Faith and Belief, or Faith v Belief

One of the deepest acclamations of any of the Christian mystics is that of Mother Julian of Norwich. "All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." 

T S Eliot, who knew the mystics well, echoed her words in Four Quartets:-

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and 

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flames are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one 

For me this is neither escapism into a world of vain hope, nor escapism from the "reality" that our world is in fact one of suffering and is ultimately "a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The faith that "all shall be well" allows me to dig as deep as I am able into the pain and suffering of our world, to look it directly in the eye. The holocaust, the pain of children, the insidious onset of cancer..........We all have had our own share and I give thanks that so far my share has not been as great as for many others. 

I have noticed that many shy away from such subjects, which makes me suspect that faith and the will to know of them do go hand in hand.

As I know it, faith is not belief. Belief is in something specific. That we "live on after death", that the "perpetrators will get their comeuppance". Beliefs are endless and can be grasped at. They can divide us from others. Often they can be clung to through thick and thin and pride taken in the way we do so, looking perhaps for our reward from some Sky God who seeks out the "true believers."

Faith, for me, is a letting go. Faith has the potential for communion, to unite two as one; perhaps even to act in the face of suffering.

It can be ridiculed.

Whether I am heading for the Pure Land

Or heading for hell

All is in Amida's hands

Namu-amida-butsu

No more to say