Great doubt: practicing Zen in the world

"In Zen practice, the essential point is to arouse doubt.

What is this doubt? When you are born, for example, where do you come from?

You cannot help but remain in doubt about this. When you die, where do you go? Again, you cannot help but remain in doubt. Since you cannot pierce this barrier of life and death, suddenly doubt will coalesce right before your eyes.

Try to put it down, you cannot; try to push it away, you cannot.

Eventually you will break through this doubt block and realize what a worthless notion life and death is - ha!

As the old worthies said: 'Great doubt, great awakening; small doubt, small awakening; no doubt, no awakening.'" - Boshan There are many ways in which we may delude ourselves in practice.

Doubt, Boshan argues, can be a powerful tool that rouses us from the complacency that comes with intellectual musing, ascetic striving, emotional suppression and quiet meditation.

Great Doubt presents for the first time complete translations of Boshan's key works on working with doubt: "Exhortations for Those Who Don't Arouse Doubt" and "Exhortations for Those Who Do Arouse Doubt." This little book contains the most powerful medicine for the diseases that plague spiritual practice.