Intelligent faith is the balance between blind faith and doubt. Spiritual development is the struggle between negative habitual patterns and the positive patterns we would like to create. For this we need intelligent faith, which functions as our inspiration and encouragement. Rimpoche compares intelligent faith to a mother who protects and nurtures her child. He compares the lack of intelligent faith to a seed that has been burned and therefore will not grow no matter how much it is watered. The way for us to cultivate intelligent faith is to avoid taking the teachings at face value. Rather we should test them out through our practice and notice the changes in ourselves. If we have positive results, we can let go of doubt and fully embrace our practice.