Doubt is part of the ancient path to spiritual wholeness, for without out it, you will accept the pablum of dharma without the digestion required for insight, integration, and integrity. In other words, serious doubt when combined with spiritual curiosity is like a mariner's compass on a wind swept sea. What can I trust? Who can I trust? What path will lead me to awakening and insight, to compassion and wholeness? What is the best way to wrestle with personal, family, and work problems? How shall I relate to the world, living and dying, existence?
Doubt when turned inward can lead to humility, for it can help us question our motivations as well as our conditioning. Doubting becomes problematic if it leads to nihilism, atheism, agnosticism, or the inability to cultivate faith. So on the path of the middle way, doubt and faith walk hand in hand. With doubt we question things until we truly comprehend them, and with faith we completely trust the unfolding universe.
For those of thus that are doubting Thomas', let us take heart from Shakespeare: "Our doubts are traitors that make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt". You may doubt that zazen is in fact an expression of your Buddha nature, or that you can continue with a lifetime path of insight, or that you have the resources to balance the demands of your life, yet if we find encouragement and support from within and without, we can persevere as we walk around and through the circle of reality.
Leaving the pond
empty handed,
do fish really live here?
Doubt
