4. Semantics: The Trouble with Words

Barriers to faith can also be constructed from our reactions to words, or to the subjects they represent. How many times have you been a witness or party to an argument over what was said versus what was meant? What we believe to be plain and simple may be taken to mean something quite different from what was intended.

We can be irritated by words; we can even close our minds and blame our attitude on words and the negative associations we’ve drawn between some words and our own emotions.

He...She...It?

Even the use of pronouns can tie some folks in knots. Eventually someone is going to coin an acceptable and palatable English unisex word that means ‘he’ and ‘she’, ‘hers’ and ‘his’. Until then, if we want to be all-inclusive, we are stuck using either the awkward-to-read: s/he (his/hers) or the sometimes stuffy-sounding “one”. After running around in circles for a while, I decided to play it by ear. Most of the time I use the mutual “our” and “we”, but where appropriate, I use the space-conserving neutral form of “he” and occasionally, the more personal “I” and “me” with the hope that you, dear reader, will look beyond the words, to the meaning.

Superkalifragilistikexpealedocious...

Words that have no relevance to our lifestyle often remain out of sight and unknown until the subject they describe becomes acceptable and familiar, or normal. The words that describe the function of computers are common now, but it wasn't long ago that such terms as “hard drive” and “software” belonged to a small sector of people who held computer-related jobs. Now software is sold in dollar stores.

Separation and Connection...

Words can reveal our thoughts or conceal them, allow connection to others or cause separation. Sometimes we allow ourselves to get tangled up in others' words as well as our own, insisting that the onus is on others to make us understand perfectly—so we'll know what to think, and how to react. We can be so bogged down in our concern with correct usage, and expression of language, that we make “words” a Big Issue, as if they have relevance of their own.

Sticks and Stones may Break my Bones
but Names will Never Hurt Me....

Our reliance on linguistic certainties can become so huge and unstable, that we may even carve words into scapegoats, blaming our own anger on words and their definitions. Not only do we want perfection in our lives, we want it in our speech, or at least in the utterances of others! But language is simply a human-created means of communication, a series of lip, tongue, and jaw movements that give form and symbolism to the expiration of air, as it moves past a vibrating larynx.

Certainly, we must try to be as clear as possible, so that our words reflect our behaviour and perspective, but we need not insist that everything be perfectly correct before we exercise our ability to apply faith: faith in each other and faith in "God" (however we imagine God).

A Single Thread in an Infinite Fabric...

The trouble with words is they can close our minds if they have been continuously associated with subjects that have no pertinence to our lives or connection to our logic. When trying to describe the spiritual aspects of life, how can any statement be definitive when spirit itself cannot be defined, limited, or corralled? It cannot.

We have to stretch our imaginations when it comes to discussing spirituality, and to keep in mind that expressions and beliefs that seem bizarre to us, may owe their strangeness simply to the words that have been used in an attempt to communicate an impression, idea or feeling.

What one person might describe as an hysterical reaction, another might interpret as channelling, or as an electro-chemical surge, an altered state of consciousness, or an encounter with a spirit or ghost. It does not matter that the approach, perspective, or description is different. What is important is the acknowledgement that mysterious experiences and states of mind occur, and that the effort to explain them is an attempt to understand and share them, not a bid to reach an absolute truth, or to create some irreversible fact.

Words are merely symbols of reality used in our attempt to describe and define our interaction with the world outside our Self.

Next

3. Barrier:Relying on Experts for Spiritual Answers

If we are looking for someone who holds definitive answers that will convince and satisfy us completely, we doom ourselves to finding the flaws (in whatever way we define them), for everything can be viewed from innumerable perspectives.

• Exercise healthy scepticism but remain open-minded and fair.

Pointing out what is wrong with an idea (or behaviour/habit etc.) can be helpful if it serves to disrupt the processes that have led to a harmful perspective. However, attempting to measure the value of a belief (philosophy, religion, or way of life) by looking for and listing what has not been included or mentioned is futile for no one can include every perspective on every issue that cries out to be appreciated or addressed. That does not mean that those views and feelings do not exist, or would not have been included and described had there been time, space and cause for their inclusion.


Misuse and misunderstanding of language.

Language changes through the years. Meaning bends. If we think the worst, we should probably seek clarification.

Next

2. Barriers: Guilt, Lack of Confidence, Reversed or Undefined Priorities

• Most of us have ideas and practices that keep us from fully activating our faith in the underlying intelligence of the universe.

We may live (or have been raised) under difficult circumstances that have allowed us to develop flawed beliefs – through little fault of our own. If we lack confidence in ourselves, or, if we continually feel guilty about our errors or ashamed of our perceived shortcomings, we need to overhaul our beliefs. In a similar sense, if we feel better about ourselves when we injure others, (or if we think that these actions are necessary or of minor importance), our logic has been damaged. To repair it, we must sort through our assumptions and simplify our view of life.

We must practise seeing our own negative behaviour for what it is, not as a retaliatory gesture, but simply our own negative behaviour, something that once we learn to live with can be vastly improved by modifying our logic and learning how to develop and practise self-control until our new behaviour automates itself.

The strange nature of such a change is that before we acknowledge our own caustic contributions, we will constantly run into people who push our buttons and bring out those feelings and behaviours. Once we get a grip on our own actions and decide what the limits of our own behaviour are, we will find that most of the people we now meet are not the sorts of people who need to push our buttons. When we do come upon someone who makes the attempt, we realize that the button no longer exists, and even that the attempt to provoke us is actually quite transparent and funny.

• When a healthier perspective has been developed, we no longer think the same way and therefore, no longer stimulate the same neurons. Our way of responding to the world changes, and so does the way the world responds to us.
  

However, if our perception is incorrect or incomplete, and we then believe our flawed interpretation, we stand a good chance of making life happen as we fear it already is.

Practically-speaking...

For instance, if we incorrectly believe that Jo Blo down the hall doesn't like us, we will experience a certain reaction every time we have to deal with this person. If we find out that we were mistaken (and that Jo does like us, but is shy or very reserved), the response we had before will cease to occur. We'll feel completely different now when we run into J.B., and our subsequent behavior will cause a new effect.

And that's just in the easily trackable macro world where cause and effect are easily apprehended! On a micro-level, the electochemical signature we generate when feeling benign would certainly be tagged as 'preferable' to one that exists when we are feeling irritated, aggravated or just plain p*ssed off.

But how, you might ask, do you alter that irritated, aggravated or otherwise negative state of mind or emotion if you receive undeniable proof that Joe Blow up the hall does not like you? (I'll be writing in a future post about how to be okay with some dissension, but the quick answer is: continue to be your natural self. Remain open to reconciliation. (If Joe decides you're not so bad afterall and extends an olive branch, always try to give things a chance. Of course if you suffer palpitations, fear and panic attacks whenever Joe walks in, it's probably best to be satisfied with doing what comes naturally - even if that includes getting the h*ll out of the room. Sometimes we're just not ready for certain associations (which may be hiding future obstacles that we are not experienced enough to overcome.)

(Don't deny your inner voice, but never pretend your intuition is guiding you if it's not. If you do, you are "impersonating" your inner guide. Eventually you will forget the real voice of the guide (i.e. the sensation of intuitive knowledge) because you will always be injecting your own will upon everything. Live life as naturally as possible. Live according to your own values and don't worry too much about the short run.)

The Golden Rule = Elur Nedlog Eht

It should be said that the Golden Rule, "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you." applies backwards too. Those who treat others well, sometimes don't afford themselves the same kindnesses. If we are too frequently bogged down by guilt or other self-castigating emotions, (shame, anger, embarrassment, envy, jealousy, distrust, etc.), we must look at ourselves and others through more forgiving eyes, until we feel that we have discovered our most mature perspective (for this moment).

Next: Relying on Experts for Answers

1. Faith Barriers: Irrational Beliefs and Petulant Expectations

“If God exists, why does He allow such horrendous things to happen? Why does He permit people to be so evil?” We've all heard a similar lament and may have felt that way ourselves at times. While some may issue such a challenge out of cynicism and sincere disbelief, for others it has little to do with “not believing” in God and more to do with momentary anger and frustration expressed with a sort of symbolic defiance. If you were to suggest that God might not be a He (or a She), you might be roundly criticized (and wrongly judged) by a few of the same people who moments ago claimed to be non-believers.

• A declaration of non-belief is sometimes simply the refusal to accept current interpretations. Many of those who say, “I don’t believe in God” do not necessarily refuse to entertain the notion of an All-Encompassing Essence or God or Allah (or whatever group of letters one finds most comfort in using.) (I'm going to type, "God" as I go along because those are the letters I was raised with.)

Those who can (temporarily) no longer sense the existence of any sort of "higher power" usually take an inordinate amount of pride in thinking logically, not realizing that it is illogical to reject the possible existence of God only because a satisfactory understanding has not yet been developed. We would not apply such irrational thinking to science or business! And yet, sometimes we may feel that we must discard all things God-connected for completely illogical reasons.

While we may be open to the possibility that intelligent life (however defined) exists beyond Earth, most of us have never seen a UFO or anything else that might prove that there is extraterrestrial life. We do not disallow a belief in gravity just because we cannot adequately explain it ourselves, and yet we often permit ourselves to do this about the very state of Being that exists supra-dimensionally, and is a fundamental requirement of existence.

• We continually make decisions about the true nature of life; we are constantly choosing what to believe, whether we’re conscious of making those choices or not.

In a complex society such as ours, we may have so much crammed into our days and weeks that we have to rely on others to help us make some of our choices. We cannot control every aspect of our multifaceted lives; we must be able to trust the butcher, the baker, and the electronic candlestick maker, not to mention the pharmaceutical folks, the car and truck makers, our religious leaders, and our dear politicians.

To whom do we entrust our minds, bodies, and souls? What beliefs guide our lives? Again, we decide. Who is credible and who is not? Who espouses beliefs that are closest to what we already believe or sense? Yesterday the biggest thing we may have had to organize was a closet or a business, a financial plan or a vacation. Today it is clear that some of our beliefs need to be sorted, with the most self-destructive ones chucked in the nearest bin.

Next: Guilt, Lack of Confidence, Reversed or Undefined Priorities

Intro Part I: In Defence of Faith

Though science has made enormous strides in the past century, the way we perceive the world around us is still determined solely by the scope of our logic and the limits of our senses. We may want to believe in a life after death, or in angels, or in clairvoyance, in ghosts, messages in crop circles, alien intelligence or mind-over-matter, but if an idea or feeling cannot be represented, explained logically or connected to something we already know, it doesn’t hook itself into our daily lives. If we cannot see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, touch it, or explain it, it is very difficult to bring it into a practical range – and so it remains beyond the borders of our reality.

It is understandable, logical and downright commendable to be slow to trust or believe in something that has yet to be proven. It is good to question and test the safety and the worthiness of the goods we produce and services we provide. It is wise to cast a wary eye at those who claim to be able to contact our dead Uncle Strunk, or to know our future for money-by-the-minute, first five minutes free. But to allow our cynicism to spill over into the subject of “faith,” is to lock our consciousness away from that which warms our blood and makes us living Beings, for logic and reason have severe limitations if used without our intuition, keeping us bound entirely to a physical plane, a place where the tail truly wags the dog.

Faith is often thought to be an invisible rabbit's foot, a talisman for those who are afraid of death and even more afraid of life. Some believe that if faith were anything more than a mentally manufactured superstition, the world would have become a far better place, centuries ago, when there was little scientific knowledge and much superstition. But by expecting (our own version of) a better world to be the proof of the value of faith, we must assume that a majority of “other people” has embraced faith. Such thinking only reinforces our own barrier, and prevents us from moving beyond it, for we cannot presume of others, what we do not assume for ourselves.

• We cannot understand what faith is by looking at someone else who claims to know what it is. We must experience faith ourselves to understand its value.

And that of course is the problem. How do we know what faith is when our perception of it has been suppressed? Even the very word “faith” is usually relegated to a religious realm, removing it from those who view religion as a separate subject, not immediately relevant in today's world. Those who believe that faith is tied directly to religion might feel compelled to disregard the whole notion of faith simply because of its alleged connections. Who wants to believe something just because some nasty or misguided (fallible human) character told your ancestors that they would be doomed if they did not believe it? No one. We all want to know that what we believe has its roots in ancient wisdom, and that we have understood it all accurately.

Even those who consider themselves religious and those who believe in God (or Allah, or Brahman, or Yahweh, or whatever other word we mere humans claim as our word) may have a problem with “faith.” (We might say that we ‘believe’ but when things go ‘wrong’ can we truly say that we have faith?)

To those who are spiritual, honourable, loving, kind, tolerant and forgiving, the issue of faith can be an irritant. It can be aggravating to think that something called “faith” may be eluding us.

And what about those who feel no connection to any religion? Is faith off limits to those who do not attend a church, temple or synagogue? Is it something only congregants can claim?

• Everyone has had the experience of faith even those who have no religious beliefs whatsoever. Even those who cringe at the very word “faith” have lived it.
  

“F-a-i-t-h” is experienced as an emotion, and is as difficult to describe in words, as any other emotion. We feel “happiness” and “sadness,” “joy” and “anger,” “love” and “hatred,” and though these are merely words as they are printed on this page, we are able to relate to the experience they symbolize. We know what the emotional sensation is – or at least we know our own experience of the emotion. We cannot touch or see, smell, hear or taste the feeling of happiness, but we can relate our emotion to describable elements that are experienced through our senses.

Now you may say that this is obvious and does not need to be said; however, the most obvious, familiar and basic facts often fall beneath our notice and occasionally need to be accentuated and given some weight so that they are strong enough to act as a foundation for more intuitive logic. Even to reiterate that we are all of the same species, experiencing the same sensations can help us to modify our many erroneous beliefs, including those we mimic or have learned or adopted reluctantly from our families and our cultures.

• Faith is not the same as belief.

Belief is born of logic, and evolves over time, while faith is established in a single step. And whereas belief is definable with words, faith embraces both the describable and the inexpressible for it belongs to an infinite field. Because the scope of faith exceeds human boundaries, it is easy to lose our feel for infinity and to find ourselves smack-dab-in-the-middle of belief, something we may think about once in awhile, but which has little direct relationship to the circumstances of our daily lives.

Next: Intro Part II: In Defence of Faith

Intro Part II: In Defence of Faith

Is it possible to have faith and still be objective?

The brilliant thing about faith is it invites us to be curious, seeking and objective. A whole planet of wonder always awaits our notice. It’s unavoidable. While we are still in grade school, we are taught to be observant and to test our hypotheses. To develop a logical view of life, we must be methodical. B must follow A. We can’t go off half-cocked believing any old thing just because it might seem to be true at first glance. We must test our evaluations to make sure they are based on reality, and that our conclusions can carry us through.

• Some of the biggest faith barriers are those maintained by faulty perceptions based on incorrect or unexamined beliefs, mistaken behaviour, information and habit.

Since science has provided millions of rational explanations for the natural world, it is an easily made mistake to assume that every web of logic we weave will result in the only pattern possible, or in some unalterable truth. It will not. As a society, we seem to suppose that we have everything pretty well figured out; yet we’re always back engineering, reconstructing what we know in the present to understand what has already happened, what has already come into being. New discoveries can swiftly change what we think, toppling ideas and beliefs that suddenly seem faulty, inadequate, unsophisticated, superstitious or simply infantile.

• Some beliefs practiced and developed, mature and strengthen us.

• Other beliefs allow understanding to atrophy. Such beliefs are closed, and we tend to cling to them irrationally even when the evidence around us points to serious errors in our thinking.
  

Peace on Earth, good will and unanimous agreement may elude our grasp at the moment, or even in this era, but that does not mean that mutual understanding will always be beyond our reach. And even though there may be no explanations now for certain mysterious phenomena, it does not mean that current conundrums will never be wrapped in logic and explanation, to exist as an unremarkable part of our daily lives.

• A very real barrier exists when we limit our understanding only to what can be proven in our own lifetime. It is constructed from our irrationality: our desire for proof before we engage faith, a contradiction in terms, ignored.

Faith is not merely blind belief. Rather than a replacement for rational thought, faith is a synthesis of both logical and intuitive knowledge. On a most specific and limited level, faith is the emotion that lets us keep moving forward into the unknown.

• Faith is the parent of twins: Logic and Emotion


• Belief is specific; faith is all-encompassing
  


• What belief is to hope, faith is to knowledge

Next: Irrational Beliefs and Petulant Expectations

Previous: Intro Part I: In Defence of Faith