what is faith for Buddhists?

[Rihanna]

In the secular world, faith is confidence or trust in a person or entity. It is trusting in something or someone external to oneself. It is usually based on intuition or history of a person u developed faith in. As a Buddhist, Faith in the Buddha means faith in yourself too. Buddha taught that as a human being, we can grow and develop beyond anything we may even be able to imagine at this stage. So this faith in the Buddha, the Enlightened being, is the first thing that Buddhists should believe in. It is from this belief that we practice spirituality to create the conditions for us to become Enlightened.  Some people who are cynical may question that, but whether in religion or in life, one has to take some things solely on faith. Better to have faith in someone who has proven the theory than blindly swimming in the ocean.

[Jessie Fong]

Buddhism has been classified as a religion and anyone who has faith in Buddhism is considered a Buddhist.  To have faith in someone is to put your total trust in him that he will always be there for you - whether physically or emotionally.   

We have our friends whom we can trust apart from family members and then there is our Guru.  They are the ones who can help us out.

Thus for me having faith in Buddhism is trusting that my guru is here to guide me on the correct path and that he will show me my faults and weaknesses. 

[ratanasutra]

I can see that most of people have a strong faith to their gurus, and from that is generate to the confident, trust and firm mind etc which lead to study, learn and practice in Buddhisms. 
I came across the texts below which I like it and would like to share with everyone.

In the Kasibharadvaja Sutta of the Sa?yutta Nik?ya, we have the relationship of faith, practice and wisdom:

Faith is the seed, practice the rain,
And wisdom is my yoke and plough.
Modesty's the pole, mind the strap,
Mindfulness my ploughshare and goad

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Thus faith is a major element within Buddhism. While it is rarely (if ever) taught by the Buddha in any "blind" form and is often linked to discernment and understanding, it is nevertheless viewed as a powerful force which can start the Buddhist practitioner on his or her spiritual journey and convey him or her towards awakening themselves. Perhaps the most enthusiastic paean to faith can be found in the massive Avata?saka Sutra, where, to the delight of all the Buddhas, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra proclaims the following verses in a great eulogy of bodhisattvas' faith:

Deep faith, belief, and resolution always pure,
They [bodhisattvas] honour and respect all Buddhas ...

Deeply believing in the Buddha and the Buddha's teaching,
They also believe in the Way traversed by buddhas-to-be,
And believe in unexcelled great enlightenment:
Thereby do enlightening beings [bodhisattvas] first rouse their will.

Faith is the basis of the Path, the mother of virtues,
Nourishing and growing all good ways,
Cutting away the net of doubt, freeing from the torrent of passion,
Revealing the unsurpassed road of ultimate peace.

When faith is undefiled, the mind is pure;
Obliterating pride, it is the root of reverence,
And the foremost wealth in the treasury of religion ...

Faith is generous ...
Faith can joyfully enter the Buddha's teaching;
Faith can increase knowledge and virtue;
Faith can ensure arrival at enlightenment ...
Faith can go beyond the pathways of demons,
And reveal the unsurpassed road of liberation.

Faith is the unspoiled seed of virtue,
Faith can grow the seed of enlightenment.
Faith can increase supreme knowledge,
Faith can reveal all Buddhas ...
Faith is most powerful, very difficult to have;
It's like in all worlds having
the wondrous wish-fulfilling pearl.

[hope rainbow]

And if faith was simply the established realization that the material world (*) is un-reliable and helpless?

(*) material world = my body, my friends, my family, my career, my money, my health, my country, my insurance scheme, my pets, my house, my food, my TV...

[buddhalovely]

So here are the Vajray?na different categories of “faith”:

Bad Faith:

Blind Faith
Good Faith’s Evolution:

Clear Faith (aspiration)
Aspiring Faith
Confident Faith (deep conviction)
Unshakable Faith (irreversible faith)
Blind Faith:  The Buddha warned his disciples against blind faith. ‘Do not believe what I say simply out of respect for me. Discover from your own lives the truth of what I am teaching you’.

1. Clear Faith:  When the practitioner becomes aware of the qualities of the Buddha and his teachings, his mind becomes light and joyful. That is the first degree of faith: Clear Faith

2. Aspiring Faith: Then, when he realizes these qualities can enable him to achieve Enlightenment and help a large number of beings, he begins to want to acquire them. Clear faith has turned into aspiration.

3. Confident Faith: When the follower becomes sure, from his own experience, that those qualities can be developed and are as sublime as described in the writings, he acquires a deep conviction.

4. Unshakable Faith: Finally when, through spiritual accomplishment, his faith has becomes so much a part of his mind that he would not be able to renounce it, it is irreversible.