Bill!,
You mention doubt.
You know -- and I know you *DO* know this!, Bill! -- in our sect, "Doubt" is
not disbelief, nor dubiousness. It is NOT the opposite pole from Faith. It
bears no antagonism to Faith, neither cognitively nor organically: a sane mind
and healthy body may entertain them both simultaneously. Your awakening is
living proof of this!
Instead, in Zen training as we know it, the "doubt" that we are ENCOURAGED to
rely upon -- while working on a koan, say (and especially on the first one) --
is an intense desire to experience, ...an intense determination to have the
koan open, to dissolve and reveal treasure.
This desire that we employ is not doubt or dubiousness, or distrust of the
sincerity of our teachers nor of our tradition nor tools. It is instead an
"intense spirit of QUESTIONING".
As you say, before awakening, faith and doubt, or perhaps faith and a lack or
weakness of faith, come in the dual pair just as any substantive idea does, or
even as the pair "existence" and "non-existence" does. But, again, in our
training, faith and determination are not opposites.
At awakening and after awakening there are no categories, and names cannot be
grasped, but the flavor of things is there, as one bright display or
manifestation of the mind; nothing remains and nothing leaves any residue, and
we catch onto no snags. But let's leave that aside. ;-) Faith,
determination, doubt and disbelief do not arise.
Now, because multiple awakenings are possible, faith can again be helpful as a
tool, a familiar one. Thus, to encourage yet again subsequent awakenings, that
faith, plus determination or a strong spirit of questioning, coupled to a
strong practice, can move illusory mountains and put them in their proper
heaven, and sink any ship you like, Yes. Torpedos away!
--Joe
PS (speaking of gift-wrapped, "Feliz Navidad!", from the deep Southwest).
> "Bill!" <BillSmart@...> wrote:
>
> Joe,
>
> What you say is true, but where you have faith you also have doubt. They
> come in the same gift-wrapped, illusory dualistic set. Faith can indeed move
> mountains, but doubt can sink ships.
>
> ...Bill!
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