In tonight’s talk, we will explore the word, saddhā, which usually translates as faith or confidence, though more literally means “to place the heart.”  We’ll discuss how saddhā is quite different than the traditional Christian approach to faith and has nothing to do with blind belief, but instead is about moving ourselves into action — such as described by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s great quote, “faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the end of the staircase.”  Here are a few other topics we’ll cover:

• How to balance faith with wisdom
• The Buddha’s challenge to “come and see [for yourself if it works]”
• A handful of ways to develop saddhā, including the two most basic supporting conditions
• The two primary functions of saddhā
• How faith is directly connected to enlightenment — what we’ve been covering the past couple of months