Question, Problem, but not Doubt

One of the Five Hindrance is doubt, which can be the biggest, yet most subtle block to one's practice. My personal take is that doubt is related to lack of confidence or faith in one's innate goodness or capacity.

There are a few reasons why doubt is such a hindrance to our spiritual practice:

• The simple truth is that when you are in doubt, you stop trying. And if you stop trying, nothing good will happen for you.
• Doubt leads to fear, which in turn takes away a good chunk of your mental power which is quite limited to begin with. A point in case: when I serve during a tennis match - especially when it comes to the second serve - if I have doubt that I can't get a quality serve over the net, the fear will creep in and chances are I will double fault.
• Doubt leads to contraction, confinement and inhibition of freedom. When in doubt, you are not likely to take the courageous first step, as the result you will never get the chance to fulfill your full potential. This is sort of related to the first point, but going one step further.

As a practical guide for me, for now on I will refrain myself using the word of doubt, instead if I am not sure about something, I will go deep and investigate what exactly I am not sure about, and if I can lay my finger on it and come up with an clear question or problem, then I am fine with that and go study and explore it -- I might never have a answer or a solution, or I could be even raising the wrong question or framing a wrong problem. But that's okay: at least I know what I am working with -- the issue is something, the issue is not me. If I can not figure out why I am nervous or agitated, I will be mindful of this feeling and remind myself that it's the old friend doubt: I see you but I will not be fooled by you this time.