[Sri Ramakrishna] Faith

[Guest guest]

Dear Kendra...

 

Thank you for your candid thoughts from your childhood.

In my musings, I have also wondered what is the ingredient that gives some

children complete faith in themselves and others none at all. Vivekananda as

is known deemed faith in oneself as of paramount importance. Thinking about

it i came to the conclusion (perhaps wrongly) that it depends on the amount

of support and uconditional love we receive from our elders. Of course there

is always the question of Nature versus Nurture but to the extent that

nurture is responsible unconditional love is critical....i think.

 

i was a wimp when i was young...perhaps i am still to a large extent but

nowhere near what i was when i was a child!! But my faith altho lacking in

myself, was never lacking in the goodness of God and the fact that He would

somehow see me through all the fear and the insecurities that would beset

me...! And despite my lack of faith in myself my faith in an all powerful

loving God did see me through my fears....and so i still contest in my own

mind the saying by Vivekananda " if you have faith in all the living gods and

no faith in yourself, it is tantamount to nothing " ...i am testimony to

having, literally no faith in myself and faith in God as a child and coming

through...

 

So i still have unresolved questions as to how i developed a belief or a

faith or a trust in GOD when i lacked it within me for myself...

Perhaps that is why such questions were resolved to the realm of previous

lives ...anything that cannot be answered in this life were attributed to

previous lives by the Sages of yore!

 

 

There is another word that you have come up with here: Conviction. i spose

anything that you are convinced about that you cannot rationalise or

articulate is faith...

 

Thank you for your thoughts..it helps me much..

 

 

 

>Once, when I was a teenager, I spent a Saturday night at a friend's home,

>and in

>the morning I went with her to Quaker Sunday school (I am Jewish). There

>were

>about eight kids there. The teacher asked each one in turn whether he or

>she had

>faith, and each one said no. I was the last one, and I surprised myself by

>saying, " I have faith in myself. " He replied dryly to the effect that I was

>either a genius or a fool.

> Later when I thought about it as an adult, I understood that faith in

>oneself is indispensable for the spiritual path. You must have the faith

>that

>you can be true to your ideals, in order to proceed with courage. To me

>faith is

>a kind of knowledge, not the opposite of rationality. But I really prefer

>the

>word " conviction. " An Indian friend once told me that conviction is

>nothing but

>realization in disguise.

>

>Kendra

>

>

>

>_______

>

>Get your free @ address at

>

>

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

> So i still have unresolved questions as to how i developed a belief or a

> faith or a trust in GOD when i lacked it within me for myself...

> Perhaps that is why such questions were resolved to the realm of previous

> lives ...anything that cannot be answered in this life were attributed to

> previous lives by the Sages of yore!

 

Maybe " you " didn't develop faith--it was a gift from God. Everything is His

anyway.

You may have had a sufficient degree of faith in yourself without realizing

it. There are more qualities within yourself than you know--some of them are

latent. Changing conditions may cause them to emerge at any time. An example of

this is when people, during an emergency, discover within themselves resources

of courage and strength to help others that they did not know they had.

 

 

 

 

 

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