--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Dean Goodman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > SELF-DOUBT AND CYNICISM VS. PROFOUND TRUST > From a Talk by Adyashanti > > "There is nothing more insidiously destructive to the attainment of > liberation than self-doubt and cynicism. Doubt is a movement of the > conditioned mind that always claims that "it's not possible ... that > freedom is not possible for me [or for you - or at least it is very > very difficult, very distant]." Doubt always knows; it "knows" that > nothing is possible. And in this knowing, doubt robs you of the pos- > sibility of anything truly new or transformative from happening. Fur- > thermore, doubt is always accompanied by a pervasive cynicism that > unconsciously puts a negative spin on whatever it touches. Cynicism > is a world view which protects the ego from scrutiny by maintaining > a negative stance in relationship to what it does not know, does not > want to know, or cannot know. Many spiritual seekers have no idea > how cynical and doubt-laden they actually are. It is this blindness > and denial of the presence of doubt and cynicism that makes the birth > of a profound trust impossible - a trust without which final libera- > tion will always remain simply a dream." - Adyashanti > **** A complementary perspective to Adhyasanti's view:
For evolving to higher stages of consciousness, more destructive than self-doubt and cynicism, is an unquestioning mind with no capacity to inner inquiry and dialogue. Whatever grandiose idea of oneself appears is taken to be the absolute truth, doubts are immediately suppressed, if they ever appear. Doubts and cynicism can be quite destructive. However I see even that kind of tormenting doubt as one of the first steps into an acquisition of capacity to inner dialogue. Denial of the presence of doubt leads to suppression. Working with doubts canlead to a transformation, where doubt becomes a constructive inner voice and opener to inner inquiry. A person who suppresses doubt has an internal structure that could be called fundamentalism. A person who has no doubts is even below that developmentally. Being beyond fundamentalism means capacity to handle doubts and also difficult emotions in an constructive way. In my teens I remember myself spending long ours almost daily in an inner dialogue. An idea came to my mind. Soon after that appeared an opposing idea that doubted or disapproved with the first idea. I calmly just witnessed this discussion and dialogue inside and it gradually got more and more subtle, and dealt with many important existential questions. I still remember one pearl that was created through these dialogues: "If there is God, and he is the embodiment of Truth, he can only expect from me that I do what I understand to be true and right. Even if that meant the denial of God." And it actually meant it for me then. I think this insight appeared at 14. I also claim that it was this kind of inner dialogue that lead to the powerful experience of realization I had at age 16, that I have described more in details many times here at FFL Irmeli ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
