The Role of Faith
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
tricycle
As a factor of the Buddhist path, faith
(saddha) does not mean blind belief but a willingness to
accept on trust certain propositions that we cannot, at our present
stage of development, personally verify for ourselves. These
propositions concern both the nature of reality and the higher
reaches of the path. In the traditional map of Buddhist training,
faith is placed at the beginning, as the prerequisite for the later
stages comprised in the triad of virtue, concentration, and wisdom.
The canonical texts do not seem to envisage the possibility that a
person lacking faith in the tenets specific to the dhamma could
take up the practice of insight meditation and reap positive
results. Yet today such a phenomenon has become extremely
widespread. It is quite common now for meditators to make their
first contact with the dhamma through intensive insight meditation,
and then to use this experience as a touchstone for assessing their
relationship to the teaching.
Contrary to Buddhist modernism, there are many
principles taught by the Buddha as essential to right understanding
that we cannot, in our present state, see for ourselves. These are
by no means negligible, for they define the framework of the
Buddha’s entire program of deliverance. Not only do they depict the
deeper dimensions of the suffering from which we need release, but
they point in the direction where true liberation lies and
prescribe the steps that lead to realization of the
goal.