Clearing, Crossing, and
Leaping Faith!
Faith is like a
Water-Clearing Jewel:
Faith
is like the Water-Clearing Gem that
clears and calms water,
that is stirred
and muddy,
thereby making it fit for drinking...
Faith as Motivation:
Faith is like the inspiration a crowd get by seeing a strong
man leap
over a swollen river, they thereby
become able to cross...
By Faith is the Flood
Crossed... Sn 184
Faith as both clearing the mind, and spurring it on:
Faith first makes mind ready by calm clearing composure.
This then induces a desire to
act, with purpose and intention.
Enthusiasm, energy, strength
and persistence soon follows.
Manifested is decision,
determination, and fine commitment!
The soil in which faith
grows is the 4 ways to Stream-Entry:
1: Association with Good People.
(sappurisa-samseva)
2: Hearing the True Dhamma.
(saddhamma savana)
3: Rational Attention.
(yoniso manasikara)
4: Training Dhamma in praxis.
(dhammaanudhamma-patipatti)
Arahat Nāgasena once
explained to King Milinda:
Faith, your majesty, evaporates the mental hindrances when
it emerges. Any mind without the mental hindrances is clear,
composed, and unagitated! It is
exactly so, your majesty that
faith has the characteristic of calm tranquilized composure...
When the learner sees that the minds of others are all freed,
then he leaps forward after the fruit of stream-attainment,
after the fruit of once-return,
the fruit of never-return and
after the fruit of arahat-hood! He makes an effort for the
attaining of the yet unattained, for the mastering of the yet
unmastered, and for the realization of the yet unrealized...
Exactly so, your majesty, has
faith also the characteristic of
leaping forward...
Milindipanha 34-35.
