SADDHA

((Pali: faith), ) Sanskrit Sraddha in Buddhism, the initial acceptance of the Buddha's teachings, prior to the acquisition of right understanding and right thought. Buddhism does not rely on supernatural authority or the word of the Buddha but claims rather that its teachings can all be experientially verified. The act of entering onto the Eightfold Path (the Buddhist system of spiritual progress) involves, however, a provisional acceptance, through faith, of the Buddha and his teachings that is later confirmed by direct experience and by the growth of right understanding. Some Buddhist commentators have analyzed three kinds of faith: affective (devotional), conative (involving effort), and cognitive (rational). In the devotional sects of Mahayana Buddhism, faith is elevated to a dominant position, equal to wisdom, as being for most people the appropriate way of reaching salvation in this present unenlightened age. Among the Pure Land sects, for example, sincere invocation of the name of the Buddha Amitabha is sufficient to ensure rebirth of the faithful in his Western Paradise (the Pure Land).