Faith is one of the most misunderstood yet, curiously, most important issues that the individual on the Path will face. Its real nature needs to be properly recognized so that it can be adequately used or taken advantage of. In practical terms, there are three kinds of faith:

   1. blind faith,

   2. faith based on experience, and

   3. reasoned faith.

Blind Faith

Blind faith, first of all, is based on a mixture of unfounded belief and pure hope. Very often (but not exclusively), it is found in mystic or religious environments, resulting from the individual having been induced (often as part of a group), over a sometimes prolonged period, to accept an idea supporting a merely partial perception or otherwise unsupportable orthodoxy.

It is more often than not associated with a sense of the most forlorn hope, acting as a curtain behind which lurks nothing other than despair.

Faith Founded on Experience

Faith founded on experience is essentially based on memory of the individual or group having already been involved in the same or similar type of past circumstance, from which a positive or reasonably positive result emerged. It thus possesses “something worth waiting for” or “something to be fought for” on the grounds of being a historically proven reality that merely needs to be recovered or regenerated.

There is nothing “spiritual” about this sort of faith, irrespective of the circumstances, although many fondly imagine that it is. They thus believe that, if faithfully followed, it will lead to the reappearance of a wished-for state or set of circumstances that has an aura of “spirituality” about it, while also promising a materialistically happy and beneficial environment. These, however, are but idylls of delusion.

Faith Founded on Inner (Spiritual) Reason

Faith founded on inner (that is, spiritual) reason, is a different matter altogether. This is based on an intuitive inner recognition (even if only faintly perceived) of certain abstract principles or influences leading unavoidably in a certain direction, if not to an obviously specific outcome. The individual “knows” with an accompanying sense of growing certainty or near certainty that this is the path that must be followed if a particular inner purpose is to be achieved.

It has to be added that the purpose in question may lead the individual onward through either successive positive achievement or successive anguish (or a mixture of both) before the associated end is finally attained. In either instance, however, it is attended by a sense of stepping forward into a sort of darkness, which, although based on ignorance, is actually liberating in nature.

It is also always attended by a sense that once the first correct footsteps are taken in this direction, there is no turning back. The path ahead seems to move forward of its own accord and to be entirely impersonal in how it deals with us.

The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom

Having said that, however, there is one related subject that the individual on the Path has to consciously recognize. It involves the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Of these we are told: “Knowledge used is force expressing itself; wisdom used is energy in action.” [The Rays and the Initiations, A.A. Bailey]

We are further told that in relation to the psycho-spiritual development of man, there are two associated “threads” that link the individual to his Egoic source. These are what in Sanskrit are known as the sutratma (life thread) and the antahkarana (consciousness thread).

Initially, these two are separate, hence the dualistic sense associated with human self-consciousness. However, as definite progress is made on the Path, the two come ever closer together until at the third initiation they fuse, thereby bringing about a direct (although not fully self-conscious) connection between the spiritual Monad and the objective consciousness of the lesser self.

©2013 by J. S. Gordon. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission of Inner Traditions, Inc.
www.innertraditions.com

Article Source

The Path of Initiation: Spiritual Evolution and the Restoration of the Western Mystery Tradition
by J. S. Gordon.

Exploring the long history of the Mystery schools beginning with ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and India, Gordon examines the sacred metaphors and allegories of esoteric philosophy, metaphysics, occult science, and the Science of the Seven Rays as well as the Adept-inspired theosophical works of H. P. Blavatsky and A. A. Bailey.

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About the Author

J. S. Gordon (1946-2013) held a master’s degree in Western Esotericism from the University of Exeter and was a senior fellow of the Theosophical Society of England, where he lectured on ancient history and metaphysics. Known for his in-depth knowledge on the ancient Egyptian mystical tradition, he wrote several books, including The Path of Initiation and Land of the Fallen Star Gods.