What is Faith?

An Interview with Sharon Salzberg

Sharon Salzberg, IMS co-founder and guiding teacher, talks with Insight Newsletter about her latest book Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience.

Sharon, from a Buddhist perspective, what does the word ‘faith’ mean? Why is it important?

In Pali, the language of the original Buddhist texts, the word usually translated as faith is saddha, which literally means “to place the heart upon.”  To have faith is to offer one’s heart. In Pali faith is a verb, an action, as it is also in Latin and Hebrew. It is not a singular state that we either have or don’t have, but is something that we do. We “faithe.”

Once, when I was with Sayadaw U Pandita in Burma, he asked us which of the five spiritual powers – faith, energy or effort, concentration, mindfulness and wisdom - was the most important. Since he frequently demanded so much courageous effort from his students, I responded “Effort.” He replied, “No.”  As we were in the heartland of mindfulness, that was my next reply. Again, he said, “No.”  He then answered his own question: “Faith is the most important quality, because without it we wouldn’t be moved to cultivate any of the others.”

The Buddha said, “Faith is the beginning of all good things.”  No matter what we encounter in life, it is faith that enables us to try again, to trust again, to love again. Even in times of immense suffering, it is faith that helps us to relate to the present moment in such a way that we can go on, we can move forward, instead of becoming lost in resignation or despair. The capacity for this type of faith is inherent in every human being. We might not recognize it, or know how to nurture it, but we can learn to do both.

How can we practice faith - can we learn to incline the mind towards its possibilities? What is the relationship between faith and wisdom?

We can practice faith in many ways, though its appearance is often like a gift. We can certainly practice seeing the world in a clearer way, with more wisdom, which inclines the mind towards faith. If we see, for example, how much everything and everyone is constantly changing, we see that in the midst of change there is always a sense of possibility – this realization ignites faith. If, in the midst of suffering, we can still recognize the ties we have to others -- that all are vulnerable to pain and loss, whatever our present circumstances are, that we are still held by the boundlessness of life itself even in our unhappiness, that in truth we are not cut off and alone, however tempting the call of despair – that power of connection awakens our faith. In many ways faith is about connection – a deep connection to our own inherent capacity for wisdom and love no matter what, a connection to a bigger picture of life. Wisdom brings us to connection, which is the core of faith.

There are also traditional faith practices, for example taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, which remind us that we are part of a larger community, and have immense potential for living lives not bound to the past, or to our habitual sense of limitation. These practices bring us in touch with great joy and love, which is the landscape of faith.

What inspired you to write about a topic that is often decried in our culture?

I wanted to help redeem the word.  In the summer of 2001, I was part of Tricycle Magazine’s conference on Buddhism in the West (which poignantly took place in the Marriott Hotel at the World Trade Center in New York). I was in dialogue with Stephen Batchelor, and he asked why didn’t I use a more palatable word, like “trust”. I responded that the word “faith” often elicits a strong reaction, and that there is something valuable in our looking at that reaction. People carry different associations with the word “faith” - perhaps it connotes adherence to a belief system, blind surrender, unthinking devotion, or a lack of questioning. But, more uncommonly, it also implies the power to place our hearts, with intelligence and discernment, upon that which is wise and compassionate. Faith is a liberating capacity that many of us don’t often tap into.

Doubt is usually considered the force that opposes faith. Do you agree?

There are several kinds of doubt. The most helpful is exemplified by the Buddha when he said, in the Kalama Sutta, “Don’t believe anything, just because I say it. Put it into practice and see for yourself if it is true.” We must ask of any belief system: Can it transform our minds? Can it help reshape our pain into wisdom and love?

This kind of skillful doubt – a sincere and critical questioning - actually serves to deepen faith. It is based on a confidence in our own right, and ability to know the truth for ourselves.

Another kind of doubt is known in the teachings as skeptical doubt, where we neither honestly question, nor put something into practice in order to see what it has to teach us. With skeptical doubt we stand at a distance - we’re cynical and remote. It is a stance of isolation, and often rooted in fear. So, for me, the right kind of doubt is an intrinsic part of the unfolding of genuine faith. I think that the state of mind that is truly the opposite of faith is despair.

Can you say a few words about this unfolding of genuine faith?

The offering of one’s heart happens in stages. Faith evolves from an initial bright faith – a falling in love with a teaching, a teacher, a way of life – to a faith that is verified through our sincere efforts. Then, as we come to deeply know the underlying truths of who we are and what our lives are about, abiding faith, or unwavering faith as it is traditionally called, arises.

This abiding faith in ourselves is different from “conceit”. Conceit lays claim to specialness - whereas our fundamental nature is not personal, it’s universal and shared. When we look at the Buddha or a great teacher, we can see our own potential for happiness and sustained compassion. This is a potential that all beings everywhere share. However, if we stop at faith in another, admiring the other and overlooking ourselves, our faith remains incomplete.

How can an understanding of faith help us face current world events?

Over the last year, I've heard many people speak about finding something inside them that they didn't know they had. To be at all able to move forward in times of great difficulty or pain means drawing on one’s own deepest experience, in fact relying on the kind of faith I’m talking about. It is my wish that we can remember to stay more connected to our deepest values, to the immediacy of love, and to the need to live a meaningful life.

On a more personal level, I’ve heard that it took you five years to write this book. Is this true?

My earliest notes were from five years ago. Now I look at the book, and while I’m very happy with how it turned out, I sometimes think, “After five years of work, it should be bigger!”