What makes one person’s faith in an unseen power unshakeable and another’s unpredictable?

By DEEPAK CHOPRA

(When terror strikes as it did in New York on 9/11 ten years ago or at the Delhi High Court last week, for many of us, faith in a Divine power takes a beating. Read what DEEPAK CHOPRA has to say on this.)

Crises have a way of either bringing you closer to your faith (in God or religion) or alienating you from it. The 9/11 attacks did this to many of us who lost a dear one or who suffered other kinds of losses. Is faith nothing but a crutch for some and a way of justifying bitterness for others? What makes one person’s faith in an unseen power unshakeable and another’s unpredictable?

(Answer to Mary Rose, 55, New York City) You’ve phrased your first question so that it contains its own answer, and I agree with you. Faith can be the cover for a mind that stubbornly holds on to God or stubbornly refuses to accept the possibility of God. In most religions, the worshipper’s devotion was measured by holding on to faith in the face of anything. Skepticism and doubt were the marks of heresy. Freethinking was contrary to the dogma of the faith. In a secular age, the reverse position is almost as dogmatic.

Not to be skeptical is a mark of conformity and blind obedience. Open-mindedness is desirable, but it must be based on reason and facts, without regard for anything as unreliable as scripture or a wisdom tradition. One could take the word “faith” and replace it with “tradition” in your question with much the same meaning.

Your second question leads to a possible solution to this double obstacle. Dogmatic faith and dogmatic scepticism have something in common. Neither is based on actual knowledge about the nature of God, or the nature of the things related to God, such as the soul, the afterlife, and faith itself.

All faiths were founded on direct experience of the Divine, and their intention was to pass that experience on. Over time, this original intention, whether it led to nirvana, the kingdom of God, or liberation of the soul, dwindled into something much lower, the demand for blind faith.

The solution is to return to the original intention and seek a personal experience that would validate faith — a project that has faced every generation of believers and non-believers alike.

Faith is a form of hope, and hope is unfulfilled unless real experience arrives. Then experience can be the basis of true knowledge. I realise that I’m compressing a deep set of ideas that we could discuss for a long time. But the essence is clear. Turn inward to find the root that faith springs from. When you find it, faith will no longer be a crutch, an excuse, or a desperate hope.

Do you think the theory of rebirth is a clever device to make us feel better when we lose someone — so we think she will return in another life? Does belief in rebirth make it easier to bear the loss of loved ones?

(Answer to Sabina, 30, Lucknow) Human beings have always feared the boundary that separates life and death. We grieve when someone crosses that boundary, and our grief is amplified by dreadful thoughts. What if death is annihilation? What if torments and punishment await us? Can anything be trusted other than the reality that greets the five senses? Every faith wants to subdue these suppositions and at the same time offer reassurance so that fear will be calmed. So, yes, rebirth serves in that way, just as the promise of Heaven does.

Today, research into reincarnation has yielded a set of startling data. The most convincing consists of children’s accounts in which they remember their last lifetime. Skeptics are not persuaded, of course, but what would change if there was general acceptance of reincarnation? Societies already exist where the doctrine has been accepted for centuries, and there seems to be no marked benefit.

None of us communicates with our last or next lifetime. Perhaps there is a slight reduction in the fear of death, but arguably, religions which promise a reward in Heaven also reduce the fear of death slightly.

The solution is to erase the iron boundary between life and death, which St Paul referred to as “dying unto death”. If a person can experience pure consciousness, the source of the mind and its thoughts, then fear gives way to limitless peace. Even a taste of this peace does a great deal to support the position that consciousness embraces everything.

That embrace is life, creativity, intelligence, and evolution. Once you realise that these are permanent aspects of Creation, the boundary between life and death dissolves. All of existence is a single thing, the unfolding of consciousness from its source in the absolute. I’ve simplified it, but if you look closely, finding out who you are, an expression of eternal consciousness, resolves this difficult issue.

If we all turned the other cheek, when slapped, would we solve the problem of terrorism? Didn’t M K Gandhi say that tolerating injustice is as bad as perpetrating it? But he also said an eye for an eye would make the whole world go blind. And where does forgiveness figure in all of this?

(Answer to Shaji Thomas, Dubai) There has always been a war between two teachings, non-violence and a just revenge. Holding fast to the doctrine of non-violence, whether expressed as “turn the other cheek” or ahimsa, seems desirable to any sane adult. The dark fruit of war and crime has poisoned human existence for long.

Yet complete pacifism runs contrary to psychology. Each of us longs to strike out against our enemies, as small children will do automatically unless they are held back when they’re angry. We believe in justice, and yes, evil flourishes when good men do nothing.

It would appear that this war will never end. But let’s look at where it originated, which is inside ourselves. Human beings have a divided nature, and we struggle to obey both sides. Since the struggle has led nowhere but to more violence on a wider scale than ever, it’s sensible to seek a different solution. As always, the level of the solution doesn’t lie at the level of the problem.

Struggle breeds more struggle; violence leads to more violence. The world’s wisdom traditions have been preoccupied with relieving the kind of suffering that violence brings. Their answer, if I can reduce it to a common teaching, is to seek unity inside oneself. The end of the divided self is the only answer to violence, and the answer appears one person at a time.

Today, the same as five centuries ago or fifty centuries, the deepest purpose of life is to rise to a level of consciousness where the fear and anger born of duality are transcended. Once transcendence is experienced, you are no longer the pacifist or the warrior. Something new unfolds that cannot be predicted when you are still caught up in the struggle.

Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You 

The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life 

The Path to Love: Spiritual Strategies for Healing 

Life After Death: The Burden of Proof