Saddhā: Head and Heart Together
We bring our whole being to practice. Here in the West, it is habitual to consider “head” and “heart” as occupying separate realms, but this distinction is not made in Buddhism. Many ideas and experiences that arise in practice and sutta study are best understood from a perspective that unites these aspects of mind.
One such multidimensional term is saddhā, variously translated as confidence, faith, or trust. The word saddhā has no exact English analog; it requires multiple words and concepts to capture its full meaning. In terms of practice, this means it touches many aspects of our life and has different “flavors” that come in and out of prominence as we explore and develop it.
Saddhā is critically important on the Buddhist path. It is the first of the five spiritual faculties, qualities that support walking the path. It is said that fully awakened beings have perfected the five faculties. It is worth unpacking this term, which touches into head, heart, body, and action. Saddhā is the foundation of spiritual practice because it encompasses the underlying willingness and impetus to do it.
There are at least three interwoven aspects of saddhā. They cannot really be separated cleanly, but it is useful to distinguish them in our understanding.
1.Cognitive
We don’t have confidence or place our trust in something that makes no sense. This is often a sticking point for people with experience in Western religions. Buddhism does not ask for this.
There is indeed a cognitive component of saddhā. Whatever we consider to be authoritative and convincing informs our trust in something. For instance, in the modern West, people are likely to be convinced by scientific arguments. This accounts for the popularity of neuroscientific and other “objective” ways of evaluating the mechanism and effectiveness of meditation.
Another type of cognitive trust comes from studying and reflecting on Buddhist texts. We can learn the structure of the teachings – for instance, the four noble truths or the steps of the eightfold path – and then consider if these match our own experience or seem like a reasonable approach to practice or to our spiritual aims. If so, we may decide to accept other aspects of the teachings that we have not yet experienced. We may also decide to undertake deeper practice.
The more practice experience we have, the stronger our intellectual trust becomes because we have been able to verify more things for ourselves. We can stretch farther into territory that is even more difficult for the intellect to grasp, feeling confident in our intuition to go deeper.
2.Devotional or Emotional
We cannot get far in practice without engaging the emotional dimension of the mind. We need to tune into our warm connection with Buddhist teachings and practice, perhaps with a teacher or community, and with our deepest aspirations. We feel our heart light up, soften, open, or fill with delight or wonder, sensing deeply that this is our path.
We understand the words from David Whyte’s poem Sweet Darkness: “Anything or anyone/ that does not bring you alive/ is too small for you.”
In terms of saddhā, this dimension comprises devotion, our heartfelt connection to something larger than our small self with its mundane problems. It includes inspiration, faith, and intuition. It can also feel like longing, as it is directly connected to our desire for the transcendent or for liberation. The devotional side of saddhā buoys our heart and even our body, and allows us to leap beyond what we know or can even imagine.
This dimension also includes the aspect of faith that is “fidelity” – our loyalty and stalwart support of something that has touched our heart. It provides the long-term willingness to keep walking the path through thick and thin. (And, it is true, it can go too far sometimes; this is the naivete of faith. Fortunately, saddhā is multidimensional, and will not go awry when well-balanced).
3.Motivational
It is one thing to be convinced by something and feel connected to it, and another thing to be motivated to act. Genuine saddhā includes the strength to take action in line with our convictions.
At key points in our practice, the motivational dimension of saddhā accounts for taking formal refuge, going on retreat, quitting our job to go to Asia, ordaining as a monastic, etc. And on a more day-to-day basis, it gets us up at 5am to sit every morning, gets us to the sangha each week, encourages us to support a teacher or be a volunteer, and to read the suttas. It is not really separate from the other two dimensions, but represents their manifestation in the outer world. What it looks like specifically is particular to our own temperament and stage of practice.
As noted above, saddhā is the first of the five spiritual faculties. The second is energy or effort (viriya). Now we can understand how one flows to the next – effort arises naturally out of faith or confidence, when the latter is strong and deep enough. We do need to act in order to walk the path.
For me, saddhā is interwoven through my being. I have been reading the suttas in English since close to the beginning of my practice, and a number of years ago, I became interested in learning Pāli, the language in which they were first recorded. This arose out my faith in the teachings, my love of Pāli chanting, as well as my experience that immersion in the words of the Buddha supports my path.
Certainly, it has been an intellectual effort to find the resources; listen to the teachers; and put in the plain-old, unglamorous brain work to gain even some level of competence in Pāli. And the fruits have begun to come: I find that reading a sutta in the original language offers a depth and beauty beyond even what I had imagined. I was recently moved to tears reading a section of the Dhammacakkapavatthana Sutta (SN 56.11), the first discourse spoken by the Buddha. Born of saddhā, this whole effort has reinforced and deepened saddhā, in all its dimensions.
How about for you? Do you have a personal example of how saddhā helps to align and gather the resources to advance the path? Which dimension feels most alive for you right now, and how is it manifesting? How does it feel in your body and mind?
I hope you’ll enjoy and appreciate the depth and power of saddhā on your path. A virtuous circle is created as we have more convincing experiences and more open hearts through practice, leading to stronger saddhā. Mature faith resembles wisdom (the fifth spiritual faculty), knowing for oneself. We discover experientially how close faith and wisdom are, even if they seem different on the surface. This is the confidence of the Buddha. Head and heart together.
From Sharon Salzberg’s book, Faith:
"Anything outside of us can crumble into dust. No symbol, no construction, no condition, no relationship, no life is immune to change. […] What can any of us place our faith in that endures? According to Buddhist teachings, to discover that is to know the deepest level of faith."
We bring our whole being to practice. Here in the West, it is habitual to consider “head” and “heart” as occupying separate realms, but this distinction is not made in Buddhism. Many ideas and experiences that arise in practice and sutta study are best understood from a perspective that unites these aspects of mind.
One such multidimensional term is saddhā, variously translated as confidence, faith, or trust. The word saddhā has no exact English analog; it requires multiple words and concepts to capture its full meaning. In terms of practice, this means it touches many aspects of our life and has different “flavors” that come in and out of prominence as we explore and develop it.
Saddhā is critically important on the Buddhist path. It is the first of the five spiritual faculties, qualities that support walking the path. It is said that fully awakened beings have perfected the five faculties. It is worth unpacking this term, which touches into head, heart, body, and action. Saddhā is the foundation of spiritual practice because it encompasses the underlying willingness and impetus to do it.
There are at least three interwoven aspects of saddhā. They cannot really be separated cleanly, but it is useful to distinguish them in our understanding.
1.Cognitive
We don’t have confidence or place our trust in something that makes no sense. This is often a sticking point for people with experience in Western religions. Buddhism does not ask for this.
There is indeed a cognitive component of saddhā. Whatever we consider to be authoritative and convincing informs our trust in something. For instance, in the modern West, people are likely to be convinced by scientific arguments. This accounts for the popularity of neuroscientific and other “objective” ways of evaluating the mechanism and effectiveness of meditation.
Another type of cognitive trust comes from studying and reflecting on Buddhist texts. We can learn the structure of the teachings – for instance, the four noble truths or the steps of the eightfold path – and then consider if these match our own experience or seem like a reasonable approach to practice or to our spiritual aims. If so, we may decide to accept other aspects of the teachings that we have not yet experienced. We may also decide to undertake deeper practice.
The more practice experience we have, the stronger our intellectual trust becomes because we have been able to verify more things for ourselves. We can stretch farther into territory that is even more difficult for the intellect to grasp, feeling confident in our intuition to go deeper.
2.Devotional or Emotional
We cannot get far in practice without engaging the emotional dimension of the mind. We need to tune into our warm connection with Buddhist teachings and practice, perhaps with a teacher or community, and with our deepest aspirations. We feel our heart light up, soften, open, or fill with delight or wonder, sensing deeply that this is our path.
We understand the words from David Whyte’s poem Sweet Darkness: “Anything or anyone/ that does not bring you alive/ is too small for you.”
In terms of saddhā, this dimension comprises devotion, our heartfelt connection to something larger than our small self with its mundane problems. It includes inspiration, faith, and intuition. It can also feel like longing, as it is directly connected to our desire for the transcendent or for liberation. The devotional side of saddhā buoys our heart and even our body, and allows us to leap beyond what we know or can even imagine.
This dimension also includes the aspect of faith that is “fidelity” – our loyalty and stalwart support of something that has touched our heart. It provides the long-term willingness to keep walking the path through thick and thin. (And, it is true, it can go too far sometimes; this is the naivete of faith. Fortunately, saddhā is multidimensional, and will not go awry when well-balanced).
3.Motivational
It is one thing to be convinced by something and feel connected to it, and another thing to be motivated to act. Genuine saddhā includes the strength to take action in line with our convictions.
At key points in our practice, the motivational dimension of saddhā accounts for taking formal refuge, going on retreat, quitting our job to go to Asia, ordaining as a monastic, etc. And on a more day-to-day basis, it gets us up at 5am to sit every morning, gets us to the sangha each week, encourages us to support a teacher or be a volunteer, and to read the suttas. It is not really separate from the other two dimensions, but represents their manifestation in the outer world. What it looks like specifically is particular to our own temperament and stage of practice.
As noted above, saddhā is the first of the five spiritual faculties. The second is energy or effort (viriya). Now we can understand how one flows to the next – effort arises naturally out of faith or confidence, when the latter is strong and deep enough. We do need to act in order to walk the path.
For me, saddhā is interwoven through my being. I have been reading the suttas in English since close to the beginning of my practice, and a number of years ago, I became interested in learning Pāli, the language in which they were first recorded. This arose out my faith in the teachings, my love of Pāli chanting, as well as my experience that immersion in the words of the Buddha supports my path.
Certainly, it has been an intellectual effort to find the resources; listen to the teachers; and put in the plain-old, unglamorous brain work to gain even some level of competence in Pāli. And the fruits have begun to come: I find that reading a sutta in the original language offers a depth and beauty beyond even what I had imagined. I was recently moved to tears reading a section of the Dhammacakkapavatthana Sutta (SN 56.11), the first discourse spoken by the Buddha. Born of saddhā, this whole effort has reinforced and deepened saddhā, in all its dimensions.
How about for you? Do you have a personal example of how saddhā helps to align and gather the resources to advance the path? Which dimension feels most alive for you right now, and how is it manifesting? How does it feel in your body and mind?
I hope you’ll enjoy and appreciate the depth and power of saddhā on your path. A virtuous circle is created as we have more convincing experiences and more open hearts through practice, leading to stronger saddhā. Mature faith resembles wisdom (the fifth spiritual faculty), knowing for oneself. We discover experientially how close faith and wisdom are, even if they seem different on the surface. This is the confidence of the Buddha. Head and heart together.
From Sharon Salzberg’s book, Faith:
"Anything outside of us can crumble into dust. No symbol, no construction, no condition, no relationship, no life is immune to change. […] What can any of us place our faith in that endures? According to Buddhist teachings, to discover that is to know the deepest level of faith."
