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Dalton
Roberts |
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Doubt will not hurt you. It is a normal pre-condition for learning. What really hurts us is swallowing beliefs that do not agree with us. It will always give you spiritual indigestion. I came across a wise old Chinese philosopher named Yuan-hsien who lived from 1618-1697. He wrote, “The method of looking into a saying is just to keep your mind on it with a feeling of doubt that does not dissipate. Great doubt results in great enlightenment, small doubt results in small enlightenment, no doubt results in no enlightenment. This is an established fact.” I think the way he came to see this as “an established fact” was from a long life of noticing that people with no doubts were thinking too shallow to ever activate their mind to dig the pearl out of the shell. Notice he says to keep your mind on a saying “with a feeling of doubt that does not dissipate.” Don’t give up until you have reasoned and intuited it through. As important as reason is in finding our truths, intuition is even more important. Intuition is the power of the soul to locate truth. Our constitution and bill of rights is not just based on reasoned-out things. For example, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Those are beautiful words but there is not one research project in the world to prove that all men are created equal. The truth of those words comes from the way they resonate with the souls of all men and women. It is an intuited truth. Intuited truths are as strong as reasoned truths. This is why Gandhi’s definition of faith is so absolutely beautiful: “Faith is nothing but living, wide-awake consciousness of God within.” This consciousness of God is intuited. It can be reasoned, too, in thoughts like this: Isn’t it reasonable that the Creator of life leaves a portion of Its life in all forms of life It creates? A painter leaves a portion of his or her Essence in all his or her paintings. A poet’s very soul is felt in his poetry. In the very process of creation, we see these realities. So it is equally true and exactly the way our Creator made us aware of who we are. We are resonators of the Creator. A friend paid me a good compliment when he said, “I think I would recognize one of your songs no matter where I heard it or who sang it. You leave a piece of yourself in each one.” The children we produce through our Lovemaking always have our mental, physical and spiritual traits. Likewise, our Creator leaves a portion of Eternal Spirit in us. It cannot be otherwise. What Yuan-hsien is really saying is that this very Spirit of our Creator within is what impels us to doubt and reason on all the sayings we consider throughout our lives. The longer we consider a saying, turning it inside out and outside in, looking at it from every perspective we can imagine, is what gives us enlightenment. Faith gained this way lasts. That’s why Gandhi was able to endure so much, even his own assassination. As he said, “My faith is brightest in the midst of unpenetrable darkness.” So welcome your doubts. Look at them from the wisdom of your inner Being. Stay with them until they impart enlightenment. As C.C. Colton said, “Doubt is the vestibule which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.” I have often said my spiritual life began when I bought Thomas Paine’s “Age of Reason” in an Oak Ridge bookstore. It gave me the courage to question and it was only my questions that led me to soul-satisfying answers. Tennyson spoke so eloquently when he wrote, “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.” |
