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fort in our daily lives, but that is an over-simplification for it is a lot more than that, as we shall see. The old school theologians and philosophers used to debate which is more important: faith or good works. It's obvious: faith is all we need to enter the kingdom of heaven but good works (effort) is necessary once we get in, to go further in our journey to perfection.
Now, I don't want to get into some kind of theologic or scriptural debate here. All we have to do is to look at faith and effort in our lives. In every worthwhile endeavor that I've done, or was done by anyone that I've known personally or in books, there was always faith, even if it was simply faith in ourselves that we could do it, which powered the endeavor, and then it was effort that made it come to fruition (with faith constantly shoring it up).
That means that we can't just proclaim our faith once and then forget about it. Faith must be affirmed and maintained in every moment of our lives. We must constantly re-affirm our wills to the universal will in order to keep our faith from faltering. Success in every endeavor requires faith. Effort and good works cannot be maintained in the long haul without faith. It is faith that enables us to venture out into unknown realms, to risk everything for our goals. This is faith that is universal and is accessed at times by everyone, some more than others, even those that are not religious have this faith.
Even a materialist scientist who does not believe in God has faith; faith in science or in himself. But faith does come from a spiritual source! Faith is to believe based on spiritual evidence within our souls; to follow the wisdom of the soul in spite of other material evidence to the contrary.
Faith and effort must both be persistent, reliable, continuous, regular and truly meant for any endeavor to succeed consistently. Effort is linear, faith is mystical. The linear is fueled by the mystical. Effort cannot happen without faith. Unless you think you can do it, unless you have faith that you can do it, you're not going to succeed when met with disappointments and setbacks. With a strong and persistent faith, the effort is also strong and persistent. This joint operation, this melding of the spiritual and physical by the mind unites the spirit and energy/matter seamlessly into action. Then faith becomes action because it is only through our actions that we can reveal faith. Faith without effort is an illusion, a fantasy; effort without faith is hollow, powerless.
The problem with some previous explorations of using faith and effort is that they could not explain how faith and effort can become a seamless force. Nor did they fashion a new word or a new terminology that incorporated these two things into a synergistic new idea. But there are exceptions.
We had faith, and then we put out effort, or we put out effort and had faith that it would work. It was proto-elliptical philosophy. But there were some people who did figure out how to work with faith and effort seamlessly and they led very amazing lives because of it. They were pioneers that formulated practical methods which could be followed by most everyone such as the techniques in the New Thought movement exemplified by the likes of Ernest Holmes, author of Science of Mind, originally titled Science of Mind and Spirit. His approach to elliptical philosophy was from the scientific and linear standpoint, otherwise his book would have been titled Spirit of Science and Mind. Christian D. Larson who wrote the Pathway To Roses was also an inspired New Thought author. His approach was not so linear but was more Christian oriented. These Western thinkers had exceptional insights, and their explanations were for the Western mindset.
However the process of coming up with a way to effectively merge seamlessly the energies of faith and effort was also approached in the East by sages such as Lao Tsu and Gautama Siddhartha. Since they came from the non-linear mystical standpoint, their writings are often very cryptic to the Western mind but their ideas evolved through the ages and by virtue of the many anonymous souls which came after them, there resulted from Eastern thought something that is quite unique. This is the dynamic energy that is known as chi, ki or qi (pronounced ki). Qi is the energy of faith and effort seamlessly united and it exists everywhere. Qi is used to heal, it is used in martial arts, it is used in business, it is used in everyday life to vitalize, energize, actualize and better our basic life condition. George Lucas has even popularized qi in the Star Wars films by referring to it as The Force. But qi is not fiction, qi is real.
In explanation, one must first understand faith and effort. Faith, taken from a purely humanistic standpoint, is the supreme assertion of human thought. Faith in God is the supreme assertion of our oneness with God; our love of God, our trust in God, our personal relationship with God, the First Source and Center of All.
Effort/action is not merely the outworking of physical activities. Thought/mind and effort/action are one and the same, merely different manifestations of the same thing, just as it is with matter and energy. The Urantia Book also describes the Infinite Spirit (known by Christians as the Holy Spirit) as the God of Action and the source of all mind. And Buddhist thought says that cause and effect are actually one and the same also, the relationship between thought and action usually being understood as that of cause and effect. Mind you, these are non-linear concepts and cannot be understood by linear thinking.
An important part of effort/action is the imagination, the mental power within our minds to create. Even Einstein said knowledge is limited while imagination is infinite. Imagination is not just flights of fancy but the ability to create reality with the mind, not just in the mind, but also in external reality, as what is imagined often becomes reality.
So physical energy plus spiritual energy times imagination results in activating qi.
Using Qi = Physical Energy + Spiritual Energy x Imagination
(or Effort/Stamina plus Faith/Spirituality times Mind/Creativity)
When effort and faith is multiplied by mind we are in contact and in unity with the whole of existence. It often first happens when we engage in deep worshipful meditation and can be carried out in
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