Sutra 1.30: Obstacle #3: Doubt

Yoga Sutra 1.30 presents us with nine different obstacles of the mind on our journey towards samadhi. These obstacles are disease, dullness, doubt, carelessness, fatigue, sensory attachment, wrong perspective, non-achievement, and non-steadiness.

Today we are exploring more in depth the third obstacle which is Samsaya or doubt. Doubt has the ability to wreak havoc in our hearts and minds.

First of all, let us establish the difference between doubt and not knowing. Doubt is the illusion of inadequacy in our own worth and our ability to be able to cultivate ability in anything that we choose. Not knowing is the curious and humble demeanor required to experience your own aliveness in the unfiltered, brand new moment by moment play of life. Not knowing is necessary, doubt is devastating. Not knowing leads to lands of limitlessness while doubt paralyzes, punishes, and prosecutes us as the prisoner in a rigged trial sentencing us to a life in the prison of our own manipulated mind.

Doubt feels like incompetence, while not knowing feels like excitement. Doubt will often make us stop dead in our tracks and hold us hostage, halting us from moving in any direction at all. Doubt is the death of progress and needs to be dug up at the root and removed from our internal sanctuary for it will poison all of our passion and our purity. Passion and purity are infused with curiosity but not with doubt. Passion and purity are like rays that shine straight from the sun of our soul. These rays are literally the light of our lives and it is our job to amplify them with repeated right thoughts, with wise words, and with aligned actions.

So next time you are faced with doubt, do not stop and sink in into the quicksand that it is, because that’s how fast it will swallow you up. Instead, tune into the excitement of not knowing and move in whatever direction the needles of passion and possibility on your compass of courage guide you.

Muchas gracias beautiful humans,

I appreciate you. Perhaps appreciation could also be used to combat doubt, because when we spend our time and energy in awe and gratitude, doubt does not receive as many doorways to enter. Perhaps next time you feel overwhelmed with doubt, double down on recalling all that is going right in your life. Like fingers, how amazing are our fingers?! Pretty much my entire day is experienced through them and also I get to create with them, as I type these words, it’s like spells of magic being cast on this page.

Always and honor and blessing,

Andrea Dawn