According to Osho, in true faith doubt cannot arise; if doubt appears, what you had was not faith but blind belief. Doubt, when faced with open eyes, is a blessing—the fire that bakes the clay. By fully living your questions rather than suppressing them, you mature into a seeing faith; only doubt gives birth to authentic certainty.
If doubts show up, your ‘faith’ is still raw; bravely explore those doubts until a solid, doubt-proof faith naturally forms.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: First question: Osho, can doubt arise even in faith? Santosh Saraswati! In faith it is impossible for doubt to arise. If doubt arises in faith, then it was never faith. You must have mistaken belief for faith, acceptance for faith. It must have been blind—without eyes. Blind faith is what is called belief. And blind faith has no value—not even worth two cowries. Compared to blind faith, a doubt with eyes is worth a hundred thousand times more, because what truly has value is the eyes. Faith and doubt come later; first come the eyes. If your doubt has eyes, a faith with eyes will also come. But for centuries man has been told: Do not doubt; doubt is sin. Suppress doubt, sit on its chest, throw it into the unconscious—throw it as deep as you can, so deep that you don’t even remember you ever had doubt.
Osho, you say the same thing in countless ways. But when I listen to you, it feels as if I am hearing it for the first time. And I feel so much joy that I don’t feel like going back home. What should I do—what can I do—so that I can just keep listening to you!
You will feel as if you have been made to rise out of season, before time—as if you were not yet to go and yet had to go. And if you go in that way, your home will become even more desolate than before. I do not want to make your home desolate; I want to make your home a temple. I want that when you go home, your home’s new form is revealed. I do not want to tear you away from home, from the world, from family life. That is the newness of my sannyas: I do not want to sever you from the world; I want to join you to the world in such a way that your connection with the world becomes a connection with the Divine. Let the world no longer be a barrier between you and the Divine; let it become a means. If…
Osho, I am skeptical; I long for faith, but it won’t take root. Doubts keep arising and arising. Show me the way!
Therefore do not be frightened, do not be anxious. I am ready to give sannyas even to an atheist. Because I hold that often atheists are more honest than theists. Theists are often hypocrites. Atheists can be hypocrites too, but at least not in India; in Russia they are. In India it is a little difficult to be an atheist. Here even one who is an atheist shows himself as a theist, because that is convenient. There is a crowd of theists all around—who will take the trouble to be an atheist! Here only one who truly has courage can be an atheist. If you are skeptical, an atheist, full of doubt—the door of my sannyas is open to you. You will not find anyone else in the world willing to give you sannyas; I tell you this. Such courageous theists—who can take even an atheist inside—have disappeared from the…
Osho, you said that doubting oneself leads to faith; then tell us, where will doubt about faith lead?
Understand a few things. One: Doubt ordinarily does not doubt doubt itself; if it does, doubt dies. Doubt is complete only when doubt itself comes under doubt. Only then are you a true thinker; only then is there some genius in you. If you doubt everything but never doubt doubt, your thinking is not complete; you have not reached the peak; your doubt is incomplete; your atheism is not profound. When, doubting and doubting, you come to that moment where doubt arises about doubt itself—“That which I have assumed and followed till now, is it even worthy of being assumed? That which I have been following like a shadow, is it worth following? Will it take me anywhere? I have made doubt my master—was it worthy of being a master?”—the day you become suspicious about doubt, that very day doubt dies. On the death of doubt, faith is born. A…
Osho, Lord Buddha’s path begins with the acceptance of doubt. Was his age as rationalistic and skeptical as ours? And is the Dhammapada the most relevant scripture for our times?
Buddha gives you no place like that. There is no room there for your weakness. Buddha says: Knowledge comes through self-purification—not through scriptures. Truth is not a notion; not a doctrine. Truth is the refinement of life. Like gold in fire—burning, melting, writhing—only then does it shine. The dross is burnt, the essence remains. Truth is within you, buried under rubbish. Until you pass through fire, how will you find it? Do not be in a hurry—Buddha says—to believe. Believe only when there is no room left for doubt. Note this difference. Other religions say: Believe in spite of doubt. Push doubt out of sight. Ignore it. Yes, doubt is there—but believe anyway. Bury doubt under the ashes of belief. Hide it behind belief. Take shelter in the shadow of belief. Cover your head, like the ostrich that buries its head in the sand when it sees the enemy. You…