Sunday, December 03, 2006

Trust

"If it were in the power of the person to make another believe, then every great soul that came to the world would have made the world believe in him and his word. Belief is according to the power of one's self-confidence. You find the tendency to trust in a brave man, in a wise man, and in a great man; the tendency to doubt and disbelieve you will find in the weak and insignificant man, who does not know what he believes. This shows that he who trusts himself will trust all, and he who does not trust himself cannot trust anybody. The trust of the person who trusts another and does not trust himself is an illusion; his trust is not alive. It may appear as strength, but it is a weakness. He holds onto something he does not know, and it seems trust. A person who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in a friend. How can he who does not believe in another believe in God, who is beyond the comprehension of man?"  Hazrat Inayat Khan

Trust is hard or it seems hard.  We live in a world that uses disappointment as a main measurement of reality so trust seems an illusion at best.   A friend of mine looked up trust in the dictionary.  She found at least 8 different meanings which I just read back through.  None of them mention courage of self as Pir O Murshid does.  So there is a ninth meaning.  This friend did say that it is the sort of thing that actually defies spoken or written definition, that words actually complicate what is essentially a basic principle.  I agree with that up to a point but, after I read some of what Pir O Murshid had to say, I feel that there is more.  

Just for a moment, as you are reading this, ask yourself if you trust yourself.  It seems quite simple.  Do you trust yourself?   Everyone would want to answer yes.  But, going by the quote above do you have a tendency to believe or do you expect to be deceived or tricked or made a fool?  This is a very subtle point which might bear examination.  Humans always have a choice, it is built-in, the choice comes from free will.  So when a prophet or a great being comes and tells of what is possible, humans have the right to accept or reject the message.  Since the message will always be something new or seem that way in any case, the automatic reaction of most people would be distrust.  On the other hand, there will also be those who will see the message as something which will save them and by save I mean to relieve them of their earthly burden and alleviate them of the responsibilities which are naturally theirs.  In between are those who see the messenger for what he/she is, and that is a conduit of Divine blessing and forgiveness who none the less wants his/her followers to first and foremost know themselves.  
Taking all of that as a given, then it would seem that to trust someone is an ongoing discovery of self.  The deeper a person goes into the self, in a somewhat relentless manner, the more a person is forced to decide whether they are worth the trouble of trusting.  I suppose this would mean that to truly trust another a person must first of all value themselves.  

There is another factor as well.  It is even more subtle.  What you are trusting is that the person or people before you will act in a manner appropriate their true spiritual development.  You do not expect a tiger for instance to not eat a lamb, that would be expecting way too much of the tiger and would go against its nature.  Nor should we expect a naturally suspicious conniving type of person to suddenly become honest and forthright – again, that would be asking way too much.  We can however trust them to be themselves.  We can also do something a bit more interesting, we can trust that all people have a capacity to expand their consciousness.  They may not want to, they may in fact resent the whole idea that the trust is there.  When you think about it though, perhaps you can see that this is the true message of the prophets.  They stand apparently aloof and apart, imbued with an understanding of humanity that seems impossible to emulate.  Never the less they all have said, in one way or another, "You too can do this."  That is the trust of a great man as Pir O Murshid has said.  

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

dear phillip: i do believe in the power of the person to make others believe in every great souls that came into this world . would have made the world believe in him and his world and word? i wish u a merry christmas and a happy new year hope we can talk soon i still want you to do the meditation on me i would like to try it i read about it that u and your wife are into that i am really interested in the meditation if u would be able to do it i would rather u do it on me since u know my personal problem can u give me an answer cause i am interested in the meditation course love and blessings from your very good friend jojo

Anonymous said...

Hi Everyone,
After a couple of days of thought about this one, "trust" that is. I can undersatnd why it is hard sometimes for one person to trust another, it is part of the whole do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but our psyche sort of has it in reverse.
What i am trying to say is even if you trust yourself, others may not trust themselves so they are willing to believe the same of you. This is because most people would like to think others similar to themself, and so they have made a circle of mistrust around themself.
Ok not very eloquent, i hope you get my meaning
love Jules

Anonymous said...

For me, to trust myself and others means : To meet people where they stand and go from there while being aware of where I stand. To be confident that no matter through what twisted paths, I will always come back to (or should I say move towards) myself and eventually find out that all along I never was anything else but myself, even in those moments where I felt lost (that maybe in those moments I was even closer to my inner self than ever).
To accept whatever experience comes my way, confident that there is something to be learned. To love myself, to be good to myself, to forgive myself so that I do not need to look for those things in someone else but can simply love and embrace them for who they are and not feel disappointed for who they aren't (because it seems to me that the feeling of deceived trust often comes from unfulfilled expectations).
So to trust would be to know and love yourself, and the others ... ?


Much love, Karin

Unknown said...

Hi Phil. I rather like the idea of the prophets.."They stand apparently aloof and apart, imbued with an understanding of humanity that seems impossible to emulate..." Why is it want to be that? if not I want to be that...I want to be me.