Many Westerners come
to Buddhism feeling a lack of faith in the faiths in which they were raised.
What then is the place of faith in Buddhist practice?
When I was living and studying Vedanta philosophy, meditation and yoga in the late sixties
in Southern India, I voyaged from the southern most tip of Mother Bharat to what was then
called Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
I was ready from a
break from yogis, sanyasins, and school and what I found was delightful. While
walking on the beach I saw a group of young Buddhist monks, boys really, bathing in the
Indian Ocean. They were leaping over the waves, splashing one another, giggling and
roaring with laughter. The sight of their orange robes and sound of their
playfulness etched pathways of curiosity in my brain. What was the source of this
lightheartedness in these small boys? I had not experienced this quality within the
full age range of spiritual practitioners and masters of India.
Later, in 1985 upon
return to Sri Lanka, the country that planted the seeds of openness to Buddhism in my
heart, I experienced both exaltation and disappointment. I was now fully engaged in
the practice and study of Buddhism, and had been since the mid-70's. My journey this time
was to enter a Theravadin Buddhist nunnery and live the life of a monastic for a
prescribed period of time.
As nuns we participated
in the culture of Sri Lanka, in Buddhist rites and rituals, Through time and experience
with the people of Sri Lanka I witnessed Buddhism functioning as a religion. People
engaged in pujas (worship) to the Buddha and the bodhi tree. While participation in
the culture was enlivening, acknowledging Buddhism as a religion was not. Intellectually I
knew of course that Buddhism was/is a religion. I, as so many others, came to Buddhism as
a way of life, a philosophy, a way of being in the world. The feeling tone of this
way of being was filled with the spirit of inquiry, was broadening, opening, deepening.
The feeling tone of religion held little for me. It was interesting but
somewhat empty for me, however not for those who practiced it. From the people of Sri
Lanka I witnessed joy, delight and devotion. After all, it was this joy and delight,
which sparked my initial interest.
What then is the place of faith within Buddhist practice?
A word about faith
In Pali the word for faith is saddha. The word for confidence is saddha. Faith
is based in confidence, confidence in having experienced what we know to be true.
This is the Buddhist definition of faith. Keep this in mind as you read on.
