Can someone explain the hinderance doubt and where it pertains?

Wuji

I have not read the Vimuttimagga yet but, I do know about the five hindrances. I'm wondering what all the hindrance doubt applies to? From what I've been able to tell it applies to doubting yourself hindering tranquillity and doubting certain teachings that lead to insight like the four noble truths. I believe even Buddha taught to doubt everything at first until you yourself have contemplated and decided that something makes sense. I just want to make sure that it doesn't apply to other things like, for example, don't have doubts in trusting others.

nanadhaja

Hi Wuji.First let me tell you that I am a meditation teacher.your question is a good point.Lord Buddha did indeed tell us not to just accept things with out investigation and this includes your meditation teaching and your teacher.Where this doubt would be viewed as a hinderance is when you would be doubtful of whether or not your teacher knew what they were talking about and whether or not the teaching actually works.I always ask my students whether they have any of these doubts.Sometimes there are things we are not sure of and need to get answers to.This is why the question "Do you have any doubts?'is asked.The student can then express what it is they are having a problem understanding and hopefully the teacher can address the doubt.
With metta

genkaku

In Zen, the encouragement "Patience, courage and doubt" strikes me as being useful. It takes patience to practice. It takes courage to practice. But perhaps the most important thing is to acknowledge and investigate whatever it is we doubt.

I seriously doubt that anyone would take up a Buddhist practice if s/he did not suffer from some serious doubt. If there were no doubt, why bother with Buddhism? But the student's doubt is not simply intellectual or emotional. It is intimate and it is visceral and it probably rests on a recognition that all things change. If all things change all the time, then who could I possibly be? And this is where patience and courage enter. Such serious questions -- assuming someone takes them seriously -- require effort.

In Zen, some emphasis is place on meditation practice (zazen). Zazen is our way not just of penetrating our doubts, but expressing our deepest doubts as well. Patiently, courageously, we doubt. But does doubt doubt?

In Zen, there is a saying: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!" This means that any answer that comes from anywhere but our own experience and our own hearts is not the answer we are seeking. It is only the cause of more doubt.

We practice. We doubt. We don't 'become' a Buddha ... we are a Buddha.

jinzang

In Buddhism doubt is the absence of confidence (shraddha). The point is that we need confidence that our practice will lead us where we want to go. Lacking that confidence, we will abandon it. Traditionally confidence has three stages. We see the examples teachers, both living and historical, who have achieved enlightenment. Then we look at ourselves and determine what they have done, we can also do. Then as we set out, start to see good results from our practice, and our confidence becomes unshakable.