How The Knight of Faith Fails In Modern-Day
In the beginning, I thought the treasure of self-discovery was peace. What more could you want than the capacity to sit quietly with yourself? It is an end goal for many of us. But peace is not the end of the line — it’s the first door to something more.
Beyond the door of peace lies freedom. While most adore freedom, you need the discipline to grapple with it.
Freedom without discipline causes its own anxiety. Kierkegaard writes about the dizziness of newly inherited freedom extensively. Without a strong foundation, one gets lost in the boundlessness of their own potential. As you gaze into everything you can be, the dizziness of so many possibilities paralyzes those not prepared for it.
This is why you must construct a strong set of values to condense your limitless potentials into versions of you that align with your true self. Shooting an arrow into space rarely hits the target. By aligning yourself with what matters most, you get the benefits of both freedom to choose and peace of doing the right thing.
But what happens to those who don’t know their values?
The Non-Religious Faith Knight
We’re seeing a cult of the modern-day knights of faith rise up all around us. Historically, a knight of faith is an individual whose faith in themselves, and God allows them to bypass any ethical dilemmas associated with their actions. A “religious” ends justify the means.
Kierkegaard addresses this concept through his writings in Fear and Trembling. We’re comparing the power of ethics and faith through the Biblical story of Abraham. Through Abraham’s eyes, we’re walked through the story of a man who must sacrifice his son to God on faith alone. That faith is so powerful that it overrules any sense of humane or ethical problem Abraham has on the matter.
And Abraham is rewarded for his faith as his son is spared at the last second. Kierkegaard coins the knight of faith term for Abraham, characterized by his ability to cast aside common sense and embrace faith.
The power of words comes from their ageless reliability. This story describing the balance of ethical discipline and faith in our actions is extremely relevant today. But with the decline of religious influence, what is replacing the faith needed to operate in this way?
Western society is witnessing a shift away from religious ideals to something new. We are seeing an exodus from religion to a more ‘spiritual’ mindset.
I vehemently cheer for this progressive change.
While religion may be seen more and more as anachronistic, it does provide a foundation of rules. Many zealots had their passion quelled by a set of rules put in place to please a higher power. As faith transitions away from this structure, where does the passion flow now?
Problems with our New Age Faith
I compare the monkey mind to being trapped in a hallway. If your conscious thoughts exhaust all of your energy, there is no room for creative thought. Once again, by finding peace, the door opens out of the hallway into the infinite space of freedom. Freedom combined with a dwindling faith-based ruleset puts more responsibility on the thinker.
You are responsible for your thoughts and how you execute them in accordance with your values. Thoughts are like the blade of your mind while your mental discipline is the hilt that keeps it from cutting you.
A sharp blade with no hilt inflicts continuous self-harm. These problems are just harder to see.
* The Problem of Anxiety: Anxiety appears when your values clash with your actions. The undisciplined mind will inherit societal values if you do not define them yourself. If we inherit the values of society, it needs to be by our choice — not default.
Setting a solid foundation to move forward allows us to make choices that take us in the direction we want to go. That confidence nullifies anxiety as our actions and values are aligned.
This faith in our own ability allows us to overcome any obstacle put in front of us.
* The Problem of Societal Norms: If your values contradict the norm, it can be a strain to execute. As you gain clarity of mind, you’ll quickly see how many lack it. Instead of pushing ahead, you’ll see brains dulled by social media and garbage television fads. Like zombies, you’ll continuously be pushing away arms of those trying to pull you back down to where they are.
This is the key transition. A modern-day knight of faith must move away from piling their faith in the outside and reinforce their faith in themselves and their own potential. Imagine if every grocery store only sold rotten vegetables. Some would stuff the rot into their mouths and some would take the time to cultivate quality food. The same can be said with what we stuff into our minds.
In the Abrahamic example above, Abraham could have backed away. How easy would it be to quit when ancient society wouldn’t have questioned him?
Is it such a self-deception the present generation has need of, does it need to be trained to virtuosity in self-deception, or is it not rather sufficiently perfected already in the art of deceiving itself?
Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling
We must always be willing to fight and push forward based on what matters most to us.
When juggling with such a difficult decision (sacrificing your own son seems extremely difficult), the temptation is always there to fall back to the easy path. This is an ego-driven problem that is age-old. The mental discipline must be there to resist and push forward towards our values.
You will lose friends and relationships but you will gain yourself.
* The Problem of Passion: Freedom allows us to pursue what we have passion in. But passion burns much brighter than we give it respect for.
We’ve all been in an auditorium with a group of people who were passionate — be it music or speech. A palpable form of electricity begins to ignite those around you. Logic is quickly tossed out the window as we allow ourselves to be engulfed by that energy around us. Energy flows erratically; skyrocketing the tension in the room.
While it can ignite a bunch of music fans, what happens when the passion is more devious?
Transient emotions every man surely has, but if as a consequence of such emotions one would do the terrible thing which love has sanctified as an immoral exploit, then all is lost…
Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling
We see this in modern-day society every day. Many who would never act violently are looting and ransacking some of the most beautiful cities in the world. Passion is not an excuse to hinder the livelihood of another. Destroying the life of another to promote unity is an immoral exploit done through the push of passion. The weapon aims to hurt — not to heal.
The new-age knight of faith must have strong inner bearings to fend off passion. Unbridled passion can and will burn the engine out of any vehicle on a solid trajectory. Through mental discipline and meditation, one can harness that power and direct it to improve their life.
It remains a responsibility — not a privilege. We must know our true identities or our passion can be weaponized. We all know that person who “backs” the social injustice of the week. Through group mentality and social media, some of us can be aimed and launched as the campaign sees fit. By defining our passions, we remove the influence of others.
Aligning our Faith and Passions
Passion cannot be learned — it can only be experienced. Many of us have a passion but lack identity. To find an identity, one must align themselves with the following:
* Self reflect and meditate to identify your core values
* Recognize anxiety as a symptom of a larger problem. Your life and your idea of life do not align. Use anxiety to guide the discovery
* Understand social media is a business trying to weaponize you into action
* Identify your passions and run with them
* Have the mental capacity to battle against the norm if you decide to go against it. If you’re aligned with your values, you are making the right decisions
* Understand your passions so you can focus that energy on your life initiatives — not for someone else’s
The past had an army of faith knights united through religion. These days, we have knights who put their faith in what the media tells them. Both are defined by a lack of individuality. Take the responsibility and execute a life towards your own values — not anyone else’s.
Originally published at https://workingmanszen.com on October 19, 2020.
