Why we must have a confident mind?

Question

“Here, bhikkhus, some person has a confident mind. Having examined his mind with my mind, I know that if this person were to die at this time, as if carried there he would be placed in heaven. What is the reason for that? It is because his mind is confident. It is because of the mind’s confidence that some beings here, when the body perishes, are reborn after death in a good bourn, in a heavenly world.”

Iti 21

Why we must have a confident mind ? What is a confident mind according to the Lord Buddha ?

What are the differences between confident and

1. Conceit
2. Clinging to a view

Answer 1

What is a confident mind according to the Lord Buddha?

From your quote, confidence is translated from the pali word pasannacitta. Pasannacitta literally means devoted mind, and can be interpreted as a person having faith (saddha).

https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/pasannacitta

Why we must have a confident mind?

It is considered one of the five mental faculties/indryas that aids progression towards enlightenment.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn48/sn48.010.than.html

What are the differences between confident and conceit

Conceit (mana), is a cetasika with attachment/lobha as base. Mana means that we are attached to the misconception that there is a self that is superior to others.

What are the differences between confident and clinging to a view

Primarily the difference is the fruit of their karma. Besides being a mental faculty mentioned above, AN 5.38 also lists five benefits of saddha for laypersons, for instance.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.038.than.html

Clinging to a view, on the other hand is simply not beneficial, and perpetuates dissatisfaction. Your comparison with conceit seems like an appropriate example.

Answer 2

The word in question is pasanna (see dictionary definition here).

I don't know why Ireland translated that as "confident". The other modern translations I'm able to read are Italian, "una mente pura" (meaning a mind that is "pure" or "sinless"), and French, "l'esprit clair" (meaning a mind or spirit that's "clear" or "transparent" or "bright") -- though I beware that any modern language might not have a single word that's an exact translation.

In SN 55.40 there's a word translated "experiential confidence" or "verified confidence" -- that word is aveccappasāda, a compound of pasāda with avecca.

I note that the definitions of pasanna and pasāda are similar.

Answer 3

Confidence may arise without conceit and clinging to views.

Confidence can be the result of seeing directly some phenomena by oneself. After seeing, if one is paying attention wisely, real understanding can be developed over what one has seen.

A mind with confidence is a mind that has all its emotional and rational assessment and values aligned towards the wisdome developed; is a mind that has no doubts and contradictions on its judgements.

If you ask me, I don't see the need to attach to such understanding, because, at least theoretically, there's always the possibility of the arising of new information that could contradict what one has learnt in the past. I think one should be always open to the possibility the unknown, while in the meantime, until contradictory information arrives, using what has been learnt as a valid and useful, tentative hypothesis for go through the events of life. Also, there's no need to take such understanding as 'I' or 'mine'.

Conceit and clinging to views arise alongside confidence when ignorance hasn't been uprooted yet.

Despite all of the above said, what's really amazing is that the Dhamma seems to be timeless in its application. But do not trust me on that; you might be able to see it for yourself (or maybe you already have).

Kind regards!