On Belief

The concept and use of belief is widespread in this and many other cultures^{see note below.} Two^{plus one} questions:

1. What is your understanding/definition/explanation of belief?

2. What role (or lack thereof) does belief have in Zen?

3. BONUS QUESTION: what is the relationship between belief and faith?

Please justify your responses with some explanation so that we know why you believe what you do!

Note: I can't find textual citation for the following but I'll put it here for your consideration anyway. Years ago in undergrad I took an anthropology class about magic, religion and witchcraft. The instructor was an anthropologist who had spent many years living among the Yoruba people in Nigeria and he claimed that they didn't have a concept of "belief" in their culture. Instead they had a concept of "provisional acceptance of unverified claims". For something to be true or real, it was requisite that one had direct experience of said fact. Whether or not this is the case (it doesn't seem to be borne out by cursory wikipedia research), it is an interesting idea to contemplate: an entire culture which does not believe!

Submitted January 27, 2018 at 12:28AM by mongreloctopus http://ift.tt/2nfQJX7