Faith
Do you know about the parable of the twins in the womb? I was just introduced to it recently and I love it. It makes me think about love and faith in a new way.
Two babies are growing together in the dark, warm unknown. One believes that this world, this place, is all there is. “This is it,” the skeptic twin says. “There is no life after this. There’s no mother waiting for us. What we see and feel now is all we get.” The other twin disagrees. “I think there’s something more. I think there’s a mother. I think this darkness is not the end, but the beginning.”
The skeptic laughs. “Have you ever seen this ‘mother’? Have you ever heard her voice?” And the believer replies, “Sometimes, when everything is quiet, I feel a pressure, a rhythm, a presence that comforts me. I think that’s her. I think she’s holding us, even now. And I think there is light on the other side.”
There is more to it, but that is the gist of it. It’s great because it reminds me that I can’t always see the full picture in life, but still I am held and loved by something that words can’t capture.
Love is like that unseen mother in the parable. It surrounds us and sustains us, but we doubt it because we can’t see beyond our current situation.
When life feels a bit like that womb, enclosed in confusion and limitation, we need to lean on our faith and remember that love exists and that more is coming.
Here are some additional thoughts of this topic of faith and love from Swami Sivananda’s Bliss Divine.
We can have faith in many things like scripture, stories, our teachers and people . We can also have faith in ourselves and in the unknown.
It’s important that we trust in something higher than our limited thinking and try not to control everything. He says it is important to do our best and take action but then let go of the outcome.
Faith allows you to stay steady through confusion.
If you believe that life is meaningful then you act with purpose.
If you believe that people can be trusted, you become more open.
If you believe that growth is possible, you persist.
Faith gives us enthusiasm and perseverance and helps us endure suffering without collapsing.
A person’s faith literally changes their energy field and vitality.
If your faith is positive and expansive you become calm and optimistic and your life grows in that direction.
If your faith is negative or cynical – your life contracts and weakens and you become full of doubt and fear.
Our faith creates our thoughts which creates our actions which creates our character which creates our destiny.
When I sit with these thoughts, I come back again to that image of the twins. The believer rests because they trust. There is an openness and a willingness to be carried, even through the unknown, and to believe that whatever lies ahead, we will not face it alone.
“Lean into your faith when times are tough. When life feels out of control, faith allows me to surrender without having all the answers.” – Carolynn Eipel
“Let the Lord drive your chariot in life.” – Swami Sivananda
(where the word “chariot” means our life and the word “Lord” means our higher power, intuition or divine)
Love and gratitude,