Trust
"Doubt creates the Path towards Suffering while Trust creates the Path towards Happiness"
Introduction
Defining Trust
To trust is to believe that something or someone will support us, act in our best interest, do the right thing, or provide us reliable information. In short, developing trust is about believing that we will be helped and supported—that everything will be alright.
In this article, we will explore trust from a spiritual perspective and how developing it can help us to transform the suffering states of the mind.
Trust In Depth
The opposite of Trust is doubt.
Doubt is a fearful state of mind that can hold one back from taking making important choices in life for fear of failure.
Whilst doubt is the belief that one will not be alright, Trust is the belief that one will be alright. Developing the latter, and the former will be released. That is the purpose of developing trust—to transform and release the suffering states of the mind. Realize that many fears that can be transformed through developing trust: fears of being embarassed, of being wrong, of being judged, of things not working out, and so forth.
Trust can be directed three ways
One can develop trust towards oneself. This can be done by learning to believe in ourselves more, to believe that no matter what decisions one makes in life, one will be alright.
One can also develop trust towards other-selves. For instance, to put our belief in others, to believe in what the truth of what people say, to believe that others will help us, to believe in other people's claims and promises.
One can also develop trust towards the Universe. For example, we can learn to trust that the world will give us all the support and experiences we need to fulfil our desires.
To develop trust is thus to develop trust in these three dimensions. To refine trust even more is to become aware of the imbalanced way we are directing trust.
Is one directing too much trust outwards?
Is one directing trust excessively inwards?
Trust can only be refined through wisdom, knowledge that is acquired from one's life experiences from making correct and erroneous decisions on their journey of trust.
Importance
Importance Of Trust
Let us explore the importance of developing Trust.
When we lack trust in ourselves, we can experience fear in making decisions.
Do you often let other people make decisions for you?
When we lack trust in other people, we can become too independent and afraid to ask for help when it's required.
When we lack trust in other people, our fears can hold us back from forming new relationships with others or deepening existing ones.
Are there many things that you don't want other people to know about you?
When we lack the trust that the world will support us, we can become hesitant in plunging into new experiences, choosing to stay in the same old experiences instead, learning nothing new.
When was the last time you went towards an experience that gave you a bit of excitement and fear?
The less we trust ourselves, the less we will know who we really are. Because to know oneself will require one to accept oneself. When we don't trust ourselves or support ourselves for who we are—i.e. for our beliefs, opinions, goals, passions, one's ways of living, etc.—we are essentially declaring in the mind "I don't believe that is who I am."
When we don't trust ourselves enough, we can end up following the belief of other—people, religions, schools, groups, communities—because of the greater confidence they have in their own beliefs. When one cannot trust oneself and simply follows others, one can easily lose themselves and develop pseudo-confidence, which is confidence that is dependent on an outside source.
It's important to balance the direction of trust. An excessive of Trust outwards and Inwards can also create distortions in what is real and what is not. For instance, an excess of Trust inwards can make one narrow-minded to new ways of thinking and an excess of Trust outwards can make one susceptible to just believing in whatever people say without questioning.
Path Of Creator
Trust In Relation To The Path Of Creator
To develop trust is to refine what we already know about trust.
On the journey of Self-Transformation, to develop trust is to develop it at the state of mind. Not knowing this, one will only develop trust as an action that one does in life. For instance, thinking that by telling other people one's dirty secrets, one's learning how to trust others.
To develop trust is to develop the belief that if we were to tell other people our dirty secrets, everything will be alright. Whether that person will keep their promise and not tell others our secrets will be up to how they exercise their free will.
Thus, to develop trust towards ourselves is to learn to Accept ourselves even if we were to make a decision that leads to an undesired outcome, or if we fail in achieving our goals, and so forth.
And to develop trust towards the world is to accept the world unconditionally for sending whatever experiences it wishes our way, even if decides to blow a storm our way.
Realize that the key to developing greater happiness is to address our unhappiness. And the seed cause for unhappiness will always come down to one's inability to Accept what they are facing.
Reject experiences will only create unhappiness. So if only sees that developing trust is about making the "right" and "perfectly wise" decisions, unhappiness will always be waiting to greet in the moment when one makes a mistake.
Can you live your life without making any mistakes?
Thus, to be truly happy is to learn how to accept all there is. And on the journey of Self-Transformation, Trust can be used as a catalyst to help one achieve this.
It's a challenging catalyst because as one learns to trust others and oneself at the level of the mind, one's suffering states of the mind will surface, for instance, one's fears of being betrayed, one's fears of being embarrassed, one's fears of being judged for making the wrong decisions, and so forth.
This is when one's journey of Self-Transformation will truly begin. Because upon the discovery of these inner negativities, one can then explore their nature and cause, and also choose to approach the experience differently: that instead of reacting negatively, trying to trust and accept instead.
And to intensify the catalyst, one can express these states of mind through actions. For instance, to really tell other people one's secrets, to really be honest with others, to really be honest with oneself, to pursue one's dreams, and so forth. Doing so will take one to deeper experiences because their ability to trust and accept will be constantly challenged.
As trust is one of the most challenging catalysts to practice, the practice of meditation is highly recommended. Without meditation, one can simply dwell in one's fears and negativities when the suffering states of mind arise within. By practising meditation daily, one will be able to Still the mind and shine light into the cause of one's suffering.
At The Idea Level
The issues of Trust will always recede to the lack of Self-Acceptance towards oneself and Other Selves.
For instance, if one can accept oneself and others unconditionally, then there wouldn't be such a thing as trusting others or trusting oneself—because no fears would be involved. One would simply be making choices based on one's wisdom.
Let us explore one of the negative beliefs that can make one reject the idea of trusting others or oneself.
"It is not ok to Fail/to be Wrong"
When one is attached to such ideas, one will fear failing or making the wrong decisions. As a result, issues of trust can arise when one has to make a decision that can potentially lead to the feared outcomes.
There are many ways to transform the belief.
One way is to allow oneself to make mistakes and to fail. And one can do this by placing more trust in oneself or others and let experience decide whether or not it was the right decision, learning and becoming wiser from each experience.
On the journey of Self-Transformation, one can never really make a wrong decision because if an undesired outcome were to occur, that is simply an opportunity for one to transform their Suffering States of the mind even more.
And on your journey, the more you can learn to accept all types of people, outcomes, situations, the less the consequences of your choices will negatively affect your mind.
So, as long as one simply works on their suffering states of mind, the issues of Trust will naturally resolve themselves. And the key to Self-Transformation will always be Self-Acceptance. Use Trust as a catalyst to develop Self-Acceptance even more.
The destination is towards reaching the state of unconditional acceptance towards all there is. When one can accept all there is, one will no longer trust out of fear, but out of wisdom from the fullness of one's own life experiences.
Know and Transform The Self!
Reading articles helps with understanding, but to transform the mind, one realizes the truth from experience.
For such an enlightening journey, the Self-Transformation Course has everything you will ever need!
