Certainty without Faith

"Lord, what is the cause, the reason, why to the learned Ariyan listener doubt arises not as to unexplained points?"

"Verily, it is by view-stopping, monk, that doubt arises not to the learned Ariyan listener."^[1]

Here we have an answer to those who ask how it is possible to achieve a state free from doubt without faith.

The uneducated common man asks:

"How can you know that there is no thing that can be called the self?",^[2] thinking that to know that, one must know all things. But the educated student of the Aristocrats knows he does not need to know all things, he needs to know, see, and understand only one thing:

The idea of self depends on view.

Knowing and seeing that — at the level where the question is "existence versus non-existence" — neither view can explain what is really happening (that is to say, that things arise in dependence on factors).^[3]

He knows and sees that the issue is holding views, and he lets go of view-holding and can say with complete confidence: "I know, I see: There is no thing there that can be called the self."

^[1][AN 7.51] The Book of the Sevens, VI: The Unexplained, PTS, Hare, pp 39:

^[2]See the DhammaTalk discussion on Not-self

^[3]AKA: paṭicca samuppāda, or as translated here: Downbound Confounded Rebounding Conjuration