The Intentionality of Courage (faith) and Doubt
"I cannot know it with certainty but I have faith in its meaning."
Doubt is the antithesis of certainty. Courage (faith) is the middle way. The intention of doubt is to become certain. We doubt so that we can examine the possibilities of outcome. in order to seek to ensure the greatest probability of 'positive' outcome we examine all the probabilities, we focus on the 'negative' probabilities in order to mitigate them, the mind of doubt gets caught there. It gets caught because it pushes negative outcomes away with fear based emotion.
Rather than acknowledging a negative outcome as a possible outcome and accepting it if one falls short, we get caught up in much the same fear that would there for life or death. If it were life or death it would be easier to muster up the courage (faith) to face it. I see this often in therapy sessions. Individuals with chronic anxiety (worry), about typical day to day life events, are presented with an event that represents actual life of death such as news that they have cancer. They quickly come to terms with the reality of the situation and muster up the strength and courage to deal with it. They have allowed for the negative outcome but know that they must face the situation with courage because it is the only way to face such a situation. But, since most of what we do is not life or death, courage and faith get left behind, and we mostly live in fear.
The way out is to encourage courage. Rule out certainty, allow for 'negative' outcome, don't reject it but don't focus on it. To quote Crazy Horse, "It is a good day to die". Allow that the worst possible outcome can happen but muster the courage to face the moment authentically and with all that possible. All that is possible. The acceptance of all that is possible is faith. The intention of faith is an intention toward acceptance that all outcomes derived from wholesome acts tend toward wholeness and unity no matter how the results may appear.
The works of Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Jesus show the results of faith. All of these lives show the long term byproduct of faith even if in the short term results seem less than favorable. Certainly we can see with all of these individuals the long term effects of their faith are still in the process of being realized. So it is with all actions of faith and all those who have lived in it.
From the 23rd Psalm: "Yea though I walk through the valley of death I shall fear not because thou art with me". In this case thou can be God, or it can be what God symbolizes.
I am not trying to appeal to any particular faith, most of them have a word to point to an all powerful mental force that flows through and connects everything. Ultimately god is just a word. But in the case of the deity God it points to a power within everything, a power of creation, a power of great courage. In this case what the word God points to is beyond our certainty but we can have faith in its meaning. All concepts of faith are like this, all words to describe them are beyond our certainty, but we have faith in their meaning because within our shared experience is a conviction of the truth that they symbolize.
Doubt is just as much an illusion as certainty. Just as we can never be certain of anything we can never be uncertain of anything. Probability is the closest thing we have to truth so it is no wonder that we tend to spend too much time examining the probability of positive and negative outcome. Can we examine probabilities without doubt, I doubt it. I doubt it because it would mean that we never had a personal stake in outcome, it would mean that we were perpetually unattached to outcome. I don't see how that is possible in our day to day struggles. I know that it is momentarily possible and I know that with faith all things are possible but I don't see how we can live without doubt in each moment.
To live without doubt in each moment is as unrealistic as to live without failure, or to live without fear, or to live without sorrow, or to live without error... we cannot perpetually live a life of absolute freedom. Moment to moment we can live in intentional - conscious, expansive awareness. And moment to moment we can fall back into intentional - unconscious, limited awareness. And, moment to moment we can be relatively less unconscious than we were before. Freedom from doubt is total in the moment. And it is also gradual in the overall level. There are moments of absolute faith where no doubt exists but they are only momentary. We know that we will sink the putt because we can see it go in. We know that no matter what happens it will be for the greater good, that it will all work out. We know that there is some meaning in every event, that there is an intentionality that exists within every fabric of our lives. We know that we can never know anything completely but we can have faith in its meaning. When we absolutely know this we are absolutely free.