Quotes on Doubt & Step Two

NOTE: This week at the group we talked about working with doubt in our meditation practice and as related to Step Two ("Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"). Below are some quotes I shared related to this topic in case you want to read them for further reflection:

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom by Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield, pg. 35:

Doubt can be the most difficult of all (the hindrances) to work with, because when we believe it and get caught by it, our practice just stops cold. We become paralyzed. All kinds of doubt might assail us; doubts about ourselves and our capacities; doubts about our teachers; doubts about the dharma itself—“Does it really work? I sit here and all that happens is my knees hurt and I feel restless. Maybe the Buddha didn’t really know what he was talking about.” We might doubt the practice or doubt that it is the right practice for us. “It’s too hard. Maybe I should try Sufi dancing.” Or we think it’s the right practice but the wrong time. Or it’s the right practice and the right time, but our body’s not yet in good enough shape. It doesn’t matter what the object is; when the skeptical, doubting mind catches us, we’re stuck.

A Burning Desire by Kevin Griffin, pg. 150:

Ultimately, I think we should be most concerned, not about the accuracy of our beliefs, but about their efficacy. Oftentimes I can’t know if they are true, but I can usually tell if they are helping me or not. And that’s what I want to know. Are my beliefs leading to the end of suffering?

Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions, pg. 29: 

Now we come to another kind of problem: the intellectually self-sufficient man or woman. To these, many AA’s can say, “Yes, we were like you—far too smart for our own good. We loved to have people call us precocious. We used our education to blow ourselves up into prideful balloons, though we were careful to hide this from others. Secretly, we felt we could float above the rest of the folks on our brainpower alone. Scientific progress told us there was nothing man couldn’t do. Knowledge was all-powerful. Intellect could conquer nature. Since we were brighter than most folks (so we thought), the spoils of victory would be ours for the thinking. The god of intellect displaced the God of our fathers. But again John Barleycorn had other ideas. We who had won so handsomely in a walk turned into all-time losers. We saw that we had to reconsider or die. We found many in AA who once thought as we did. They helped us to get down to our right size. By their example they showed us that humility and intellect could be compatible, provided we placed humility first. When we began to do that, we received a gift of faith, a faith which works. This faith is for you, too.”

A Path with Heart by Jack Kornfield, pg. 160

(The Buddha says:) You may be puzzled, Kalamas, and in doubt, and your doubt has arisen about what should be doubted. Do not believe me either. If you wish to know spiritual truth, you must investigate it this way… (continues on--click here for full sutta)

Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn, pg. 8:

While it may be simple to practice mindfulness, it is not necessarily easy. Mindfulness requires effort and discipline for the simple reason that the forces that work against our being mindful, namely, our habitual unawareness and automaticity, are exceedingly tenacious.