What are these four conditions? The first is Great Faith;the second is Great Vow;the third is Great Angry Determination;and the fourth is Great Doubt. Great Faith always arises first, followed by Great Vow, and then Great Angry Determination. When there is Great Angry Determination, it is then possible to generate Great Doubt. This is their natural sequence. But Great Doubt is not the ordinary doubt of disbelief. Only when there is Great Faith is it possible to have Great Doubt. Were you to have ordinary doubt at such a time, it could only be a sort of suspicion or non-belief, the opposite of faith. That kind of doubt is not a condition of practice: it is an obstacle.

Again, without Great Faith you cannot make the Great Vow. Without Great Vow, how can you practice with your whole being? And if you cannot do that, Great Angry Determination cannot possibly arise. Therefore these four conditions must come into being in the proper sequence.

Faith is the foundation for anything we set out to do. Without faith we can't accomplish anything significant. The Great Faith of Ch'an has three aspects: faith in yourself, faith in the method discovered and transmitted by Sakyamuni Buddha and faith in your Shih-fu, who is your direct connection to the Buddha Dharma. What is faith in oneself? It means believing that you can practice effectively, believing that persistence will lead to enlightenment. It means believing that you can, like Sakyamuni, eventually become a Buddha. If you lack this faith, if you think that enlightenment can only happen to others, your practice will falter. So faith in yourself is very basic.

How does this faith arise? At first it is hard to believe that you can be enlightened. However, if you are willing to try it, when you start to practice, you find your mind getting calm and settled. You may later get some other benefits, or even experience things not possible in ordinary life. You begin to believe: "Yes, I too can practice, I too can become enlightened." Another way of generating faith is to acquire a good understanding of Buddha Dharma, of the principles of Ch'an, and to believe that these principles are true. You come to accept the idea that one can practice and get enlightened. You have never experienced it yourself, but you have an unconditional belief in it.