Faith* is in the mental factor which inclines, pushes the mind onto the wholesome object. If you see a Buddha statue and you wish to put some flowers at its feet, it is the factor of faith which draws your mind to the statue, the representation of the Buddha.
If you read a verse of the Dhammapada and experience feelings of joy and peace, then again the faith mental factor plays the role of lifting your mind up to the Dhamma (as a non Buddhist might either not read the verse at all, or else not appreciate the Dhamma in it).
In insight meditation the wholesome object on which faith is directed to is the understanding of mental and physical phenomena, of their causal relationship and their universal nature of being impermanent, unsatisfactory and nonself.
Faith is the confidence that thrusts the investigating mind with right understanding first onto the unique and universal characteristics of mind and matter, and ultimately on Nibbana.
* In Pall: saddha. According to the analysis of Buddhist psychology the characteristic of faith is to place confidence In or to trust; its function to clarify, as a water-clearing gem causes muddy water to become clear or it’s function is to set forth as one might set forth to cross a flood.
Faith is manifested as non-fogginess i.e. the removal of the mind’s impurities, or as resolution. Its proximate cause is something to place faith in.
Faith is vital in any spiritual endeavour. It is because of faith that effort can be exerted, mindfulness established, concentration and understanding attained.
Like the foundation of a building it carries all that which is above it, but is less conspicuous, less distinguished by itself, compared to such marvellous mental factors like mindfulness, concentration or wisdom. Faith has to be monitored!
The agency which controls and balances out faith is understanding, or wisdom. Unlike mindfulness which is always good, faith can take you onto wrong tracks if associated with unwholesome intentions.
Even if faith is put on a wholesome object, for example on the suttas or a capable meditation teacher, it can be excessive and thus lead you to do all kinds of weird things.
Faith has the function to clarify the mind. It is compared to the gem which purifies muddied water. That is a very attractive mental quality and sometimes taken as an end in itself.
An example: In a meditation centre a yogi is sitting for a long time at the foot of the altar, gazing into the beautiful face of the statue. The yogi is enthralled by it, wrapped in blissful feelings of faith.
Although she or he has a wholesome state of mind, it is stuck on a pleasant inner experience, unable to observe and investigate the arising thoughts, feelings, sensation, etc. with mindful awareness and thus progress to an insight meditation proper.
Because understanding faculty is lacking the yogi stagnates within a limited achievement of mental development. True, it is better to be lost gazing at a statue than, say, being lost in greed or despair playing one’s fortune on the stock market.
Based on his vast experience in teaching insight mediation Sayadaw U Pandita feels that Buddhists in the West tend to be excessive in wisdom faculty, while those in Asia are likely to overdo in faith faculty.
A Westerner might thus be too inquisitive and critical to ever closely follow the instructions of the teacher, and stick to her or him through all ups and downs of the practice.
Asians on the other hand might get stuck on worshipping all the monks and nuns they see, neglecting thereby their own mental development through meditation.
And of course there can be excesses not only in individuals but in groups too. The cases of spiritual teachers and groups succumbing to the seduction of cult worship are legion.
There are gross cases like the Thai monk who enjoyed posing, like a film star and was hailed as being, an Arahant (photographs of him hung in a thousand living rooms) only to turn out to have had secret affairs with his female followers.
More interesting, and I think more challenging to be detected and understood, are the subtler aspects of personality cult, occurring right in the midst of our community and our hearts.
Can we have a good hard look at our own idiosyncrasies, for example our tendency to put those whom we consider noble and good up on a pedestal?
Isn’t it absolutely fascinating to see how excessive faith and respect can affect our natural behaviour, as i is so often seen when meditators go to interviews moving awkwardly and unnaturally, and experiencing non too often a blank and stupid mind, simply because they are overwhelmed by feelings when reporting to a senior monk?
Exactly what happens when faith takes over our capacity to appraise in a healthy way a given interaction or teacher-student relationship? Let us use a concept from Western psychology to shed more light into this area.
Western psychology says that the human psyche has a powerful inherent tendency to project aspects of one’s mind onto people and things outside. Say you are alone at night in a hut in the hills.
After a while you get frightened, but instead of only having the real fear within yourself, you project it onto the surroundings and suddenly the dark corners or the rattling of the wind become carriers of your fear and thus turn into threatening objects.
Next morning when the fear abates, the corners will be just corners again and the wind sing pleasantly.
Even more dramatic in consequences are our projections onto other people.
Let’s say you enjoy gossiping. Instead of fully acknowledging your habit you project it on other people, detecting the fault which actually exists to some degree in yourself, only in others. And this happens with all kinds of character traits, be it stinginess, anger, greed, jealousy, insecurity, etc.
