Faith and doubt in the Buddhist tradition
The word "faith" is often used as a synonym for religion; people say "What is your faith?" to say "What is your religion?" In recent years it has become popular to define a religious individual as a "person of faith". But what do we mean by "faith" and what role does faith play in Buddhism?
"Faith" is used to mean uncritical belief in divine beings, miracles, heaven and hell and other phenomena that cannot be demonstrated. Or, as the crusader atheist Richard Dawkins defines in his book The God Delusion, "Faith is faith despite, perhaps also because of the lack of evidence."
Why doesn't this understanding of "faith" work with Buddhism? As reported in the Kalama Sutta, the historical Buddha taught us not to accept his teachings uncritically, but to apply our experience and reason to determine for ourselves what is true and what is not. This is not "faith" as the word is commonly used.
Some Buddhism schools seem to be more "faith based" than others. Pure Land Buddhists look to Amitabha Buddha for rebirth in the Pure Land, for example. Sometimes the Pure Land is considered to be a transcendent state of being, but some also think it is a place, not unlike the way many people conceptualize Heaven.
However, in the Pure Land the point is not to worship Amitabha but to practice and actualize the teachings of the Buddha in the world. This type of faith can be a powerful upaya or a skillful means of helping the practitioner find a center, or center, for practice.
The zen of faith
At the other end of the spectrum is Zen, which stubbornly resists belief in anything supernatural. As Master Bankei said, "My miracle is that when I'm hungry, I eat and when I'm tired, I sleep." Even so, a Zen proverb states that a Zen student must have great faith, great doubts and great determination. A Ch'an saying reportedly states that the four prerequisites for practice are great faith, great doubt, great vow and great vigor.
Common understanding of the words "faith" and "doubt" makes these words senseless. We define "faith" as an absence of doubt and "doubt" as an absence of faith. We assume that, like air and water, they cannot occupy the same space. However, a Zen student is encouraged to cultivate both.
Sensei Sevan Ross, director of the Chicago Zen Center, explained how faith and doubt work together in a dharma discourse called "The distance between faith and doubt". Here's just a little:
“The Great Faith and the Great Doubt are the two ends of a spiritual walking stick. We grab one end with the hold that is given to us by our Great Determination. We push into the undergrowth in the dark during our spiritual journey. This act is a true spiritual practice - grasping the end of the Faith and pushing forward with the end of the Doubt of the stick. If we don't have Faith, we have no doubt. If we don't have Determination, we never take the stick in the first place. "
Faith and doubt
Faith and doubt should be opposed, but Sensei says "if we have no faith, we have no doubts". true faith requires real doubt; without a doubt, faith is not faith.
This type of faith is not the same thing as certainty; it is more like trust (shraddha). This type of doubt is not about denial and unbelief. And you can find this same understanding of faith and doubt in the writing of scholars and mystics of other religions if you look for it, even if these days we hear mainly from absolutists and dogmatists.
Faith and doubt in a religious sense both concern openness. Faith is about living in a carefree and courageous way and not in a closed and self-protective way. Faith helps us to overcome our fear of pain, pain and disappointment and remain open to new experiences and understanding. The other type of faith, which is filled with certainty, is closed.
Pema Chodron said: “We can let the circumstances of our life harden so that we become increasingly resentful and frightened, or we can let ourselves be softened and made more kind and more open to what frightens us. We always have this choice. " Faith is open to what frightens us.
Doubt in a religious sense recognizes what is not understood. While actively seeking understanding, he also accepts that understanding will never be perfect. Some Christian theologians use the word "humility" to mean the same thing. The other type of doubt, which makes us fold our arms and declare that all religion is bunk, is closed.
Zen teachers speak of the "beginner's mind" and "don't know the mind" to describe a mind that is receptive to realization. This is the mind of faith and doubt. If we have no doubts, we have no faith. If we have no faith, we have no doubts.
Jump into the darkness
Above, we mentioned that rigid and uncritical acceptance of dogma is not what Buddhism is concerned with. The Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh says: “Do not be idolatrous or tied to any doctrine, theory or ideology, not even Buddhist. Buddhist thought systems are guiding means; they are not absolute truths ”.
But although they are not absolute truths, Buddhist thought systems are wonderful means of guidance. Faith in Amitabha of Pure Land Buddhism, belief in the Lotus Sutra of Nichiren Buddhism and belief in the deities of Tibetan Tantra are also like that. In the end these divine beings and sutras are upaya, skillful means, to guide our leaps into the dark, and in the end it is us. Believing in them or worshiping them is not the point.
A saying attributed to Buddhism, “Sell your intelligence and buy amazement. Jump into the darkness one after the other until the light shines. " The phrase is enlightening, but the guidance of the teachings and the support of the sangha give some direction to our leap into the dark.
Open or closed
The dogmatic approach to religion, the one that requires undisputed loyalty to a system of absolute beliefs, is faithless. This approach causes people to cling to dogmas rather than follow a path. If taken to the extreme, the dogmatist can be lost inside the fantasy building of fanaticism. Which brings us back to talking about religion as "faith". Buddhists rarely speak of Buddhism as a "faith". Instead, it is a practice. Faith is part of the practice, but doubt is also.