True and False Faith

Conversations of like-minded people on the deck of our ship continue.

– Is it possible to live without faith, the faith in the Higher, the Invisible and the Intelligent?

-You can, but life will then be empty and unbearably hard. Faith is our pivot, our pivot, our foundation. Faith is our support, protection, and medicine.

- All this is true; faith supports us in the trials of life. But without proof, how can you believe in Something that can neither be seen nor studied?

– When we have faith, we do not need reasoned evidence, because faith is a level of intuitive knowledge that does not reside in the mind, but in the heart of a person. We just know that God is.

– If there is a God, why does He allow so much misery and suffering?

– We have already said that suffering and disasters are created by man himself. What's inside of us is outside of us. We are too prone to fear and discouragement, resentment and anger. And these negative states of consciousness, in the end, settle on the physical plane in the form of inter-state conflicts, wars, epidemics and natural disasters. We do not seek to know the Laws of the universe; we do not feel the connection between our own actions and the troubles that befall us. Hence, godlessness and moral degradation.

– What about the church? All over the world there are a huge number of temples, churches, mosques, synagogues, datsans? Why do religions fail?

-Religion and faith are two different things. Religion organizes the external worship of God. Faith is an inner recognition of the truth about God.

But let's ask the Masters what will help the world in today's conditions.

The theme of religion and Faith is covered by the Beloved Jesus.

“The institution of the church, designed to keep people within the Divine Law, becomes less important as people lose their faith and walk away from the moral ideals.

In these conditions the only salvation for humankind is to return to God and the true faith as a state of consciousness. The perception of God, not as an old man who is represented in the icons of a church but as the inner Light running through all of Creation and residing in all the beings on the altar of their hearts, can provide assistance to humanity at this stage of development.

The concept of God, who does not live in temples but fills the whole ambient space by Himself, can be understood by the minds of people at this stage of evolutionary development. And in the chaos that exists in the world now, the only regulator and guarantor of stability is the inner governor, the human conscience, or God, who resides in every human being.”

This is an understanding of God that is completely different from the one given by religions.

God is not in temples or on icons. He is in our heart. This means that God is always with us, we can turn to Him at any time. God is our conscience. And our conscience always knows whether we are doing right or wrong.

What is important is not the form, not the rites and ceremonies of religions, but only the sincerity of the aspiration, the degree of our faith. We can address God in our own words, or we can use the words of any prayer or mantra we know, as long as it is not ostentatious, not mechanical, but only from the heart.

God "fills all the space around Him", as the Masters say. It means that God is not only in us, in our heart, but we are also in Him. We are all parts of Him, "cells" of His infinitely huge "Body", God consists of us.

Can one cell of the body, of its own free will, not live in harmony with other cells, but at their expense? When a cell does this, it becomes cancerous and slowly but inevitably destroys the entire body.

So, if we do not see God in another person, if we act immorally, without conscience, then we kill God and the entire Universe. And that would be bad for everyone.

– So is true Faith our salvation?

The Masters confirm this.

“If you have faith and you are sincere in your faith, you are already saved. <…>

Only the most faithful person is capable of overcoming all the traps and temptations of the physical world.”

“In these (modern) conditions the only salvation for humankind is to return to God and the true faith as a state of consciousness.”

Faith is the cure for fear. It gives us courage, loyalty to our ideals, to God.

Faith is a shield. It gives the gift of invulnerability-protects against the destructive manifestations of the world in the most critical situations.

Faith gives us joy, love, confidence, peace, a sense of grace from contact with the Higher World.