Conviction comes from inner experience

One of the greatest things to possess is faith, which ultimately leads to conviction; and from conviction one day arises realization.

There are no two kinds of faith. Faith is the last thing to be labeled. The only question is whether one has strong faith or weak faith. Some manifest faith only to the point of acknowledging forms and ceremonies, while some go beyond this to seek the kernel and eschew the hull, believing either in the impersonal infinite existence or in the personal infinite existence of one’s own master.

Thus it is only a question of degree of faith. In wholehearted faith, relief will be found from the many sufferings which afflict man. We are already in possession of infinite power and happiness, but it is our way of life which prevents us from enjoying these eternal treasures of God. Faith can provide a key to attain them.

Eventually, faith must give way to conviction, for after all, faith is only faith. There are two kinds of experience—external and internal. External experience can result through the gross media. What we actually see of the gross world with our gross eyes gives us conviction of a sort, but there are occasions when even this conviction is based on incorrect analysis.

Thus, if we see a man drinking milk from a bottle under a toddy tree, we assume unconsciously that he is drinking toddy, which is incorrect. What is seen with the inner eye gives absolute conviction and can never be false. Such is the case, for example, when one sees with the inner eye that God is the Infinite Existence.

Therefore what is really needed to give eternal conviction is not mere theorizing or reasoning, or even faith, but actual (inner) experience.

-Listen Humanity, p184

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