TrustTrust in its broadest sense (also known as Basic Trust) underpins our entire relationship with the universe, including the other people it contains. Like so many of our core traits, basic trust is formed at a very early age. Young children who have secure attachments with their parents have a general sense that the world is predictable and reliable. This basic trust is formed by loving, sensitive, care givers — not from our immutable genetic makeup or from having a continuously positive early environment.If our early holding environment is damaged (and it's always damaged to some extent due to our inevitable separation from our parents as our egoic selves develop), we lose some of that basic trust. We may begin to feel that the universe is an uncertain place, where random events threaten our security and people respond to us unpredictably or even negatively. All of us experience some loss of basic trust, no matter how well-intentioned our parents might have been. That's just the way life works, it seems. Fortunately, some of that lost trust can be regained later in life. A large part of the sense of undependability comes from the fact that the unconscious programs and filters we absorbed in childhood cause us to react to the world inappropriately. These misaligned actions generate unexpected outcomes, as the real world reacts to us differently than we expected. This mismatch between our filtered perception of the world, our programmed behaviour, and the real world's response to it reinforces our feeling that the universe is fundamentally untrustworthy. One of the key benefits of awakening as a conscious being is that we come into better alignment with ourselves and the world. As that happens, we can respond to life's events more appropriately. As our responses gradually begin to reflect the true nature of our world, the world's responses to us in turn become more predictable. As the predictability grows, we can feel some of our lost trust returning — the universe begins to seem less capricious and threatening. Inner inquiry into the nature and origins of our implanted perceptual filters and our programmed behaviour is essential to this process. Going back to our earliest childhood memories to find out how those experiences formed our sense of self with all its intricacies and quirks will reveal the filters and programs, and that revelation will give us control over their influence. As that inner journey progresses, the true nature of the universe we are living in gradually clarifies. As we begin to see it as it truly is, it stops seeming so threateningly random, and basic trust is gradually restored. Our ability to trust is the underpinning of our greatest glory as conscious beings — our ability to love. |