Belief, Faith and Enlightenment

What is YOUR practice? What do YOU believe in? What do YOU have faith in? Listed below are just a few words in regards to a conversation I had with Christopher Curtis Sensei, 8th Dan in Ki Aikido, aka Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido. I like the commentary below, as it ties in with my practice of the Wim Hof Method in Prescott Arizona. I've just begun my long journey with this 'way' or 'practice,' yet, I can still use great information from other practices I've worked with, such as Ki Aikido. 

Question: Are you enlightened? Another way of putting this is, do you believe in enlightenment, in whatever form this means to you?

Reply: When questions like this arise in our life, the thing we always need to find out is: What difference would it make in my practice if I knew the answer to this?

But I think that before we can answer this important question, we have to take a look at how we are using language.  You asked me, "...do you believe in enlightenment?"  

I don't "believe" that we do, and I don't "believe" that we don't ‘reach enlightenment’.  There is a big difference between the word "belief" and the word "faith."  When I believe something to be so, then I tend to see everything as if it backs up that belief, and distrust or reject anything that clearly doesn't support that belief.  In other words, belief is narrowing down, or limiting, of that which can be experienced "as it is."  Whereas if I have faith, there doesn't need to be any object of that faith.  Faith is an opening, an acceptance, and it provides an ability to be with whatever arises in confidence.  So, belief is quite limiting and therefore somewhat dangerous, while faith is freeing.

 So, now let's return to the important question:  "How will this help me in my practice to know this?"  What is our practice?  Our practice is to be completely present in this moment and to experience whatever arises fully.  And that's it. There is nothing more, because everything else is imagined or constructed.   

We have sensation, we have emotion, and we have thought.  All three of these arise, often simultaneously, and we invariably take them to be fact, while actually, they are only the movement of energy.  If we look, we can notice that there is an awareness that is aware of all these movements, but is not a part of them, and is not affected directly by them.  This awareness we tend to call "I", but when we fall into this awareness, we find no "thing" there that could be identified as an "I" or a "person" or a "body".  It is the direct experience of this causeless awareness experiencing itself that is the purpose of our practice.

 Of course, this is not problem as far as I am concerned.  Every single tradition ever invented carries the truth within it.  The trick is not to get caught up in that which is not the truth within it, of which there is always plenty.  To this end we must be "ruthless" with ourselves in our approach ("ruth" is old English for "pity").  In other words, we must be simple, open, and honest, and not be taken in by all comers.  

Kris Kelley and Curtis Sensei discussion.