Last year, after deciding to take on my 500-word blog challenge on faith, I contacted Rev. Ryuei McCormick and asked him to give me the definition of faith from his as yet unpublished Nichiren Shu dictionary of Buddhism. Here’s what he provided:

faith: (S. śraddhā; J. shin; 信) The Sanskrit term śraddhā can also be translated as “confidence” or “trust.” It has also been translated as “belief,” though śraddhā does not have the connotations of “blind belief.”

According to the Treasury of Abhidharma Treatise, faith is the clarification of the mind and adherence to the doctrine of karma and the Three Treasures. (AKB1, p. 191)

According to the Mahayana Abhidharma Compendium Treatise, faith indicates a full and firm conviction regarding what is real, tranquility relating to virtue, and eagerness for capability. It functions to give a basis to wholesome desire. (AS, p. 10)

According to the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only Treatise, the nature of faith is to purify the mind through a profound acceptance, happiness, and desire for what is real, what is virtuous (such as the virtues of the Three Treasures), and for the ability to attain mundane and supramundane wholesome dharmas. Its activity is to counteract lack of faith and enjoy what is wholesome. It is present in all wholesome mental states. (DCOT, pp. 173-174; CWL, pp. 389-391)

Faith is included as the first of the five faculties(1) and the five powers. As part of those groups it appears twice among the thirty-seven requisites of awakening. As one of the five faculties(1), it is counted among the twenty-two faculties, wherein it is considered predominant in regard to purification. (AKB1, p. 155)

As one of the mental concomitant dharmas it is counted among the omnipresent wholesome factors of the seventy-five dharmas in five categories of the Abhidharma Treasury school and the eighty-four dharmas in five categories of the Completion of Reality school. It is also one of the mental concomitant dharmas counted among the wholesome dharmas of the one hundred dharmas in five categories of the Dharma Characteristics school. It is also one of the fifty-two mental concomitant dharmas counted among the eighty-two dhammas in four categories of the Theravada.

In the Daily Readings of Nichiren’s Words in the Los Angeles Nichiren Buddhist Temple’s Raihai Seiten service book companion is a quote from Nichiren’s letter, Myoho Ama Gozen Gohenji. The quote is entitled “Faith and Odaimoku”

“Faith is nothing special. A wife loves her husband, the husband devotes his life to her, parents do not give away their children and children do not desert their mother. Likewise, believe in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha Sakyamuni, the Buddha Taho, all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and deities. Then chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. This is faith.”

I read this quote on the eighth day of each month during my morning practice. Nothing in a formal dictionary definition’s dry, academic explanation of Buddhism approaches the penetrating lesson found in Nichiren’s words. I hope my yearlong efforts to explain faith will advance this discussion further.