Faith in Buddhism

One of the things that struck me on my rereading of Getting the Buddha Mind is the assertion of the importance of religious faith. I don’t remember that before. It is not a front and center tenet, but it is there. Faith here is not presented in the same way as some other religions. It is more like a diluted faith.

The benefits of meditation and Buddhist teaching are available to anyone, so it is being claimed. Practicing on this level does not even present any conflict with other religious practices on its own. Sitting and practicing controlling your thoughts is a rather inoffensive activity. But to achieve the Buddha mind, to reach higher levels of enlightenment, a “great faith” is one of the four four conditions of practice. This is basically faith that if you continue to meditate hard, you will eventually achieve enlightenment and faith that your teacher knows how to read your progress and their instructions are going to lead you further down the path even if you do not understand.

I have to say that the faith element is a little distracting to me now, not that I would ever devote myself so strongly to Buddhism to pursue high levels of enlightenment.

I mentioned to a friend at work that I was reading this book. She was immediately interested. Apparently, she dabbles in Buddhist teachings. I mentioned this observation about a reliance on faith. That struck her as out of line with her readings. She has done enough reading on the matter to have other books to recommend on the subject. I’ll consider picking one up down the road.