Dishonest Doubt

Its good to use your mind, to ask for policies of personal belief, under what conditions you will believe something to be true, and under what conditions you will disbelieve something that you have already believed to be true.

Osho Rajneesh, once untitled, then acharya, then bhagwan, then acharya, now untitled, was a popular Indian guru in the West. At the heyday of his career many years ago, he even incorporated an entire city in the U.S. under his name, Rajneeshpuram. He was known the world over for his one hundred Rolls Royce cars and his doctrine of unhindered freedom. What caught my eye was the sign outside his main lecture hall, “Please leave your shoes and your minds outside."

People do leave their shoes outside religious sites to show respect for the place. However, leaving minds outside was rather novel peculiar to Rajneeshees. That's a bad use of the mind.

How do you get out of the prison of skepticism, while maintaining a healthy use of the mind? Again, I point you to the Son of God. When asked what was the greatest of all commandments, He did something very unusual. He highlighted the dimension of the mind in His restatement of the first commandment that people in His religious milieu believed was given—loving God with your mind. You may need to leave your shoes outside. But you never leave your mind outside when it comes to loving God.