Many religious organizations do not want you to have doubt. They want you to be firmly fixed in what they furnish. What they furnish is fixed and they don’t want you to waver from it. Propagandists do not want you to waver from rigid frameworks. Many of us were taught not to doubt. We were instructed, directly or indirectly, to adhere to set patterns without question. We were taught that that is what keeps us safe and secure.
Doubt — wonderful, dynamic, alive doubt — is not rigid like a dead rock. It involves a living, enquiring mind that intelligently perceives without merely clinging to the apron-strings of past patterns. If you are of a wisdom that intelligently doubts, then you might not be safe and might not be properly valued by others (in their set groups and ways); they might despise you or even hate you. Depth cannot be discovered by clinging to the superficial. The dry, rigid rocks and shallows might appear to be safe, but they are not where the electric, profound, alive secrets dwell. Many look at things through what they accepted, which may not really be looking much at all. When you look only with (and from) what you’ve been taught, you may not be perceiving much at all; it may then be others’ reactions of the past… that is looking… not you.
To a young person, one would say that it is prudent to question things wisely and intelligently. Don’t, within reason, accept what anyone says is true; find out for yourself. In that movement to “find out,” the instrument of the mind must be precise, must not be jaded by others, must not be contaminated by others. Therefore, understanding the instrument and keeping it pristine and uncontaminated may be of the utmost importance. Only a dynamic, pure instrument perceives without distortion. Symbols are second-hand and synthesized; they may have little to do with pure observing in the deepest sense. Most look through (and “as”) the symbols (e.g., words, patterns, and images) that they accepted and absorbed from others. The symbol is never the actuality; it is a second-hand post-impression.
Crab Spider with Fly in Rose Flower. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Beautiful photo Tom, and I count myself lucky that I was raised by parents who encouraged me to think for myself.
Thank you, Karen… and you are very lucky to have had such parents! 🙂
Being doubtful is not always appreciated by society, as you say. But I’m lucky to say that I have been as doubtful as I could about everything in my life and didn’t care for being an outsider. Wonderful photo, too, Thomas. Thanks for sharing, regards Mitza
Thank you, Mitza! 🙂 Stick with nurturing doubt and being mentally more independent! Look what the lemmings are doing to society!
As you mention the lemmings, I remember a nice joke I saw many years ago. There were hundreds of lemmings dashing to an abyss and one was coming with a Rolls Royce. I always felt a lot of sympathy for this one, hehe
Funny! 🙂
Find out for yourself – yes! With precision, curiosity and an open heart. 😎
Yes, Val! 🙂 So many lose their deeply passionate curiosity as they age; the accept things as they were told “things are,” and they end up stuck in the bourgeois, same old patterns.
doubt = big chunk of foundation of thought of discernment. this what simple brain of monkey think.
Mr. Monkey, discerning can come from either insight or what was provided from others (which is usually not from insight); the truly intelligent mind perceives what to do and what not to do (regarding this). 🙂
Basically, they wish people to stay stupid. Why people stay there is beyond me…
Perhaps, Amy, it’s because — for so many — it is so very easy to just fit in and be mindless.
There is an Esoteric way of experiencing religion/spirituality, and an Exoteric way of experiencing religion/spirituality, the latter is riddled with dogma.
Ah, yes! The latter is not really spirituality at all… it is merely the receiving and handing down of dead patterns and symbols.
Ha! and you insist that I don’t call you, Buddha Bob?!
No, Buddha Bob it is, except that your teachings are Esoteric, and don’t even talk about “Buddhism”, so it’s all good! 😉
Now you’re really altering my name. My name is Tom! 🙂