A man asked a question at one of my meetings a while back .. “Is it important to develop a sense of trust on the spiritual path?” My answer went something like this …
Trust is not needed on the spiritual path. On the contrary, we should throw out all concepts of trust. First of all, we should examine .. what are we putting our trust in? If we look carefully, we will see that trust implies “hope in the future”. In other words, we hope that things will turn out ok. We hope that if we have a certain attitude or a certain belief or a certain understanding, we will be taken care of by a benevolent universe. We hope that if we diligently follow a certain spiritual practice, we will achieve ever-lasting peace and happiness. We hope that if we trust in the goodness of life, no harm will ever come to us. We hope that trust will save us from an uncertain world and from a broken heart.
But trust in something is a false safety net. It may satisfy the mind, but it does not satisfy the being because it is a postponement of the fullness that is already here. Why are you waiting for a better tomorrow? Why are you waiting to find fulfillment when you’ve done this or that, when you think this or that, when you understand this or that?
And what if the future doesn’t unfold the way you hope it will? What happens to trust now? Is it broken? How will you ever trust again? Already you are a million miles from the fulfillment that is already here.
When you throw away all concepts of trust, you are forced to meet life from the unknown … without a safety net, without hope, without future. Now you are forced to fall, to fall into the open space of being-ness. You fall out of time, out of past and future, right into the present. In presence, there is no landing place. In presence, there is no thing to put your trust in .. not even a universal power that will guide you or hold you or uplift you. And without the object of trust, the question of trust comes to an end.
In presence, subject (you) and object (the thing, image, or concept you put your trust in) collapse into each other. Now you are one with what is. And when you are one with what is, how can you possibly fear what is? It’s like fearing your self, and that is ridiculous .. because your self - the being-ness that you are - never leaves you, it’s totally dependable, it’s always here.
And now trust is inherent in the nature of being-ness, in the nature of presence, in the nature of existence. It’s a trust that has no meaning to the mind, but complete meaningfulness to your natural state. And even if you fail, even if life leads you to a seeming dead-end, even if you are handed an unwanted circumstance, even if you do not get to your desired destination of perfect happiness, even if your heart is broken open over and over again, you will still trust the presence that holds it all.
For some reason, this man was offended by my response .. and walked out of my meeting. Well, I guess he didn’t trust the teacher!!