewalk with Water, quoted in our last writing...
Confusion requires thinking. The present moment is not confusing.
*The vision statement for Lotus of the Heart is Living in Love beyond Beliefs. These presentations, inclusive in nature, are invitations for persons to explore for himself or herself. Brian does not claim to have answers or the Truth for anyone. He provides pointers to Truth, so as to inspire others on his or her own journey of Truth, to compassionate living with Earth and all creatures sharing this planet.
*All material, unless another source is cited, is authored by the presenter of Lotus of Heart, Brian Kenneth Wilcox, Florida USA. Use of the material is permitted; Brian only requests that credit be given and to be notified at 77ahavah77@gmail.com . Also, for spiritual guidance via phone, Skype, or in-person, Brian can be contacted via the above email.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union, is available through major booksellers.
*Move cursor over pictures for photographer and title.
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