Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge c13.69

c13.69

(655) The usage of saddhā (faith, belief) in the Pāli Canon is such that the meanings of bhatti- (devotion = Skr. bhakti), pema- (filial affection) and pasāda- (mental appreciation) overlap with it, e.g. idha ... ekacco puggalo ittarasaddho hoti, ittarabhatti ittarapemo ittarapasādo, i.e. here a person has very little faith, very little devotion, very little affection and very little appreciation, A. III.165. The Comy. to the Puggalapaññatti defines these uses as follows. 'Faith is devotion in the sense of continuous adoration. Affection is classifiable as the affection of faith and filial affection. But appreciation and faith are identical' (punappunam bhajanavasena saddhā va bhatti. Pemam saddhā-pemam gehasitapemam ti vattati. Pasādo saddhā pasādo vā, 248). According to this appraisal saddhā is closest in meaning to pasāda—with which it is identified and we find this exemplified in the usages in the Nikāyas The Jñānaprasthāna (1 19) defines śraddhā as 'cetasah praśādaḥ'¹ (appreciation of mind) and we find 'cetaso pasāda-' in the Nikāyas where we can expect saddhā· yato yato imassa dhammapariyāyassa paññāya attham upaparikkhcyya labheth' eva attamanatam labhetha *cetaso pasādam*, i.e inasmuch as he examines with his intellect the meaning of this doctrinal passage he obtains satisfaction and a mental appreciation (of it), M. I 114 We note here that cetaso pasāda- is 'mental appreciation' or the 'intellectual joy' resulting from intelligent study and a clarification of one's thoughts ² Lack of pasāda- is likewise correlated with lack of understanding, e g. saddhammam avijānato pariplavapasādassa paññā na paripūrati, i e. the wisdom of a person who does not understand the good doctrine and whose pasāda- is fickle does not increase, Dh 38 Similarly, *aveccap-pasāda-* in the Buddha, his Doctrine and his Order (Buddhe . dhamme ... sanghe aveccappasādena samannāgato hoti, M I.37) seems to mean 'faith based on understanding' since avecca- seems to mean 'having understood', e g. yo ariyasaccāni avecca passati, i e he who having understood sees the noble truths, Sn. 229 Here the Comy. has paññāya ajjhogāhetva, 'having comprehended with one's intelligence'. The Comy., however, has 'acala-' (unshaken) for the same word at D. I.217, but this is probably a secondary meaning since 'faith born of understanding' (aveccappasāda-) is similar to 'rational faith' (ākāravatī saddhā, M I 320) which is said to be 'rooted, established, fixed and irremovable' (mūlajātā patiṭṭhitā ... daḷhā asamhāriyā, *loc. cit.*). We have to presume that avecca- (*s v* PTS Dictionary) is formed from ava + present participle from √i, 'to go', meaning 'understand' (cp avagata- from ava + √gam, 'to go' = understood, *s v.* PTS. Dictionary) It is said that failure to investigate and understand results in lack of pasāda-, e.g. ananuvicca apariyoḡ̄-hetvā pasādanīye thāne appasādam upadamseti, i.e. one shows lack of faith in a situation in which one ought to have faith as a result of not investigating and understanding.¹ Dr Gyomroi-Ludowyk in a 'Note on the Interpretation of Pasīdati'² has shown that pasāda- is different from 'faith' as understood in Western religions, where it means 'to believe in something which cannot be explained' culminating in the attitude of *credo quia absurdum*. She concludes that 'we can render pasīdati most appropriately as a mental attitude which unites deep feeling, intellectual appreciation and satisfaction, clarification of thought and attraction towards the teacher' (*op. cit.*, p. 82).