From Vedic philosophy to Kierkegaard
Within the ancient Vedic system of yoga, a collection of ethical guidelines are to be found in the first two of the eight limbs. These are known as the Yamas and the Niyamas, and can be conceptualized as observances towards the environment and observances towards oneself, respectively. The fifth Niyama, Ishvara Pranidhana, can be translated loosely as surrender to a greater calling in life.
Surrender. Merging with larger dynamics, playing your part. I equate surrender with faith. And I surrender most deeply after meditation. Without fail, meditation unearths the selfsame truth with every plunge down deep. It uncovers the message that I am on my highest path. This message seems to be one of faith.
This message could, of course, be taken with skepticism and regarded as a byproduct of the underlying chemistry associated with the meditative process. It could explained away as an epiphenomenon, arising out of neurochemical interactions in the brain. In fact, all meaning can be depicted like this.
However, at the end of the day, I can’t shy away from the reality that I need meaning. It’s not something I can do without. And so I’m at an impasse. On the one hand, rationally-speaking, I have illustrated that there is perhaps good reason to doubt the Self’s testimony. On the other hand, I am burdened with sensations that communicate truth to me.
I have to base my life of off something. I can’t sit still forever. Even if I somehow sift out the practical from the existential, I may later find that I need “capital T” truth even in my existential beliefs, or at the very least something like a North Star- a thing to follow. It’s far easier to embody your biology when you surrender to life in total. I can’t say that I always find this surrender, though.
It was Marcus Aurelius who first wrote “the obstacle is the way”. Our current barriers and low points are precisely the forces that are teaching us. This inherently paradoxical remark draws to mind another saying that I absolutely love from Shunryu Suzuki: “If you seek for freedom, you cannot find it. Absolute freedom itself is necessary before you can acquire absolute freedom”.
The existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard argues that surrender underlies everything. It takes faith, merely to assert the truth of any statement- any statement, action, notion, thing. Justification itself eventually “bottoms out” in something akin to faith, or else lapses into an infinite regress of logic-gates- something like being imprisoned within a circuit-board. Rationality in isolation has no end, is not an end in-itself; it needs to be employed as a tool by a higher hand.
I view faith primarily as a disposition. If “faith” and “God” are triggering for you, substitute with whatever terminology that makes things align for you. Whatever the “thing” is, and I probably shouldn’t write about it as much as I have- you need it.