Indeed, faith without works is dead. The best way to develop faith is to study the teachings and put them into practice. The way to do that is to listen to your heart. Each of us has our own idiosyncrasy and our own needs. We have our own dharma. That is, our Inner Buddha needs us to do our own work in our own way in accordance to our own karma. There is no single set of steps that everyone has to follow. That would be foolish. All of us are in different places with different needs. A doctor does not give the same medicine to every patient. In general, what we need the most is to develop faith through our own experience. Study the teachings, question yourself, and put them into practice. Work with the three factors: Birth, Death, and Sacrifice. Everyday. Look into yourself everyday. “How am I initiating birth in my life today? What did I do to die as an ego? What did I do today to sacrifice for others?” Those three factors — when you really pay attention and put them into motion — they create faith. We start to have experience of their benefits. In my own experience, speaking for myself and perhaps this is my own idiosyncrasy — the most transformative way that I have found faith is when I have seen the difference between when I have acted through an ego and when I have not. That is just me. Some people will comprehend more through charity or through birth. My personal opinion is that the factor of death is the most transformative power of the three factors. The reason for that — from my experience — is that when an ego dies, the energy is reclaimed by the Being. The Being will grant you a gift in return. That could come through experiences or through other ways that the Being can give you, to encourage you and inspire you.
Gnostic Instructor
