Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, elucidated by Sangharakshita himself, is titledFaith from the Higher Evolution Series, specifically the fifth talk: Buddhism and the Path of Higher Evolution. Faith in the context of Higher Evolution is the response of our total being responding to something higher, something beyond, something transcendental. The longing to give ourselves to the Three Jewels completelyand#8230;it is the response of what is ultimate in us with what is ultimate in the universe.
This talk was delivered in 1969.
[music] Dharma Vites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. [music] And this brings us to the second link, and this is simply faith. Not faith in the sense of belief. Believing something to be true for which there is no rational evidence. Not even faith as a merely emotional state, though certainly faith is an emotion. Faith, we may say, in this sense, in the context of the part, in the context of the higher evolution, is the reaction, is the response better of our total being. Not just the head, not even just the heart, but the whole of ourselves totally responding to something higher, to something beyond, to something transcendental. This is faith in this context. It's the desire. It's the urge, if you like. It's the longing, if you like, to give ourselves to that completely. Not holding ourselves back, usually. Of course, we give with one hand and take back with the other. We give on Sunday, or we give on Friday evening, and we take back on Monday morning or Saturday afternoon. This is what usually happens. But faith is not like this. Faith means the giving of ourselves completely and entirely to the transcendental, or the symbol of the transcendental. It is, we may say, the response of what is ultimate in us, to what is ultimate in the universe, the one setting, as it were the other vibrating by its proximity. And for Buddhism, of course, faith means faith in the three jewels, because these represent for Buddhism the highest values of existence, the Buddha. The Buddha represents the perfect embodiment in human form of the highest spiritual ideal. He represents his symbolizes the new man, the culmination of the process of the higher evolution. And then the Dharma, or the teaching of the second of the three jewels, this represents the path, the whole course of the higher evolution. And the Sangha, the third jewel, represents the spiritual community of those who have embarked, or are in process of embarking on the higher evolution. And faith in this context is the response, is our total response to these values. When we see the Buddha, the embodiment of the ideal, the Dharma, the embodiment of the path of the higher evolution, leading to the realization of that ideal, and the Sangha, the community of those who are actually themselves embodying that path and reaching towards the realization of that ideal, then we feel faith. And that faith manifests itself in an actual commitment. And is this commitment, which in traditional technical language we call going for refuge. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freeBuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
