FAITH
Few notions elicit more debate and vague associations
than the family of concepts associated with the word
faithand its various approximate synonyms (e.g., be-
lief). Needless to say, the English faithhas no exact
equivalent in the languages of Asia. The word means
many things in English and in other Western languages
as well, and the proximate Asian equivalents also have
many meanings in their Asian contexts. This is not to
say that faithcannot be used as a descriptive or ana-
lytical tool to understand Buddhist ideas and practices,
yet one must be aware of the cultural and polemic en-
vironments that shaped Buddhist notions of faith.
Semantic range
The most common English theological meanings are
the ones that have the most questionable similarity to
historical Buddhist belief and practice: acceptance of
and secure belief in the existence of a personal creator
deity (“belief in”), acceptance of such deity as a unique
person with a distinctive name, the unquestioned ac-
ceptance of this deity’s will, and the adoption of the
articles of dogma believed to express the deity’s will.
Buddhist notions tend to occupy a different center in
the semantic field: serene trust, confident belief that
the practice of the dharma will bear the promised fruit,
and joyful surrender to the presence or vision of one
or many “ideal beings” (BUDDHAS, BODHISATTVAS,
etc.). The articles of belief and systems of practice that
constitute the Buddhist PATHare seldom set up ex-
plicitly as direct objects of faith, but confessions of trust
and declarations of commitment to various aspects of
the path are common ritual practices (taking the
REFUGES, taking vows, etc.).
The objects of faith can be all, any, or only one
among the multiple buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities
of Buddhism. Nevertheless, Buddhists often confess
their total trust in a particular deity or buddha or bo-
dhisattva identified by a unique name and by personal
attributes that are considered distinctive and superior
to those of any other deity (e.g., the cult of AMITABHA
or the cult of Shugs ldan).A sense of the range of Buddhist conceptions of
“faith” can be derived from a glance at some of the
classical Asian terms that are rendered into English as
faith.The term s ́raddha (Pali, saddha), for instance,
may signify belief, but generally refers more to trust
and commitment. It is sometimes glossed as “trust or
reliance on someone else” (parapratyaya, Abhidharma-
kos ́aVI. 29), but, etymologically, it derives from an old
Indo-European verb meaning “to place one’s heart on
(a desire, goal, object, or person),” which appears in
Latin in the verb credo,and subsequently in English as
creed, credence,and so on.
A connection between this mental state and other
positive states is suggested in a variety of ways. For in-
stance, in the abhidharmaliterature the word s ́raddha
refers to one of the mental factors that are always pre-
sent in good thoughts (kus ́alamahabhumika, Abhid-
harmakos ́a II. 23–25). Already in the sutra/sutta
literature, s ́raddhais one of the five mental faculties
necessary for a good practice (the five indriyasor five
balas), which include MINDFULNESSand persevering
courage.These meanings are associated also with the idea of
conviction, committed and steadfast practice, or com-
mitment as active engagement, a range of concepts ex-
pressed with the term adhimuktior adhimoksa(Pali,277