what do you believe?

monday morning, and through my kinja, i stumble into a blog entry of my topography that opens this week with the grand question:

"So now I really want to know:
What do you believe? Do you have faith, or do you live outside it? How do you rationalize your fundamental view of the world? Can logic define it, or is something lost in translation?"

a question that is followed by thoughtful lines and more questions and quotes.

"I don’t keep a drawer of knife sharp words to define the shape of what I know. Tautology. Ignorance. Deism. How do you use the scientific method to argue the depth or scope of spiritual faith? How do you use logic as the basis for accepting or denying that which you cannot know about the movement of another person’s heart?" - Christina

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” - Buddha

"I believe we are all spiritual beings, seeking those things that power, position, or possessions can’t satisfy. Faith is a journey. It grows when nurtured. It turns stale and stiff when ignored. All I can do is live my life in a way that speaks to the love and faith I have found, to be authentic and open as the journey unfolds." - Lyric

"I read a quote once stating that there are two easy ways to get through life: to believe everything and to believe nothing. Faith, obviously, falls somewhere in between. Which is exactly why it’s not easy. And I don’t believe it is meant to be." - Julie

~

those lines moved me. and like most, i found it equally hard to define the shape of my faith in words. for me, faith is connected to life energy. to feeling the world, to feeling with the world. to trust in life. maybe that's for me is coming from the experience that you in fact can go and leap into a white page, and there is a net of words, of stories appearting. that connection is possible, across continents, beyond words.

another thing the question made me think of - i read a zen line this weekend, written by a monk, a long time ago.

Just don’t seek from others,
Or you’ll be far estranged from Self.
I now go on alone;
Everywhere I meet It:
It now is me; I now am It.
One must understand in this way
To merge with thusness.
- Dongshan Liangjie (807–869)

it touched me. this concept of merging with the world, with the thusness of now. to not go astray and look for abstract concepts, but to take the way to learn and follow ones own heart.

it was good and unexpected, to start the new week, the new month with those thoughts, and adding my thoughts just as the church bells were ringing eight, just as the sun was rising.

~