June 17th 2017
BSV Buddhist Society of Victoria
9.30 -4.30 pm
BSV Buddhist Society of Victoria
” To have faith is to trust your-self to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do, you will sing and drown. Instead you relax, and float”. Alan Watts.
Buddhism draws many for its’ love of questioning and rational inquiry into human liberation from suffering – however the Buddha also clearly believed in the power of ‘faith.’ In the sutras, it is said that ‘faith’ helps us to dive into life’s turbulent waters like a ‘courageous hero’ in order reach the far shore of ‘awakening.’ For many westerners faith has become a complex word – one does not have to look far to find numerous violations of human rights and dignity committed in its’ name. Yet, in the same way ‘blind faith’ needs to be interrogated, perhaps so too does ‘blind doubt.’ This quality could also be termed ‘habituated skepticism’ – a quality which too might cloak our receptivity and cement certain views in ways that restrict the free movement, along the feeling of ‘open possibility’, in our lives.
Come and join us for a day of inquiry onto the Buddha’s understanding of faith! What role does it play in our meditation practice? What, or who, exactly, are we putting our faith in? Is there a need to re-define, or re-claim this quality in a way that lands more congruently? In what ways might the disposition of faith fuel our practice?
