Anatomy of Faith

In pictures of an explosion caused by a suicide bomber, one experiences time slowing down as the shock of the view causes a brooding disposition in us. The wreckage strewn on the road, the flames and the wounded on the ground meets little resistance as it mixes with our conscious senses.

More than these, we see the look of shock, registered on the faces of the rescue workers and survivors. Here and there people are shouting instructions, an ambulance pulls away and a TV crew is just arriving. As we sit back, we seem to be saying ' what's the use,' but the words don't come out. Such expressions encounter sheer exhaustion in us.

However, despite our exhaustion, we look for little explanations that would put the incident in perspective. Its not easy. The old English used to say, ' God moves in mysterious ways.' However, the new American is fond of saying that, ' there's method in madness.'

One does this because we have a need to assure ourselves that our natures are intrinsically good. That, where someone has to resort to something aggressive, it is often beyond our normal ability to deal with the situation. But despite this, our ideals are intact and we are continue to work at finding a better expression for our collective experience of ourselves.

In the architecture of faith, we encounter the child of man at the feet. He is put there by society on account of his deep naivety and his child like qualities of the ideal. Above him, sitting with a deep meditative calm, is a Buddha-like figure that appears entirely unmindful of every thing. Despite any incident of blame and praise, it is a steady experience of equanimity.

On his right, a tall individual, representing the expression of the ideal, views with firm eyes, our expressions with regards to faith, where such expressions may be closely congruent to the facts. On his left, a petite lady, smiles benevolently at our continued efforts to put our idealism to work.

Standing behind the seated man is an individual with complexion like the colors of the rising and setting sun, who inspires us with his fair looks and a demeanor that affirms the qualities of the light. He appears to point to the physical nature of our experiences and its proper place in our lives.

Beyond these, seated on an elevated platform, a dim but colorfully spotted image of the godfather-like Copepoda, as the source of life, peers curiously back at the viewer.

They combine to cultivate in the body-mind of the individual, a grasp for ideas, perceptions and concepts that feels a lot like a feeling of faith. Like a river flowing downstream, it feels active, yet unmindful, creating an involvement in general matters casually.

The poet Blake's expression that such is the creator of the lion and the lamb and the faithful admonishment to man that we must bring them to lie together, weighs heavily amidst its grandeur countenance within. It shines like a promise.

In the world today, as we perceive our new found experience of all possibilities, such an image of faith induces a curious sense of relation with god. In the initial experience, we are enthralled by the apparent encounter. Thereafter we may find ourselves responding like an enchanted whale swimming in the oceans of the world.

Hopefully, we'll find a way to move these experiences into a well informed, logically induced perception of ourselves in the world. No doubt one would preserve such an experience in a special relation to our own curious sense of wonder, sometimes waiting to test the percepts, sometimes engaging a joyful affirmation of its reliability.

In the hands of youth, experienced sub-consciously, the experience may well feel like love. In children, it may all be play. In women, the quiet and contented repose of beauty. In the men, the strange benevolence of a creator that we may at times have thought, cruel.

Like an old fashioned wedding, we borrow something, use something old, buy something new and at times, create something of our own. In the joys of the faithful are many wondrous desires, but they share something in common; the need to preserve and perpetuate the experience. In doing so, we are sometimes broken apart by the indifference of others. In return, we take such broken parts of our faith and in a parody of the belief of others, we live a deliberate life of deceit and nonsense.

Perhaps such an act was necessary at some point, but where we are returning to better times, we must take cognition of such and cease our spiteful activity and return ourselves to a former belief of faith. No doubt it would be irascible with complaints of

' you mean we were right in the first place before all these silly critiques of us?'

The revelation is quite startling at first and not without some grievance. But in time, we discover that it was a clever way for us to do and find out ourselves, rather than rely on divine inspiration.

The gods of old warned the first man that the ground will grow thorns for him in such an experience. In retrospect, it would appear that the old gods, in realizing that man would eventually want to know, could have given us a guide on how to walk on thorns. The experience is quite exhilarating.