Belief and skepticism

Two sides of the same coin

All dualities always go together. There is no day without night, no pleasure without pain, no like without dislike. Another such duality that plays in the human mind in an insidious manner is belief and skepticism.

The one who believes has suppressed skepticism and therefore always suspects skepticism outside even where it doesn’t exist. The one who is a skeptic has suppressed belief and therefore suspects belief outside even where it doesn’t exist. Skeptics threaten the believers, believers threaten the skeptics. This threat plays out in a very subtle way, so one tries to hold on stronger to belief or skepticism by attacking the opposing viewpoint.

What we fear within, we suspect without.

This fear and suspicion of one side and holding tight to the other side is all projected by who? The ego of course. Am I the ego caught in this duality or that which is aware of the very duality playing out? Instead of getting caught in and identified with all the doubts, what’s necessary is to doubt the doubter. And so with the other way round of being identified with beliefs. It’s just as necessary to doubt the believer.

Freedom is therefore to transcend all such dualities of the ego and especially this pernicious duality of belief and skepticism.

If we inquire into our true nature and recognize the Infinite Order that we are part of, then we directly know the omnipresent God who radiates here and now. This is neither a belief nor even any mystical experience but a direct perception just as seeing the sun rise. Then one can respond to the question as to whether you believe in God neither in the affirmative nor in the negative but simply that there is no need to believe or disbelieve what is a direct fact that can be seen. As this question was answered by Carl Jung beautifully, “I don’t believe. I know”.

This is the essence of the teachings of all the great sages from various traditions who have pointed to the same truth. To taste a mango, we don’t have to know which tree it came from. To get the essence of their teachings, we don’t have to either believe or doubt them and enter into arguments about their historicity etc. We can simply recognize the teaching in our heart.

To know and realize this is the essence of true religion. Belief and skepticism are both obstacles in that journey.