"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb 11.1. How many people really understand that? It led me forward for a long time, the knowledge that because I had faith, there was inherently, unarguably something to have faith in. It was like a blind person believing in light... yes. There is light.
Recently I came across a list of stages to Liberation on a Buddhist site. I thought it was interesting because I am trying to fit everything to my 3 stage model (ego, self, no-self) and in this stack of about 15 levels, I drew a line between faith and joy, which was above it: this is the line, the distinction between someone still in the ego perspective (can't see) and the person who has peeked beyond the wall to the world beyond ego ("more light! more light!" as Goethe said).
Once you have seen it finally, there is no room for faith anymore. It has been abrogated by the Experience of one-with. God takes it away, along with any idea of not being God. We are in it, we are the godhead, the water of the sea. I is revoked by we.
