In the last post I wrote that while doubt is considered a necessary quality in some schools of Buddhism -- there's an old saying that a Zen student must have great faith, great doubt, and great determination -- at the same time, doubt or skepticism is one of the traditional Five Hindrances. I tried to make a distinction between doubt and skepticism, but I can see from the comments I wasn't clear.
So I want to elaborate a bit. Instead of trying to distinguish between doubt and skepticism, let's think in terms of skillful doubt or unskillful doubt.
An example of skillful doubt was displayed by Dogen, the 13th-century monk who brought Soto Zen to Japan. Dogen had entered a Tendai monastery as a boy and was ordained a monk at about the age of 12. But in time a question began to nag at him.� His teachers told him that all beings are endowed with Buddha nature. But if that was the case, why was it necessary to practice and seek enlightenment?
By the time he was 18, Dogen's doubts compelled him to leave the Tendai monastery and seek a Rinzai Zen teacher.� When he was 23, Dogen traveled to China to learn directly from Chan masters. Eventually he came to the temple of Master Rujing, and it was there he resolved his doubts. Even then, we can see in Dogen's later writing that his understanding continued to be refined for the rest of his life.
Dogen's story shows us great faith and great doubt in action. He had great doubt, but he also had great faith to continue to practice.
What is unskillful doubt? I often stumble on Web essays and blog posts written by people who dismiss Buddhist teachings out of hand because they don't make immediate sense. Real example: "If you stop wanting things, then you'll no longer suffer? That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard in my life." That's unskillful doubt on steroids, and it's what I had in mind when I wrote about "skepticism" in the last post. It's a habit of mind that's perpetually saying "oh yeah? prove it!"
With Buddhism, you can only "prove it" yourself. If your doubts are so strong you don't even try, that's unskillful doubt. You can even find "experts" in Buddhism who seem to have decided that "enlightenment" is a lot of hoo-haw and it's really all about being a more compassionate person living a more satisfying life. That's a particularly pernicious unskillful doubt, IMO.
A more common kind of unskillful doubt might be better defined as a lack of shraddha, or faith in the sense of trust. With this kind of doubt, we're sort of practicing but not completely trusting the practice. We hold back a bit, clinging to our old habits of thought even when we might know they're causing our problems. This is an issue I struggle with myself.
Let's go back to skillful doubt. Once I heard another Zen student describe his practice as having an "edge." That edge is what you don't understand, or maybe it's where you're afraid to go. Maybe it's where Mara and his demon army are lurking, so to speak. Don't think of this as "bad."
If we're too credulous and merely accept what were told because there's some nice Asian guy in a fancy robe saying it, it's no good Merely adopting a new belief system isn't the point. The nice Asian guy in a robe can't give you enlightenment; he can only point the way. So what is he pointing to? Don't be satisfied with the first explanation that pops into your head. Find an edge. What is it you don't understand? work with that.
For another example of this, read a post from a few weeks ago titled "Karma Making Sense." Someone had dismissed all understandings of karma that didn't "make sense," or fit into some conceptual model that intellect could grasp. It's hard to say whether this approach to Buddhism is short of doubt or has too much doubt.
There's something about having faith and doubt in balance that seems most helpful. One or the other alone is not so helpful.
I found a wonderful little essay by Leonard Price called "Meeting the Buddha, Alone, on the Empty Shore" (scroll down) that shows faith -- or credulity, anyway -- and doubt out of balance.
"A veneer of credulity and feeble optimism covers the dark preoccupations of our lives. In an age marked everywhere with signs of spiritual decay, we somehow remain ever entranced by new toys, ever receptive to the latest balderdash from noisy charlatans, and ever ready to abandon the present moment for the lure of the next. Let it be rumored that 'self-fulfillment' has been glimpsed in somebody's book or therapy or religion, and immediately a cloud of dust obscures the sun as we stampede into the new territory -- only to find ourselves, puzzlingly, still in the same dull company. Do we really want happiness, or only titillation? It's hard to say, because we rarely sit still long enough to examine the matter. Suspecting dimly that life is treacherous, we keep moving fast to avoid calamity.
"If we are credulous, we are no less skeptical. We are quick to believe but find belief intolerable. We topple today's idols and from their fragments eagerly assemble tomorrow's. We pace up and down the shores of doubt, rousing one another with shouts of encouragement, but stepping into the river we find the water cold, and promptly conclude there's a better crossing further down."
On the other hand, Zen teacher Sevan Ross said, "Great Faith and Great Doubt are two ends of a spiritual walking stick. We grip one end with the grasp given to us by our Great Determination. We poke into the underbrush in the dark on our spiritual journey. This act is real spiritual practice -- gripping the Faith end and poking ahead with the Doubt end of the stick. If we have no Faith, we have no Doubt. If we have no Determination, we never pick up the stick in the first place."
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