So there’s a tension in the Buddha’s recommendations about faith and empiricism. Few of Asian Buddhists I know find the tension uncomfortable, but Western Buddhists — raised in a culture where religion and faith have long been at war with science and empiricism — find it very disconcerting.

The delicate, but wonderful balance of faith and empiricism in Buddhism.

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu highlights that it is direct seeing that liberates a practitioner, and faith operates as a working hypothesis. The essay also focuses on the psychological importance of faith.