“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
When we hear someone speak about faith, we usually expect to hear about some kind of subjective encounter with supernatural forces. In our skeptical age, we tend to look at faith as “believing in something you know not to be true,” as Mark Twain expressed.
Before we dismiss any talk of faith, however, we should remember that there are many ways to understand the word. You can have faith in a benevolent, loving deity guiding your every move. But you can also have faith that you’ll wake up in the morning. Or that the dollar in your pocket today will be worth as much tomorrow.
For me, a “revelation” of faith came while sitting around a table with a group people determined to respond to violence with love.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but this experience reaffirmed my faith that human beings are fundamentally loving and good, and will help and care for each other when given the chance.
I think that faith really is the right word here, because holding onto this viewpoint in light of so much evidence to the contrary does indeed requires a “leap,” to borrow Kierkegaard’s famous line.
This understanding emerged at a visioning process for the “Dawson Peace Center.” To its great credit, the Dawson College community has chosen to respond to the 2006 shooting not by putting bigger locks on the doors and stockpiling weapons, but by spearheading meaningful initiatives designed to cultivate peace.
For my part, at this meeting, I spoke about the contributions that meditation might make in addressing the roots of destructive behavior, and how we might be able to integrate it into the college’s culture.
During the meeting, I didn’t really feel like anything was out of the ordinary. Sure, I was inspired by many of the ideas that the other 20 people in the room put forth, but toward the end, my attitude began to shift as I realized that what was happening here was truly extraordinary.
Here, we had a group of committed people seeking, however imperfectly, to affirm that the power of love is stronger than fear.
Here, at least a few people understand that responding to violence in kind makes us no different than the perpetrator. Here, a group has resisted the temptation to let the violent imagination of a disturbed individual hijack our own.
It takes strength and courage to stand up and say, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that human beings are fundamentally decent, kind, and caring, and that we have the responsibility to nurture these attributes.
This audacious belief in basic goodness takes guts. It takes faith. And that’s what I saw around that table.
We’ve all seen how human imagination has the power to create scenes of terror and violence (just open up the newspaper). But it also has the possibility to respond to those who unleash the demons with compassion and understanding, which to me seems the greater power (and usually gets far less media attention).
This is the truth that every saint and sage has communicated: hatred never ceases through hatred. Only love has the power to heal. This is not really a “spiritual” or “religious” truth; even a jaded, secular humanist can see this at work.
It’s up to each and every person to develop the understanding that no matter how far removed someone might seem from this basic goodness, no one is beyond redemption.
Buddha and Jesus hung out with murderers, prostitutes, lepers, and other types of people who society had “thrown away” and given up on. What these marginalized people needed was compassion and understanding, not ostracization and judgment.
And when a teacher who had discovered his own “enlightened nature” spoke to them, they were able to discover that within themselves.
These people who had lead lives of violence and impropriety often went on to become exemplary disciples; the mistakes they had made in their lives were not sufficient to corrupt their essence and potential.
In the eastern traditions, this is expressed through the image of a gem covered with mud, or a lamp coated in dust. These images affirm that the treasure/light is always there, and has only temporarily become obscured.
But in order to sustain the commitment and diligence to undertake the “polishing” process, you must first have an inkling that there is something valuable waiting for you underneath.
Meeting an enlightened teacher can certainly arouse this faith, but coming into contact with the enlightenment that flows through us all when we seek to act with love and compassion is also a catalyst.
It’s by no means certain that we will uncover this treasure in ourselves, much less be able to help others discover it in themselves. But as I felt very deeply around that table, there is intrinsic value in the effort itself.
Everyone’s face communicated the determination to love, despite everything. We understand that the alternative of powerlessness and despair is not really an alternative at all.
Whatever we think about the world becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, so if we really want to create a world of peace, then we truly have to believe that it’s possible. Even very optimistic people like myself occasionally need boosters of faith to maintain this truly revolutionary attitude.
Photo by kris krug
About Daniel Goldsmith
Daniel Goldsmith currently teaches in the humanities department at Dawson College in Montreal. He is the author of Choose Your Metaphor: Walking the One Path That Goes by Many Names. Daniel blogs about philosophy, spirituality, and life at www.chooseyourmetaphor.com.
Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine. 
The human race is born evil.Currently I do not have any faith left in humanity. I have seen and been a victim of caste discrimination since childhood. Its prevalent so much in India out here, that people do not want to speak or be friends with a lower caste person. Even being a topper , people have their prejudices unchanged.They do not let you grow, build house, be friends with them, go or come to each other’s house, be your room-mate , constantly show you down, refuse or delay your bank work tacitly etc etc. Forget about getting married to different caste person, people will murder you.Moreover, people do not hesitate to ‘punish’ you for being a female. You have to carry your ‘character-certificate’ everywhere you go. I am so tired of all this bullshit that I do not even want my children to be born here at all. I am 24 yrs old atheist, and I have not met even a single person in my life who does not have any prejudices against others. It is a selfish, greedy, evil world and will always be one.
I love the spirit of your message, of course, Daniel, but as the comment below suggests talking about human nature as “basic” is fraught with controversy and begets arguments more than helps. Humanism, enlightenment, must be cultivated. They are not our “basic” nature, they are our healthier and happier nature. Paranoia, depression and destructive violence also must be cultivated, and they also might have had evolutionary value. What we need is to focus on social constructs that generate all those different ways of perceiving the world around us, and identify their sources and their purpose in order to address them in the spirit we intend the humanity to continue to exist and evolve.
I am sorry you feel that way! And luckily for you, you are wrong 😉
I have seen first hand the injustices the caste system perpetuates, and I sympathize with your situation.
But this is not a question of the human race having been “born evil.” All of the behavior and the discrimination you describe is LEARNED behavior. No one is born knowing which people are more “worthy.” Prejudices are passed down from generation to generation. The caste system, like any other system, is a human creation. It’s unfortunate that people justify it by reference to God, but that’s the way that power is maintained.
My point is that if we can condition ourselves into being violent, competitive, and greedy, then we can also condition ourselves into being empathic and loving. In fact, this may be our truest task as human beings, what all religions are actually calling us to do.
I agree completely. And you’re right to point out that even what we judge as negative values- destruction and violence- might play some role in advancing evolution. I do think it’s important to remember that we are really whatever we condition ourselves to be, since that way it gets us away from the type of thinking that sees us as powerless at the whim of genetics or society or God. We are powerful beyond measure, and this is what really scares anyone on top of a power structure.
I used to share similar preconception, and even though I am sure that there are many of those who are motivated by fear to release the control they
can have with political and economic power, I am now also certain that most of their behaviour is simply a product of limited awareness. People struggling to climb to the top of the economic and political ladder perceive the world as a war for survival, not a source of experience and joy. They are miserable, and If they can experience the power of being healthy and happy they will change their perception just like Buddha himself did 🙂
i would have loved to be wrong in this matter , but unfortunately i am not. you know nothing.
Haha… and if I was right and you were wrong, how would you know exactly? That’s why this article was written in the first place. For people like you. Our lives and the world is what we make of them. If you want to be miserable and unfortunate, all you have to do is to think and feel that way. If you want to be lucky, then feel lucky.
You want to be miserable, and you want me to be wrong, it’s your right. I am not your daddy and you are not my child. I am a professional who helps people to look and feel amazing, if you don’t have what it takes to be happy and listen to the people who are, why should I waste my time arguing with you, especially since I am not even getting paid to do that.
So, I wish you good luck, of course. But if you want to have a better life, I suggest you open your mind to people who are willing to teach you instead of telling them what they do or do not know. And if you want to continue to lead the same life you have so far, then carry on doing all the same things you have been doing prior to our conversation today.
Thank you for sharing your light, that was truly awesome! 🙂
far from me to tell you your wrong in your statements. they might be true. i do ponder tho same as any belief why do you guys need to state them? surely any creator wouldn’t need your help to spread the word. I met a christain muss back twenty years ago he explained since jacob and blah his beliefs where 2 thousand yrs older… whatever… my dicks bigger than yours trust in my words and have faith in what i say! your own beliefs are just that, i understand your needs to believe in something better, hell nothing can be worse than this life! yawn…. you live, you die, have faith in yourself,
In the world we’re living, we need to have faith and to believe in ourselves. I feel that we are so closed and that fear someone might and get us or to say something bad about us. As mentioned in the article we cannot pay bad with bad, but bad with love. i find this interesting because even in biblical reference it says “If someone slaps you, give him your other cheek.” But it still seems hard to do that. For example, when the US forced Japan to surrender and they didn’t listen, the USA sent an atomic bomb to Hiroshima.
Although it is rather hard to believe, even myself questioning it at times, human beings are good and generous by nature. It all depends on their upbringing, as well as the environment that they grew up in and were raised in. I also think that it does take some amount of courage and faith in order to bypass all the bad things happening around the world at the moment and try to preach love over violence.
Although it seems like there is no hope anymore for humanity, I still believe there is. Everyone has the capability to make their own decisions, and a lot of the time, those decisions are probably mistakes. This is what life is all about, making mistakes, which there is nothing wrong with at all. It’s how we decide to learn from those mistakes that matters. If everyone were to just take a minute to think through their mistakes and figured out a way to accept them and rise above them, then I really do think it would be easier for everyone to see the basic goodness that lies within each and every human being.
One thing that struck me in this article was when you mentioned how “Buddha and Jesus hung out with murderers, prostitutes, lepers, and other types of people who society had “thrown away” and given up on. What these marginalized people needed was compassion and understanding, not ostracization and judgment.” I couldn’t agree more on this statement and it reminds me of how so many In Canada and the U.S. end up being incarcerated for the rest of their lives with no parole for commiting a crime. They are treated like animals and often go through psychological distress in prison. In the same way that some of Jesus’ disciples were originally given up on but then found by their teacher , we need to give these prisoners a second chance to reintegrate themselves into society after rehabilitation and let them find their light. No one deserves to rot in a cell for the rest of their lives no matter how serious the crime. I believe that we need to love everyone equally.
In connection with the article about the dusty lamp, it takes faith in order to believe that every one of us has a light that is waiting to be let through. We believe that we are made in the image and likeness of God therefore we are all good in nature. Our hearts are good to begin with from the day that we are born until our very last breathe. It may be influenced and driven by a lot of unseen forces to change but what ever you do and think, goodness will never be separated from one’s heart. As mentioned in the article, only love has the power to heal therefore violence is not the answer to violence but love and faith that humanity can still be restored even how hopeless it may seem.
Human might be born with goodness, love and compassion. However, there wasn’t an era where humanity had peace. It is possible to end everything with love and peace, but against a thousand terrorists, the despaired civilians cannot stand even if their faith is stronger than anything. What is wrong with the world is that since many believes that everyone has the liberty to express themselves, they do not realise that it can be misunderstood or just wrong. Then, people will get divided and division leads to competition, war and suffering. Of course, all religions say that love can heal anything, but if you have an ignorant mind and you are only a puppet of the government, even love can’t enlighten you because as it says, the first step to change is to realise that you need a change (of mind). Life is not all about being optimistic. You need pain to realize what love is. Even if we want to be more human, it will take a long road because we have fallen down really deep. However, it is true that deep down in everyone’s heart, all we want is to live a peaceful life, where we won’t worry about if our parents and siblings will live the next minute, because that’s why my parents fled their home country for.
I think that creating the Dawson Peace Center after the shooting of 2006 is a great idea. Many people would say that faith does not exist anymore especially after traumatic crimes are committed. However, being grouped with unknown people in a center peace will make you realize that faith is still there, and that everyone commits mistakes. Some might be unacceptable but by implementing meditations and creating peace center at schools, it will help a lot of people with negative thoughts and problems.
I think that the shooting of 2006 is a perfect event to show that human nature can react to violence with peace. I agree at 100% that every human being should always react peacefully to any act of violence. “The Dawson College community has chosen to respond to the 2006 shooting not by putting bigger locks on the doors and stockpiling weapons, but by spearheading meaningful initiatives designed to cultivate peace”. I think that this is a wonderful reaction, we had faith in human nature, we understood that this crazy person who committed this horrible crime, was only from an extremely small minority of person in that world, so instead of trying strengthen security, we build a peace garden and is form me beautiful.
I agree hugely with this piece, I am and always have been a strong believer in believing that every single person at the core does not in fact have hate. Much rather, as basic goodness suggest’, I believe humans are routed through love, and the only way to fight a human who has been harbouring hatred, in my opinion is through love. In the end, I believe peace beats hate, ten times out of ten.