Doubt

 

For faith to be grounded in the reality of our experience, it must also be open enough to include what the Buddhist scholar, writer, and teacher Stephen Batchelor calls “the faith to doubt”. If we use faith to push doubt aside, we construct a defensive wall to keep out any unsettling questions, to keep from having to acknowledge own fears and uncertainties. The inclusiveness of faith lets us be with whatever arises, investigating the very nature of doubt itself and whatever other difficulties arise. By embracing doubt skillfully we strengthen faith.

 

Doubt is the difficult mind state of perplexity. It’s like being at a crossroads and not knowing which way to go. We go back and forth between alternatives and are then brought to a standstill by bewilderment and indecision. When doubt is overpowering, we can’t move. It doesn’t even allow us the opportunity to take a wrong turn and learn from our mistakes. 

 

Almost all spiritual traditions speak of the difficulty of this state and how common it is at different times on our path. Doubt can take many forms. Sometimes it is doubt about ourselves, about our ability to practice and walk the path. It is the voice that says, “I can’t do this. It’s too difficult. Perhaps some other time.” 

 

Doubt is seductive because it come masquerading as wisdom. We hear these wise sounding voices in our minds trying to figure out the dilemmas, difficulties, and paradoxes of our experience through thinking about them. But thinking can take us only so far. It’s like trying to know the experience of music by reading a book about it or the tastes of a good meal by looking at the menu. 

 

We need some other way to understand the nature of doubt, so that we can address its concerns appropriately.

 

The first step is to recognize when the doubting mind is present and, in recognizing this, to become familiar with its various voices. If we become aware of these voices as mental tapes, simply more thoughts in the mind, we’re less likely to become ensnared by their content. In that moment, we cease to give them power; “I can’t do this" becomes just another thought. We can then bring wisdom to bear on the process of doubt itself, noticing how it takes us away from the direct experience of the moment.

 

from One Dharma by Joseph Goldstein