What is “faith”?
Faith is the overriding of expectations.
We “expect” based on previous data and experiences, thus “expectation” can limit the creation of new experiences, as “you get what you expect” from within the deep core of the self.
But if expectations are formed from an already limited perception of the “past,” then the evolution forward will (most likely) be slow … One step forward, two steps back.
“Faith” – on the other hand – is a type of expectation; however, it is IN SPITE OF previous events and ideas. In this sense, having “faith” means you are not creating an expectation of a future by remaining glued to the past and the limitations expressed there. “Faith” implies an openness, a receptivity, which is counter to the normal aspects of “expectation.”
“Expectations” based on previous experiences and data create a type of “closed” system. “Openness” and “receptivity” are stunted because the expectation is reliant on already “perceived” or “known” data; whereas “faith” provides an open door for new unknowns to have entry into one’s experience.
How you approach these unknowns within the act of “faith-expectation” is key. Do you dread them as possible setbacks – or potential treasures that lead to success?
“True faith” doesn’t ask one to deny their senses or suspend reason. It suggests that certain data might be missing, but when such data falls into place, it will further support and exemplify reason, understanding, and fit appropriately within the framework of one’s senses. In other words, it will enlarge/expand such sensory awareness versus annihilate one version to be replaced with another.
“You get what you expect” is a truism when we look at the core of beliefs and how personal psychology molds the behaviors of self in relation to the exterior environment — and how that environment always mirrors us back. But if what you expect is solely conditioned on limited past experiences and how you think about those past experiences, the future can only grow and express within that paradigm. New or “novel” experiences would be stunted to a certain degree (sometimes large, sometimes small, depending on how you view certain aspects of the past).
“Faith,” again, doesn’t ask you to abandon your senses or your reason. What it does is open a door to certain possibilities you wouldn’t otherwise be open to having come into your experience. It forces you to trust that your experience can grow by positive measures DESPITE not knowing all the details — despite what “past” data you may be holding onto that would typically define the breadth of your own expectations.
“Faith” helps declare, “The past does not equal the future” and gives your ability to mold expectations in a much more expansive and potentially productive, positive manner.
Don’t equate “faith” to a religious doctrine.
Rather, it’s most associated to one’s own expectation about the nature of personal experience — one’s journey through a PERSONAL LIFE — one’s perception about the possibilities of an emergent physical/material future Now moment. It has nothing to do with doctrine; but rather, how the mind works in the formation of expectations and the creative energetic-frequency matrix such expectation radiates when it comes to the creation of personal reality/experience.
“Faith” offers the permission to accept “unknown” variables to help bring an expansiveness to the nature of expectations; an expansiveness that traditionally wouldn’t be there if expectations were based solely on the past and what we perceive the past data “told us” in relation to reality — especially if that past data was limited in its scope.