the five spiritual faculties: faith
May. 12th, 2019 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cattasallaContinuing the previous post on the five faculties:
"Faith" is a word that has become a dirty word in a certain segment of society, one in which I frequently find myself: politically progressive people, concerned with social justice, and largely agnostic or atheistic or both. The word has come to mean "believing in something without evidence", and even theists seem to argue with this meaning when they counter that atheists must also have faith to believe there are no gods. To me (an atheist), this seems to largely miss the entire point of faith, which is much richer and more beautiful than simply believing or disbelieving something.
Faith is not simply believing something. It's believing in something, it's having a conviction which provides you with psychological and spiritual nourishment, from which you can draw strength. Now, it is the case that faith can become poisonous. The conviction that your viewpoint is the absolute truth can lead to forcing that viewpoint on others, and acting in ways that harm others because you believe you are right. This is faith out of balance; faith needs to be tempered by wisdom, and kindness, and compassion.
Buddhism is different from other faiths, because we don't put our faith in a deity. Indeed, this sets us apart from all of the other religions. For virtually every other religion, there is some loving, all-powerful God, and the goal is for the adherent to enter into a relationship with that God, and from their faith in that God, they draw the strength and derive wisdom that leads to their self-improvement. They have to deal with the problem of suffering, of course, but it's almost ancillary: It arises because if there's an all-powerful, loving God, why would that God allow suffering to occur? An explanation must be devised, and rooted in the faith (as well as in the natural human capacities upon which both Buddhism and humanism rely), a solution found, generally involving the God in some way.
In Buddhism, our starting point is the existence of suffering. It isn't a side-quest that we go on in our greater quest for understanding God. Understanding suffering and achieving liberation from it is the quest. So, then, what role does faith play?
Let's continue with SN 48.10, from the previous post. My translation:
The starting point, then, is the belief that the Buddha did have an extraordinary awakening, and that his teachings are worth checking out, and putting into practice. But, of course, this faith doesn't just come out of nowhere. You don't believe in the Buddha's awakening just because he says he's awakened. You read the teachings, and ponder them, and if they make sense, you put them into practice. You try meditating, and you see what happens with your mind and in your life. And, if you see it works, you start to gain some degree of confidence or faith in the practice. So you practice more. And the more you practice, the more you see it works, so the more confidence you gain in it. You start to believe in it, and trust it.
So the "faith" of Buddhism is not in some deity, and not in the person who had the title Buddha, but in the practice he taught, and in our own capacity to do that practice. We believe that it's something worth doing, and it's something we can do.
Of course, we'll still harbor doubts. I mean, the Buddha says he completely eradicated his own dukkha. Is that really possible? I sometimes wonder if that the things that plague us never occurred to him, or if they did and he just knew immediately how to deal with them so they didn't perturb him. I don't know. It's traditionally taught that there are four levels of awakening, with the lowest being called "Stream Entry", and that occurs once one gets a glimpse of the Deathless, the nirvanic state that is the ultimate goal of the practice. Once that occurs, apparently all doubt is eradicated. I haven't reached it, personally.
But I do know that the practice makes my life better, and that if I'm having difficulty in my life, I need to continue the practice and trust that it will do its work. And to trust in my ability to do the practice. I just need to keep doing it. It is my refuge.
This is the Buddhist faith.
The next paragraph in the sutta is a common formula for meditating on the Buddha:
It's probably chanted every day by any devout Theravadin as part of the Three Recollections, and just recognized that the Buddha was a pretty awesome guy, if the canon is to be trusted.
"Faith" is a word that has become a dirty word in a certain segment of society, one in which I frequently find myself: politically progressive people, concerned with social justice, and largely agnostic or atheistic or both. The word has come to mean "believing in something without evidence", and even theists seem to argue with this meaning when they counter that atheists must also have faith to believe there are no gods. To me (an atheist), this seems to largely miss the entire point of faith, which is much richer and more beautiful than simply believing or disbelieving something.
Faith is not simply believing something. It's believing in something, it's having a conviction which provides you with psychological and spiritual nourishment, from which you can draw strength. Now, it is the case that faith can become poisonous. The conviction that your viewpoint is the absolute truth can lead to forcing that viewpoint on others, and acting in ways that harm others because you believe you are right. This is faith out of balance; faith needs to be tempered by wisdom, and kindness, and compassion.
Buddhism is different from other faiths, because we don't put our faith in a deity. Indeed, this sets us apart from all of the other religions. For virtually every other religion, there is some loving, all-powerful God, and the goal is for the adherent to enter into a relationship with that God, and from their faith in that God, they draw the strength and derive wisdom that leads to their self-improvement. They have to deal with the problem of suffering, of course, but it's almost ancillary: It arises because if there's an all-powerful, loving God, why would that God allow suffering to occur? An explanation must be devised, and rooted in the faith (as well as in the natural human capacities upon which both Buddhism and humanism rely), a solution found, generally involving the God in some way.
In Buddhism, our starting point is the existence of suffering. It isn't a side-quest that we go on in our greater quest for understanding God. Understanding suffering and achieving liberation from it is the quest. So, then, what role does faith play?
Let's continue with SN 48.10, from the previous post. My translation:
And what, O monks, is the spiritual faculty of faith?
Here, O monks, a noble disciple is faithful, and believes in the awakening of the Tathāgata.
The starting point, then, is the belief that the Buddha did have an extraordinary awakening, and that his teachings are worth checking out, and putting into practice. But, of course, this faith doesn't just come out of nowhere. You don't believe in the Buddha's awakening just because he says he's awakened. You read the teachings, and ponder them, and if they make sense, you put them into practice. You try meditating, and you see what happens with your mind and in your life. And, if you see it works, you start to gain some degree of confidence or faith in the practice. So you practice more. And the more you practice, the more you see it works, so the more confidence you gain in it. You start to believe in it, and trust it.
So the "faith" of Buddhism is not in some deity, and not in the person who had the title Buddha, but in the practice he taught, and in our own capacity to do that practice. We believe that it's something worth doing, and it's something we can do.
Of course, we'll still harbor doubts. I mean, the Buddha says he completely eradicated his own dukkha. Is that really possible? I sometimes wonder if that the things that plague us never occurred to him, or if they did and he just knew immediately how to deal with them so they didn't perturb him. I don't know. It's traditionally taught that there are four levels of awakening, with the lowest being called "Stream Entry", and that occurs once one gets a glimpse of the Deathless, the nirvanic state that is the ultimate goal of the practice. Once that occurs, apparently all doubt is eradicated. I haven't reached it, personally.
But I do know that the practice makes my life better, and that if I'm having difficulty in my life, I need to continue the practice and trust that it will do its work. And to trust in my ability to do the practice. I just need to keep doing it. It is my refuge.
This is the Buddhist faith.
The next paragraph in the sutta is a common formula for meditating on the Buddha:
That Fortunate One is accomplished, completely awakened by his own effort, complete in knowledge and compassionate conduct, gone to happiness, knower of worlds, unexcelled master of people to be tamed, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, and fortunate.
It's probably chanted every day by any devout Theravadin as part of the Three Recollections, and just recognized that the Buddha was a pretty awesome guy, if the canon is to be trusted.