Essential Faith

We have all had moments where we feel the complete rightness of ourselves and our world, a sense of utter contentment and completion where there is no fear of death (or anything else) for there is no sense of being disconnected from the foundations of existence. For Richard, this is an experience of essential faith. It is faith that stems from connection to one’s true self, not an identity or sense of assurance that comes from blindly accepting dogmatic beliefs about life after death, or the indestructible nature of the soul.

Usually the first tastes of this state come by grace; we do not know why we have so been gifted. But essential faith, not as a delicious accident but as a stable understanding, grows as the fruit of spiritual maturity based in deep self-inquiry and conscientious effort.

In Richard's teaching, essential faith is also the ultimate technique. It is a presumption of wholeness – "I am sufficient as I am" – chosen moment by moment side by side with whatever else we are feeling or thinking. As a technique, essential faith means consistently differentiating the ordinary self that will continue to resist life and suffer, from the true self, which witnesses this struggle without judgment. Beyond being nonjudgmental, essential faith is the practice of choosing to bring ones attention back to the present and hold oneself softly and lovingly even though we are feeling badly or even judging ourselves severely. Gradually we learn to step back from the complexity of our suffering self and all the endless ways in which we rationalize our unhappiness and strive to fix ourselves, and instead unconditionally acknowledge our innate sufficiency. In faith we know that we belong, that we can never be separated from the inexhaustible well-spring from which we come and from which we take our direction.

Ramana Maharshi, the renowned Vedanta sage, remarked that we are all traveling on a great train, yet most people will not set their baggage down. The train is the Now moment and as we bring ourselves back to it we realize our oneness with…Mystery, God, Infinity, Self…that which can only be suggested, but never grasped. Ultimately the whole point of spiritual work is to put our baggage down…in essential faith.

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