I’ve thought a lot about faith recently, I think we are all being tested by the anger and anxiety swirling all around us. We have a small statute of Buddha in the living room, and the late afternoon touched the state and cast a shadow on the wall. It seemed a small holy moment to me, the image called to me.
I have worked hard in recent years at staying grounded and safe within myself, I have found a faith that works very well for me.
I’m a cherry-picker when it comes to religion, I pick and choose from other religions and discard what does not work for me, and take what does. Every religion offers something. I was born into a Jewish family but little of that faith has remained with me, except for the Kabbalah, the very powerful and beautiful writing of the mystics and prophets.
The mystics were gentle, tolerant, uplifting, creative and loving, their writing inspires me every day, and opens my eyes to the possibilities of faith and mysticism. From the Christian faith I take to hear the writings and teachings of Jesus Christ, whose message of love and tolerance and generosity have been lost so often in the exploitation of his name. And in the wisdom of Thomas Merton, who calls us to a life of meaning and faith.
Jesus teaches me to do good where I can and when I can, and to remember the poor and the dispossessed. Buddhism – the Dalai Lama is a powerful writer – has given me the idea of acceptance, and the realization that life is full of joy and suffering, just as life and death are not two things but different parts of the same thing. Joseph Campbell and Hafiz teach the same message.
Buddhism has also given me the gift of meditation and reflection. From the Koran I have absorbed the idea of community, of bringing faith into my daily life, not just once or twice a year.
This season we are all being tested, fear and rage are everywhere. I feel for women who are in pain and for the working people who have been left behind, who have been betrayed once more by a champion who has abandoned them and damaged their cause for his own self-interest. I am upset about the denigration of democracy in the very place where it was born. I take personally the vilification of immigrants, I am close to that experience.
So my faith, I see, is sustaining me, keeping me hopeful. I don’t need to embrace the dogma of any single religion, God reveals himself to us, I believe, in many different with many different faces. I see him in trees and animals and in the inherent goodness of people. In the smile of my granddaughter and the love of my wife, and the faithfulness of my dogs.
In the Kabbalah, he tells us that love is the point, and that we must give the poor reason to hope, and that we must take good care of Mother Earth, or he will take her from us.
Some people worship the left or the right, but those are false faiths to me.
But I don’t have to follow the dictates of one religion or another, or any label. I don’t have to join and declare a faith, mine is in my heart and soul, in the words I write, and the photos I take. Thomas Merton writes that it is not possible to have a life without faith, and I have faith. It keeps me grounded.
We appreciate faith best when it is tested, and when it prevails. This afternoon, we are off for one night to Brattleboro, Vt., to eat Korean food, read and listen to music and love each other. An act of faith for me. Back tomorrow morning.
