58 / 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

18 Quaint gate.jpg
一百八法明門
IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON
One Hundred and Eight Gates of Dharma-Illumi

[58] The faculty of belief is a gate of Dharma-illumination; for [with it] we do not [blindly] follow the words of others.

The Dharma of the Buddha is not a religion of blind faith. It is far more demanding than that. It is a religion of experience and discovery. The Buddha said that his teaching was "come and see." Few of the great teachers in history have made such a bold and confident claim.

Because of this, the role of faith in Buddhism may be difficult to grasp. We should clarify that by "faith" I mean the enlightenment factor and spiritual faculty that is often translated "confidence" or "conviction" and both of these words are very good, but I still prefer the straightforward "faith" precisely because it is a loaded word which challenges us to deal with the implications.

Faith is a key factor in the list of wholesome states. It is one of the uplifting enlightenment factors, together with the related states of joy and energy. It is also one of the spiritual faculties, to be balanced with discriminating wisdom. Without wisdom, faith becomes superstition just as without faith wisdom is only a low cunning which justifies the defilements.

The question naturally arises, "faith in what exactly?" I would like to suggest three things we ought to have faith in. Looking at this question strictly from the practical viewpoint of progress in meditation, the yogi must first of all have faith in the practice. Without this confidence, you will get nowhere. In an actual retreat situation this also implies faith in the teacher and his instructions. If you can't feel complete confidence in the teacher, then find another teacher. You won't get anywhere if you question the meditation instructions all the time.

Faith is not a helpless dependence on another, nor is a blind belief that the teacher is flawless. It is, or ought to be, a feeling of trust and confidence in the Dharma presented, as something valuable and worth heeding. During a practice session, it should be the courage and discipline to follow the instructions instead of the whisperings of monkey mind.

The second thing that the Buddhist must have faith in is the Third Noble Truth, that there IS an end to suffering. This is, I think, the only metaphysical belief that is absolutely essential. Indeed, it may very well be the only one that is not actually a hindrance. It is not something susceptible to logical proof, only to the confirmation of direct realization. Before this point, you can only have faith that it is there to be found. If you don't believe this, then you are not doing meditation at all, but only self-psychotherapy. There is no point to speculation about what the end of suffering implies, it can't be arrived at by reason. And until you actually glimpse it for yourself, you have to go on faith.

The third and final element of essential faith is for many of us the most difficult. It is one I struggled with myself for many years. You must somehow find faith in yourself. Many people can happily believe that the Buddha was enlightened, but that they could never do it. We need to recognize that this is a form of egoism. Who do you think you are to be the only sentient being in the universe without the seed of Buddhahood.

Besides these three things, there is really nothing else to be believed. In fact, a lot of the work of insight meditation is disbelieving. It is very difficult to acquire the knack of seeing the arising phenomena fully and honestly without imposing an imaginary matrix of mental proliferation. In the depths of meditation, you must be ruthlessly honest and radically skeptical.
May we all find the faith to be so radically skeptical.

How do you see this fitting into your practice?

合掌,生開
gassho, Shokai
stlah
仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai
"Open to life in a benevolent way"

[Ryūdō-Liúdào]

This has always been a major draw of Buddhism for me: live it and breathe it, don’t just accept it on authority. That’s why I resonate so strongly with Zen/Chán, especially the Sōtō/Cáodòng approach. I’ve always believed in hands-on learning. If you want to cook well, you have to make a mess in the kitchen first... and accept a few cuts and burns along the way!

Healthy skepticism has always been part of my practice. My mind naturally leans toward logic and critical thinking (to the delight or frustration of my childhood teachers), so I've never been one to follow teachings blindly. I try them, observe the results, and let experience confirm what’s worth keeping.

Gasshō,
流道-Ryūdō-Liúdào
Satlah

[Tenryu]

What fits into my practice here is an ease with not knowing. I don’t feel a need to resolve things or arrive at firm conclusions. Remaining in that openness feels natural.

This isn’t blind belief. It comes from trusting the practice itself. By staying with it, I’ve learned to trust reality as it presents itself, and to trust what actually functions. Faith, in this sense, isn’t about accepting statements. It’s about continuing without forcing certainty.

Gasshō,
Tenryū
st LaH

[Tairin]

Thank you Shokai

i have faith in the Practice and Path because I see the value in the principles behind it. Honestly, I have more or less forgotten about the whole enlightenment aspect of Buddhism. Yes I get “openings” from time to time, which are nice, but soon they fade away.

Sit quietly for a period of time each day (Zazen)
Follow some guidelines for an ethical life (Precepts)
Try to bring some good into the world for other sentient beings


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Choujou]

The first two “faiths” I don’t usually have too much trouble with. I have faith in the practice and in Jundo and all our priests, in the noble truths and eightfold path… where I fall a little short is the faith in myself. Everything I thought before has changed and it has made me question my life, who I am, what it is I am doing, where I’m headed. The future that was envisioned is gone and I am left with a void, and yet endless possibility exists within it. I have no idea what to do with that… it’s not that I sacrifice the present to live in the past or future, but I just mean plans…a house bought, a different future… a new start… it’s all gone. Now I am rebuilding but trying to just remain present and open to all possibIlities. I have faith that I will end up exactly where I need to be anyway

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

[Seikan]

I think I've mentioned this in previous reflections, but faith does play a large role in my practice. In setting forth on any path we must have at least some measure of faith that the road will lead us to our intended destination, even if we're not entirely sure what that destination looks like.

With Buddhism, I believe that faith in the practice/path is critical for without it, there is little to fuel one's motivation/momentum. For me, my faith arose simply because the teachings that I encountered early on resonated with me on many levels. It felt strangely familiar and "correct", even though I didn't have any direct proof myself. I only had the words of others. Hence, my faith in the practice was born. Yet, as has already been discussed, such "faith" in Buddhism is not a blind faith as this practice is a purely empirical one. We are provided with direction and tools to "try it for ourselves" so that we might discover the same truths as the Buddha did. Faith helps to establish us on the path and guide us along the way, but it is not the destination itself as it is with other religions.

And I really appreciate Shokai's description of the three kinds of faith that we must cultivate. Like others, I also struggle with the last one, faith in myself, at times. And while little insights that happen along the way can help to restore a waning faith in myself, that is when Sangha plays a critical role in my practice. It is the support and example of others that helps maintain my confidence and faith in myself.

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[dorgan]

Faith is the threshold-crossing energy that moves you from hearing about practice to actually doing it, and from doing it to trusting what arises within it. Faith is the factor that makes our initial leap possible, the leap into practice before practice has confirmed itself. There is something irreducibly pre-rational about this.

If you're constantly second-guessing instructions, you can’t actually practice. The mind needs to settle into the method before it can discover anything through the method. We must recognize that the practice-relationship with a teacher requires a foundation of trust to function, and that finding that ground is itself the practitioner's responsibility.

The structure of any serious inquiry requires that we believe the answer exists before we find it. "Who do you think you are to be the only sentient being in the universe without the seed of Buddhahood?" This is not a gentle encouragement. It is a challenge that uses the logic of universality against the ego's favourite hiding place, the pose of unworthiness, which is just pride wearing different clothes.

Faith launches you into the practice; then practice demands that you relinquish everything faith might tempt you to cling to. The faculty of belief, fully matured, becomes the courage to see without the comfort of belief. This is the sense in which faith and wisdom balance each other: faith without wisdom becomes the very credulity the gate warns against, while wisdom without faith becomes what Shokai memorably calls "a low-cunning that justifies the defilements", the clever mind that uses insight to rationalize avoidance rather than to penetrate further.

Faith is kinetic; it is the energy that initiates movement along the path, sustains it through the long middle stretches where confirmation is absent, and then, paradoxically, consummates itself by dissolving into direct seeing. It is not a resting place but a vector.

I trust my teacher and his lineage, I trust my Sangha and its founder, and I trust my practice and myself.

gassho, david
stlah

[Chikyou]

This is another gate where I am very grateful for the explanation, because when I read it, I was confused!

When I think of faith, I think of the finger pointing to the moon. We KNOW that the moon is there, even on a dark night. We never wonder if we will see it again. We are certain that we will, as we have seen it many times before. The moon is a symbol of faith for me.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō