How do we feel about our lives – where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are going? How do we feel about our health? Our finances? How do we feel about technology? Medicine? The people around us? The country? Society? The planet? What state is it all in? Where is it headed?
If thinking about these things creates a little anxiety and uncertainty that is to be expected. It is well, the Buddha might say, to feel uncertain about these things – for they are uncertain things by nature. There is no magic spell of faith that might make these things suddenly feel safe, reliable, and pleasing. Our lives and bodies head only in the direction of aging and death. Civilizations rise and fall and even the mountains and valleys around us do the same. Change is the fundamental nature of all conditioned things and as things change they bring with them ever-changing potential for suffering.
If this is the case – How do we find Faith? How do we find certainty in an uncertain world? Surely there must be a way. When we look at depictions of the Buddha or we study the words he spoke one thing is clear – the man exuded confidence. When he said things were a certain way it wasn’t with maybes and caveats. He said the world is like this, the mind is like this, beings are like this, these actions have these kinds of consequences. How can we as regular people arrive at such stability and certainty?
The Buddha himself explains the method. First he names the problem. There is a dichotomy – doubt and faith. The first has confusion, darkness, and anxiety; the second has clarity, brightness, and serenity. The cause of these two things, though, is only one thing. Attention. When we attend to that which inspires doubt we experience doubt – we feel uncertain when we regard those things that are uncertain. When we attend to those things that are reliable and inspire confidence we feel confidence.
If we were in control of our thoughts we could actively decide not to feel doubt regarding the changing world around us. We could just decide not to be anxious. But we are not in control of our thoughts. There is no way to consciously make the billions of connections and associations that go into forming every single thought or impression that pops into our mind and pops out just as quickly. All we can do – all we really have control of at any level – is direct our attention.
If we let the mental defilements with their habitual energy direct our attention, we feel find ourselves frequently attending to those things which produce desire, anger, and uncertainty. These subjects produce thoughts which lead to more thoughts – they are like sustenance which allows the mind to grow and thrive and become fat. The mind left to its own devices will try to keep itself going in a state of agitation indefinitely.
Should we yearn for peace and simplicity, we’ll have to consciously direct the mind to those subjects which do not produce desire, anger, and uncertainty … such subjects that hint at contentment and friendliness and a state of ever moving in a positive direction. If we directed our mind thus we would see that the thoughts that arise don’t easily lead to more and more thoughts. The mind, starved of anxiety, would wind down and grow placid and clear.
But what in this world is stable and comforting? Alas, we should not expect to find such things in the world, at least not in a material sense. Institutions and people and environments, even if they can be beneficial sometimes, inevitably let us down other times. To find our place of confidence we should attend to the source of those things which are good – to wholesome states directly.
Some of these are categorized and summed up nicely in the Dhamma – for instance the six recollections recommended to householders of Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Sīla, Generosity, and the Deva’s. (https://www.mahamevnawa.org.au/anussati-bhavana-the-six-recollections/).
Curiously, if we undertake this practice we will find that it feels impossible to attend to these things and think about the ups and downs of our regular life at the same time. For some this is a stumbling block that makes it seem like the practice doesn’t apply to their daily life. But for the wise this is a hint. Overly fixating on our selves and our personal circumstances is part of the problem. It might seem like the wise and prudent thing to do and yet whenever we do it we feel worse.
Whenever we let all the worldly things work themselves out and instead attend to those things which are positive and constructive we begin to feel better. This might seem impossible at first. It might seem like we are ignoring real problems and attending to fantasies. But the better we get at directing our attention the more confidence we can develop that this actually works. Fretting over our life circumstances doesn’t make anything better. Considering and delighting in what does work tends to help us see the way out of innumerable problems. At the very least it helps us gather our mental resources so we can better face what arises.
The better we are at attending to those things which inspire Faith the more faithful thoughts we have – thoughts that settle and brighten the mind. And by thus practicing in the way the Buddha described, we begin to get our own glimpses of the source of his incredible confidence. It’s just about attending to what can be known and what is beneficial. If we do this unfailingly we will have unfaltering faith.
And when we have this sense of Faith firmly established in us there is one more thing we will notice. The yearning for faith and certainty will have disappeared without a trace. It is no longer necessary because we ourselves have those qualities. The world will still be uncertain, and yet Doubt will have altogether ceased.