The connection of Faith and Learning

Inspirational quotes are seen everywhere: What do people actually do after reading them?

Let’s read one, and see what we can do, as the Alaka‘i Managers we are.

Alan Watts has said,

“Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, openness – an act of trust in the unknown.”

I think his definition of faith, as openness (which we, as Alaka‘i Managers think of as Ha‘aha‘a, the value of humility) and as “an act of trust in the unknown” is a good definition.

Now in the spirit of our current Value Pairing of ‘Ike loa (the value of learning), and Ha‘aha‘a, let’s revisit what we’ve said about faith before, as one of our Twelve Virtues:

I have some trouble with the concept of fate, but I do believe in having faith as something that empowers us to create our own destiny. There is faith in the divine and the spiritual, faith in others and in self, faith that good will always defeat evil — I choose to believe in every variety and aspect of it.

In the context of openness, we would add faith in the future, which by definition, is yet to happen. As Watts says, it’s “the unknown.”

The “act of trust” which Watts mentions, is trust in ourselves, and in a certainty that we can create our future.

The connection of faith and learning then, is expectation. In our chosen MWA Language of Intention, it is an expectation of positive expectancy. We expect that an abundance waits for us, and we poise ourselves for the learning that is required, in turning on that tap of abundance.

What future abundance waits for you, an abundance you are certain of, if only you turn on the tap of your learning? Get specific about the learning required, and define your next step in tackling it.

What about your workplace team of partnerships? What faith do you have in that shared abundance? How do you turn on that tap of learning, in a learning project you can tackle together?

Selected Archive Aloha with more connections to FAITH:

‘IMI OLA: To seek life and strengthen your faith
Hana ‘eleau: Working in the Dark
Find your Doubting Thomases

Postscript: We don’t talk about religion much here, but we do delve into the spirit, and spirit-spilling:

“Aloha is unconditional love, for it is the outpouring and receiving of the spirit.”

As you read on, I ask you to keep something in mind whenever I use the words “spirit” or “spirituality.” Where I say spirituality, I refer to the spirit within; you could call it the breath of your life, the voice of your soul. For me, the individual religions of the world are merely different expressions people have for their own spirituality within them, and they have made a choice as to who they will honor in their gratefulness. I am not suggesting religiousness; that is your own choice. However I do believe that we should acknowledge our own spirituality and get comfortable with it. One’s inner spiritual power is assumed in the Hawaiian culture, and it is celebrated. In many ways Managing with Aloha is about tapping into the spirit that is inside you; it embraces your intuition and gut-level feelings.

— Chapter 1, Aloha, Managing with Aloha

The purest definition for Aloha itself is unconditional love. Love of self, love of others.