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I used to anguish over my mind’s incessant need to ask questions. I thought skepticism and spirituality were not supposed to go together. I remember one night on my first yatra with Sadhguru. High in the Himalayas, scribbling on a notebook page I couldn’t see very well by firelight, I was trying to diagram my way to enlightenment. The teacher was speaking, and I wanted to catch every word. I had “the seeker must give up everything” underlined and circled. But then from earlier I had written down, “the seeker must not let go of the question” and I wondered which idea I had misheard.

Clinging to questions didn’t sound right. I knew that I had a skeptical mind, and I expected that to be my biggest challenge when I first began studying with Sadghuru. I had been seeking the Divine for close to thirty years, and I had probably asked for more signs and answers than any Doubting Thomas in history.

My mind is at times full of doubts about how and why and what if. But I learned from Sadhguru that my desire to understand was not the problem I thought it was. In fact my questioning mind has led me ever closer to the Divine, not away.

All seekers wrestle with skepticism from time to time, but it’s not necessarily our enemy. The spiritual life is an ongoing dance with belief and doubt, even for people who have been traveling this road for a lifetime. Our questioning minds are an intrinsic aspect of our humanity, and as long as we are here on this physical plane, we will never outgrow them.

Doubt and Suspicion Are Not the Same

Sadhguru tells us that there are two kinds of skepticism: doubt and suspicion. Doubt is a healthy form of skepticism. To doubt is to simply admit there are things you don’t know. It means the jury is still out. This is the natural starting point for spiritual seekers. It keeps the door open to exploration and discovery, and it impels us to seek answers.

Suspicion, on the other hand, is a closed door. It presumes that our spiritual experiences are something entirely different from what they appear to be—or aren’t real at all. Suspicion operates on preconceived ideas that are usually rooted in mistrust or fear. Instead of inviting us to learn more, suspicion assumes it has gathered all the information there is, and the picture it paints is of a dangerous and deceitful, or at best limited, world. Assuming that something must be wrong, it puts up barriers all around us that prevent us from fully engaging with our experiences. If we allow suspicion to take hold in our minds and dictate what is and isn’t true, our existence becomes very limited, and growth is nearly impossible.

To understand the differences between doubt and suspicion, think of the spiritual realm as a vast ocean. Tethered as we are to our material existence, we can only stand on the shore and feel the small wavelets that occasionally caress our toes while larger waves swell further out. Beyond those waves is a deep stillness we can’t begin to comprehend. To acknowledge that this is our position—that we genuinely don’t know what’s out there—is a way to open ourselves up to deepening wisdom. This is what it means to doubt.

Wear Your Skepticism Loosely

Doubt without suspicion is a precursor to deeper understanding. It’s the grain of sand that irritates the oyster, eventually producing a pearl. Next time your mind is stretched by something your heart knows to be true, allow your doubts to be that grain of sand. Let them challenge you, push you, and even frustrate you. But also let them be the catalyst for deeper, more personal spiritual experiences that will leave every part of you convinced.

You can wear your skepticism like a loose garment. It’s there, but it doesn’t have to restrict you. Be open to the possibility that there are experiences beyond what any of us can comprehend. There are moments in life that defy logic and reason but resonate deeply with the heart and soul.

Navigating these experiences and revelations is a balancing act that takes effort and practice. When you strike that delicate balance, you unlock a harmonious synergy where intuition meets intellect, paving the way for deeper insights and greater clarity. You emerge with a richer understanding of yourself and the universe around you.

Whether you’re goaded by a restless, questioning mind or struggling with suspicious thoughts that threaten to shut down your process of inquiry, the goal is not to eliminate your skepticism, but to work with it and let it become a guide rather than a barrier.

Doubt Is a Sign of Progress

Sadhguru’s teachings highlight that it’s only the true skeptics, those who doubt and question everything, who develop rich internal lives and make strong progress on the spiritual path. They are the ones who are looking for something, who are open to exploring the unknown, unwrapping layers of reality, going deeper and deeper toward the center of all that is. This is the essence of a spiritual seeker—not someone looking to embellish reality or restrict it, but someone eager to look at everything just the way it is.

Doubt, in its purest form, fuels our quest for knowledge. It pushes us onward as we seek to understand the glimpses of spiritual reality the Divine so often surprises us with. It paves the way for experiential knowing—a form of understanding that comes from direct experience rather than received information. This is the form of knowing that Sadhguru encourages us to seek. Once our inquiring minds reach their limits trying to process everything, all that is left is direct experience–nothing between you and the Divine.

If, like mine, your doubting mind gets busy every time you sense something is going on beyond what you can sense on the physical plane, that’s a good sign! Just as shadows can only exist where there is light, doubt can only emerge when there is already a foundation of belief.

So, while doubt may seem like a hurdle on our spiritual path, it is, in fact, a sign that we’re making progress. Our doubts prompt us to question, seek, and ultimately understand the Divine in our own unique way. To fully experience the Divine requires an open mind, a willingness to question, a readiness to see beyond the surface, and a refusal to accept easy explanations. These, as Sadhguru says, are the attributes of a healthy skeptic!

Our doubts keep us from settling for superficial answers. They lead us ever deeper into the mysteries of existence until we reach the point when our experiences have surpassed what our minds can understand. That’s when we are called to move beyond the intellectual realm into the experiential. The doubts that once seemed like a blockade become a bridge on which we travel from mere intellectual comprehension to the profound experiential realization of the heart.

The Mind Is a Remarkable Tool

The human mind is a remarkable tool, capable of producing extraordinary works of art, solving complex problems, and creating intricate narratives. However, when it comes to processing spiritual experiences, it can feel like we’re trying to do delicate surgery with a butter knife. The mind, as sharp and versatile as it is when parsing physical reality, becomes a blunt instrument in the subtle, nuanced world of the Spirit, that is until we learn how to use it correctly.

Consider the ways we usually acquire knowledge. We read books, listen to lectures, engage in debates, and absorb information that is handed to us. The way of the mind is to take in, process, categorize, and store information. However, spiritual experiences defy this method of understanding. We can’t reduce them to facts or data. And they’re often so personal that it’s hard to put them into words. The mind can indeed experience sublime realities, but it must first be organized in such a way that it is working for us and not against us. And it’s not even about trying to control the mind or our thoughts during meditation as Sadhguru deftly puts it. It’s about liberating the mind, not letting it get entangled in petty things, and learning to take charge of our own destiny. In yoga, as Sadhguru teaches, a well-organized mind is referred to as a kalpavriksha. If the mind is brought to a certain level of organization and focused on a certain unwavering direction, it also will begin to organize and bring into alignment the other three dimensions of our system—our body, emotions, and energies—in that one direction. When this happens, you can literally manifest what you want. That is a lot of power!

Putting Down the Notebook

But when it comes to fully seeing the Divine, our minds can only take us so far. That was the lesson waiting for me that night in the Himalayas.

Sadhguru let me fill my notebook for several minutes. Then he gently but directly asked me to put my pen down so that I could become fully present.

His teachings were not just information to be recorded and reviewed later, he explained. They were a transmission, meant to be received and absorbed in the present moment. Trying to capture them with my mind and my pen was not only unnecessary, but also was a distraction from the direct experience of the transformative energy being offered. He promised that if I could be with him totally, even for a single moment, I would know all there is to know.

It’s so easy to overidentify with the thoughts our minds generate. When we do that during spiritual experiences it takes the focus away from the heart, which simply receives what is happening, just as it is, without distortions. The mind, on the other hand, must be managed to resist its inclination to try to fit new experiences into existing categories or frameworks of understanding. This limits our capacity to fully engage with and comprehend the depth and breadth of the spiritual teachings we receive.

Sadhguru then emphasized that spiritual seeking is indeed an act of investigation, but it’s so much more than gathering intellectual knowledge or coming to conclusions that satisfy our curiosity. It’s an ongoing quest that opens us up to deeper layers of reality the further we continue to explore.

I set aside my notebook and focused on being present. Sitting still, imbibing it all in as he said to do, I realized that his voice, his expressions, and his presence itself transmitted so much more than knowledge. He was speaking to my very heart and soul, not just my mind. If I had remained focused on gaining an intellectual understanding of the words he spoke, I would have missed so much of what he was actually sharing. By freeing myself from the need to remember everything, I was able to open myself up to a deeper, more direct experience of the teachings, and this has brought more transformation in my life than my mind could ever have processed!

Once we know how to achieve stillness with the mind fully engaged, we can then receive the Divine with our full being. Only then can we harness the power of the mind without being controlled by it. As Sadhguru puts it, “Once you liberate your mind from being identified with anything, then mind is a miracle; mind is a spectacular circus, a miraculously coordinated activity, not a mess.” By using the mind as a tool for observation and insight rather than a source of identity, we open ourselves up to the vast potential of spiritual growth.

My questioning mind had carried me all the way to the high Himalayas. Setting it down for a moment was how I finally saw what it had been pointing me toward all along.