When in Doubt, Doubt Wholeheartedly

I’ve been observing the phenomenon of doubt lately. The recent elections, the economic melt down, the housing market blues, and the increasing unemployment seem to be adding to the global doubt index.

I could be that behind every doubt is a cynic.

  1. A person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view.
  2. One of a sect of Greek philosophers, 4th century b.c., who advocated the doctrines that virtue is the only good, that the essence of virtue is self-control, and that surrender to any external influence is beneath human dignity.

The Cynics were an influential group of philosophers from the ancient school of Cynicism. Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, and by living a life free from all possessions. As reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which was natural for humans. They believed that the world belonged equally to everyone, and that suffering was caused by false judgments of what was valuable and by the worthless customs and conventions which surrounded society. – Wikipedia

Doubt seems habitual. Most habitual doubting is conditioned negation, a lazy ego’s way to successful pessimism. Suspicious minds, scarcity thinking, self-centeredness and survival seem to walk hand in had with doubt.

When in doubt, doubt yourself. What’s that doubt all about? What’s at the root of doubt?

Doubting wholeheartedly means questioning the very premise of doubt, not the content – what we doubt, but the activity – why we doubt. Wholehearted doubting is a trip into a real wormhole.

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