(32) Gautama Buddha conceived and formulated, during his lifetime, a host of dharma-gates which were intended for suiting the cases of different types of people in their struggle to rid themselves of numerous afflictions. Imitating Gautama Buddha in being philanthropic, generation after generation of Buddhist hierarchs creatively offered numerous new dharma-gates. Therefore hosts of dharma-gates have been bequeathed to us by Gautama Buddha and numerous later sages. However countless and distinctly different from one another, all the dharma-gates now we have are similar in “one aspect”. And the “one aspect” is like this: The first step which such dharma-gates would require a practitioner to take is confirm his or her faith in Buddhism. Whether a practitioner’s faith in Buddhism can be confirmed and whether the sincerity of a practitioner’s faith in Buddhism has been maximally exalted are two important criteria for judging how able our Chan masters are in their efforts to flexibly make use of the dharma-gates we now have. It goes without saying that for an individual, the establishment of his profound faith in Buddhism constitutes just the initial step he needs to take in order to embrace Buddhism. Although establishment of unswerving faith in Buddhism does not at all mean attainment of Buddhahood, yet the former is a very significant step for a practitioner to take. A smooth and fast progress in a practitioner’s self-cultivation presupposes a sound establishment of faith in Buddhism, which can be likened to the foundation of an edifice or the roots of a big tree.(From My Heart My Buddha)