A TREATISE ON FAITH
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews, 11:1)
Of the many deeply satisfying expressions about faith to be found in Scriptures, I think we turn most often to these words attributed to Paul, although many scholars are of the opinion that Paul is none other than Apollonius of Tyana. These words stir in us the unconscious faith by which the psychic nature functions, a faith that is in us, and which sustains us at those times when, in the outer world, we see nothing but darkness and despair. They are confirmation that our sense or feel that the essential rightness of all that is, is the result of an inner knowledge, though that knowledge may not be perceptible to our mental faculties.
Yet, in actual experiences, the word faith stands for a different meaning for each individual, a meaning that is shaped by and depends upon the degree in which his consciousness has expanded into understanding the fundamental results of experience; this would be the only possible basis for a referent which the term "blind faith" could represent. This falls by the wayside when we observe the great amount of faith displayed by animals, especially our pets. Many have had dogs which manifested so great a faith in them that they became quite conscious of their responsibility, sometimes in self-conscious shame when they failed to live up to the trusting faith, the responsibility, placed in them.
Let us take a closer look at this something we call faith and see what a large part it has and plays in our consciousness every moment of every day in our lives, for it just may be possible that in much that we take for granted we are overlooking the very basis or foundation for it. Conditionality can and does become an unconscious habit; so much so that it passes unnoticed. For example, say to a person known as a skeptic or agnostic, "If it were not for the faith upon which you live, operate and function you would be so completely handicapped, circumscribed and confused you would not or could not live a fraction of what you call a normal existence." It is the reaction you would get which illustrates my point. We are so conditioned to living by faith that it passes unnoticed.
In following through with this closer look, be patient, for it may at first appear inconsequential to the exceeding largeness of THAT which we call faith. Enter a house, sit down in a chair, go to a tap, draw and drink a glass of water, eat some food, thank your host, leave the house, get in your car, step on the starter, drive down the streets to your home, etc., etc. These main factors and thousands of minor details connected therewith reflect such an enormous confirmation of one's faith--pure faith--that if we took time out and had fortitude enough to describe the completeness of the unconscious faith displayed, we would wind up having nothing else but faith, as a substance, supporting the whole operation and every minute detail thereof. And this enormous display of faith was based on knowledge, although you may be unconscious of; i.e., you may have forgotten, how you obtained this knowledge.
In our School of the Natural Order we often say to our students, "Remember in this 'thing' we call life that there are only three operational forces in which we live or by which we are governed and chaos, faith and knowledge are the labels for them. If we do not have the recollection of knowledge--the Gnosis--we must of necessity fall back on faith; if we lose faith there is nothing left except chaos."
Imagine, if you can, nothing except chaos. Now go back and repeat, "Enter a house, sit down in a chair," etc. But this does not disclose all of the faith signified by the casual visit; the imaginative example of chaos merely brings the more recently acquired knowledge to the surface for recollection. Let us dig a little deeper. When you enter a house, you have faith that you are not going to step into a trap door, you have faith that the floor is going to hold you up, that the roof is not going to fall in, etc. When carried through a multiplicity of particulars, this shows great faith in a considerable number of carpenters, masons, steel workers, concrete men, architects, planners, builders, etc., a host of men you have never seen; so it sums up into faith in your fellow-man. You actually walked on faith when you went to the tap, and when you drank a glass of water, your faith expanded so comprehensively that it included an army of men and women--from the city 'dads,' waterworks system planners, builders and maintenance men to plumbers, welders, etc.; but when you stepped on the starter of your car and drove down the streets to your home, faith became so enormous that we find it quite impossible to delineate.
And Mr. Skeptic sits on a chair in your home, sipping a beverage you have prepared, with his car outside--which he expects to be there when he goes out--and blandly says, "I have no faith in anything," when every act--even the act of speaking--and everything said rests completely and wholly on faith. One of the most outstanding examples of faith which he portrays is the money in his pocket. It brought him there, it put clothes on him, shoes on his feet, etc., ad infinitum. If money is not a symbol of faith in organized society, in government, in the credit system, in figures on ledger sheets in banks and clearing houses, in the Treasury, in land, rocks, minerals, gravitational fields, etc., again, ad infinitum, what is it? When faith disappears, so does money--the symbol of substance.
Why are we so shocked, aroused and enraged when an appointed or elected representative of all of us--from the policeman on the corner to the head of a government--is found unfaithful to his trust? It is because the only 'thing' we have, that which we cannot today live without--namely, faith--is threatened! Many will not see this until after chaos comes; how they will remember it--then! Now we live on and by faith--faith alone; then we shall die by the hundreds of thousands when faith is no more with us.
Does this closer look, as scant as it is, indicate the significance of what we mean by the word faith? Reread the foregoing; work your feeling-awareness into it as you read, for among many other 'things' it is important that you realize what we mean when we say of those who have lost faith that they are damned.
Three points have been suggested which require elucidation: (1) If faith cannot exist without knowledge, whence came the so-called forgotten knowledge, or as some would say, "knowledge in the unconscious," operating as faith when one so confidently enters a house, sits down on a chair, etc.? (2) Faith represents a force. What force? A sustaining force of such magnitude that it becomes or is described as the basis of "this 'thing' called life." The whole of the fundamental or foundational actuality for existence, on this level, most certainly requires explanation. And (3), faith symbolizes a substance. The word faith is even used as a synonym for substance. Then how is that, which the words faith and/or substance represent, to be described? Let us label these three: Faith as Knowledge, Faith as Force, Faith as Substance, and treat them separately, although that which is signified is one.
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