DOUBT

By Dhammacaro

Doubt is one of the obstacles which can obstruct happiness in our lives. In life it’s possible to have doubts about so many things whether they appear to us as large or trivial, whatever they are they will take the ease from our being. There is an example of this in a Zen story, which I would like to share with you.  This is the story.

There once was an historian who was a well read and a very learned man. But one day he read a book of Indian scriptures, which said that the Himalaya Mountain was contained in a mustard seed and vice versa. He doubted this and pondered that it was indeed a strange idea that something so big could be contained in a mustard seed, which is so very small.

He couldn’t believe that this could be so. It troubled him so much that he went to see his master, a Zen teacher, to put the question to him of the strangeness of this idea. He told the master that this writing was not right and added that he thought it lied to its readers.

The Zen teacher asked the historian if he was an educated man who had read thousands of books and if he had ever found anything like this in the scriptures. The historian replied that although he had read so many books but never in his whole life had he read or heard anything as strange as this. The master then enquired if he could put another question to the historian. Absolutely, was his reply. The Master told him that he found him strange as well. How come his head was so small when he had put thousands of books into it?

The Historian immediately overcame doubt and understood that things could be possible. He realised that he should not have doubted additionally he knew that he had been thinking too much about everything.

It is true that doubt is an obstacle that blocks our way in living our life and that we must overcome it to travel down our road smoothly and to see life as it really is. It is advised that education is a good tool to help us overcome doubt and therefore what we learn we must put into practise. The outcome of learning and practise will be wisdom, which can be used to cut off doubt and without doubt our life will be brilliant.