Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00478)

Koshek,
Thanks for your comments. I tend to find agreement. G. R. S. Mead in his 
works also inquired into the word "Faith" in particular in regard to the 
"Pistis (Faith) Sophia (Wisdom) a Gnostic Text he wrote a Book on long before the 
Nag Hammadhi Library were discovered. In it he had a definition of "Faith" that 
differed from the common understanding used in popular convention. He defined 
"Faith" from the Gnostics as: A personal, direct, first person experience of a 
noetic or supernormal reality having a cognitive apprehension attendant that 
caused a revolution in the perspective of the individual so dramatic that it 
caused a supersession of previously held perceptions of reality. He premised 
that the Gnostic predicated a prerequisite for such accomplishment as an actual 
basis for "Gnosis" itself and that once experienced the "experience" became 
the very substrate upon which "faith" becomes "Faith." Faith which is based upon 
direct experience and direct knowledge through direct cognitive 
transformation has an entirely different character than simple faith. It seems to me this 
is a consistent position whether we consider Buddhism, Zen, Tibetan, 
Yogacharya, Gnostic, Cabalistic or any system. To me, this Transformative New Substrate 
obtained by the aspirant is the equivalent of "the Plane of Adrastia" where 
the checkered floor indicates the field and ground of the true and the false 
laid before perception of the individual and become that upon which they then 
stand.

John


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]