It is interesting to find that the Arahant or in Sanskrit the Arhat, is described as “one devoid of faith” (P., assaddho, Dhammapada 97) which seems to mean that he is beyond the need for faith having reached final and absolute knowledge through meditation (dhyāna). The Buddha even tells Ānanda on one occasion: “You say this out of faith but it is a matter of knowledge for the Tathāgata” (D. ii. 155).
Faith, while it varies in degrees from weak to strong, can never take us to absolute knowledge. Understandably, a beginner has to accept Buddhism from a position of faith who may, in addition, harbor a number of doubts about Buddhism.
Many people I suspect, especially in Buddhism, don’t fully understand what faith is about. Faith is closer to the word “persuasion” which has to do with the action of influencing the mind by arguments or reasons. Thus, to have faith in the Buddha’s teachings means being persuaded by what he says in the various discourses (sutta, sutra). But by no means do we have intuitive knowledge which Siddhartha attained whereby he became a Buddha.
Turning to beginners in Buddhism and Zen, most are not persuaded that after they die they will be reborn into another form. In other words, they don’t have faith in this part of the Buddha’s teaching. They are more persuaded by the materialist doctrine of one life then a dirt nap forever after you die. They also have strong faith that the Buddha categorically denied the ātman although they are not sure where he actually denied the ātman.
Modern society doesn’t seem to realize that faith is what makes its world go around. This includes persuasion arguments from Darwinism, the Big Bang theory, to global warming. What we call “science" rests mainly on very elaborate and sophisticated persuasion arguments. This means that science is pretty much faith based. It tends to persuade us more than theology or for that matter, Buddhism. Buddhism right now is in a very precarious spot. It's being radically revised into a religion of lite materialism in which there is no ghost in the machine (Gilbert Ryle) which is actually a persuasion argument. Yes, faith based.
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