It has been quite a trip, getting my head around faith as it operates in Buddhism. At the time of writing (Mon 7 Sept 2026) I have essayed enough about saddhā to keep me going strong for a while - and the scaffold is here to fill out if I need to - so it’s time to move on to study the path and fruit of stream-entry because it is said that such an experience dispels all doubt about the Path.
The main purpose has been to calibrate the impact of faith on effort, and to understand the path of the -nusari into stream-entry. I have also cleared some ground around a place where there is still some tension - that being how I should divide my time between *bhāvana* and social work. It helps to consider my training as an apprenticeship or a university degree - I can’t get anyone out of the mud while I’m drowning. This is usually enough to keep afloat my faith in the merit of dedicating myself to this.
By essaying on saddhā in this way I have unpacked a few things I needed to - not least a tangled worldview that turns out to be a lot more Buddhist than I had thought. The only major hurdle is the idea of ‘progress’ or linear history, and the fantasy-consolation of humans evolving consciousness to an increasingly refined state.
I have also unpacked metaphysics enough to accept that there are some things neither Buddhism nor science can explain or help me understand. My faith in Buddhism is strong when I don’t conflate it with a way of understanding reality or questions about the world it never promised to answer.
I decided my curiosity about developing the mind to its greatest potential is reason enough to pursue this lifestyle.
- continue summarising
mention something about a well-developed mind developing the mind