(Faith is trust, not belief)
‘… Now, in the context of Advaita Vedanta it seems to be crucial that shraddha as faith is explained, understood and associated with trust and devotion, not with belief and submission of one’s own reasoning capacities. This is especially important when addressing Western seekers.
Why?
The idea of faith in the sense of belief has been dominating Western culture and its definition of religion since centuries. Abrahamic religions are belief systems, which are based on belief. Blind belief is considered to be a virtue and belief as such is all that is required of anyone following those religions. This has lead to the fact that using one’s own intellectual competence in spiritual matters has been viewed with suspicion by clerical authorities; the results of reasoning need to be kept within the limits set by the belief in question. This is how the Western shism between philosophy and religion and later between science and religion has come about. It had to come about: Belief is exclusive of the usage of one’s own intellect.’ [Sitara, ‘Advaita Vision’]
Unanimous Tradition / Tradición Unánime 