Faith

Ultimately, for the purpose of enlightenment, we must acknowledge traditionless wisdom clear space, which is the source of all countless traditions. But temporarily, while our faculties are obscured, we cannot reject tradition. It is Dharma tradition to say that in order to lead to enlightenment, the Buddha's teaching adapts to worldly customs. Keen pure element faculties always reflect pure Dharma, but those with obstructed impure element faculties cannot adapt to pure Dharma, so they must rely on the traditions of faith until they develop keen faculties.

There are three different kinds of faith: fanatic faith, clear faith, and reasonable faith. If we have fanatic faith, when we see a rock in the road and are told that it is deity, we pray to it. This fanatic faith may work because our rock phenomena transform into deity phenomena. If we have clear faith, when we go into a temple with a fresh and innocent mind, we accept beautiful frescoes or whatever we see there as positive phenomena. This clear faith works because it creates clear mind. If we have reasonable faith we understand things through logic and can see invisible qualities in visible qualities. For example, if we are in the middle of the ocean and see a duck flying above us in the sky, we have faith that there is land nearby; or if we see smoke behind the mountains, we have faith that there is a fire.

Faith means wishing. If we do not have faith in food's qualities to nourish, why do we wish to eat? If we do not have faith in clothing's qualities to protect our naked bodies, why do we wish to wear clothes? If we do not have faith, how can we make contact with our lovers, our family, our friends, our worldly or Dharma teachers, or our country's custom? If we do not have faith, we are less than animals. Even cows have faith in grass.

If we ask religious people whether that have faith in a god, they say yes. If we ask them if they have faith in their friend, they say no. But the essence of faith is love, so if we really love our god and we really love our friend, then automatically we have faith in both of them. We are just using faith differently according to different traditions. If we think it is nonsense to have faith in a god because god is invisible, we do not understand that the essence of faith, which is love, is always the same. When we love, we think that we love an object, but really love is inherent within our subject and only reflects to the object. So when love is there, faith is also always there. The object of faith changes from a god, to a country, to a friend or to a lover according to the tradition we follow, while the temporary and ultimate benefit of faith depends on our intention towards the object.

Without depending on tradition we cannot do anything. So until we become enlightened, we cannot reject faith, which depends on tradition. In order to communicate, it is always necessary to deal with society's tradition. But if we rely on it with rigid attachment, then through our clinging, we are trapped by tradition.