Belief, faith – 信仰 [shinang]
Etymology
信 (신) [shin] – faith, religious belief;
仰 (앙) [ang] – to raise the head to look, to look up, to rely on, to admire;
Fragments
If you look at the Chinese character for shin (信), meaning belief, you will see it is a combination of the characters for person (人) and word (言). Belief therefore means a person’s word. “Word” here signifies the means of communication that connects two people. When there is an absence of relationship, not a word is spoken. But when two people speak there is immediately an underlying giving and receiving. So, to form a relationship, we need belief. Moreover, the foundation for a relationship emerges from a connection established with love. But such a relationship cannot be established arbitrarily. A connection is possible because the necessary conditions of energy are there and somehow the levels of both parties’ objectives coincide.
Cheon Seong Gyeong. Book 8. (20-025, 1968.03.31)