Faith

I have often spoken about FAITH and asked ... "But faith in what?" Most people associate the word with religion and as you know, I do not consider myself religious. 

This article seems to sum it up for me. Faith is longing for something and then doing everything we can to achieve it. Therefore Faith in Oneself. 

It also involves knowing and understanding the drawbacks and accepting that we might very well choose to never achieving the something. That is Belief in Oneself. 

Respectfully not to offend some of you, but for me that does not include a God!

From Zurchungpa's Testament by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.http://www.shambhala.com/zurchungpa-s-testament.html

FAITH IS CLEAR ASPIRATION

When the Dharma and one's being have truly mingled, then there is perfect faith. Faith also implies aspiration, a sense of longing. When we long to become very rich, for example, we do everything necessary, undergo great hardship, and expend a lot of energy to achieve this goal. The same is true for wishing to become famous or to acheive any other worldly goal: if our aspiration and determination are strong enough, we will manage to achieve what we want. This is a very powerful quality. Similarly, with faith there is a strong motivation and wish to achieve something, and a natural understanding of the drawbacks of not having this sort of aspiration. When faith has become truly blended with one's mind and become part of it, then one's Dharma practice naturally becomes genuine and pure. This is what is meant by the "perfect Dharma." This clear aspiration to practice the Dharma is what we call faith.