Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
16 September 2019
Trust (2)
“Certainty”
The tales of broken trust could fill any library. They stem from the belief that man is the doer, speaker and thinker, whilst religion and spirituality have been strengthening this belief for aeons of time.
What does man do about trust? He expects the other to trust him just as much as he trusts the other, but can you trust the other when you do not trust yourself? This is because every man doubts himself.
Every man is never certain of himself and, when man is not certain of himself, how on earth can man trust someone else? Trust is a tremendous phenomenon. It is a quantum change in man’s understanding of his mind and life.
How many times is trust in another broken during man’s lifetime? Innumerable times one might add, but to no avail. Trust keeps alternating with distrust. Man keeps apologising and he keeps forgiving as well: the proverbial ‘last chance’.
It may appear as if he has redeemed himself, turned over a new leaf, a new page in his life. It is merely deception; it merely means that he has not been caught red-handed, that is all. To deceive, no matter how illusory, happens to the noblest mind of them all.
An act thought of is as good as the act itself. No-one can deny he has not thought of a dishonest act. It is present in every mind, if an honourable thought is present. If a person claims he is honourable, he is dishonourable too at the same time. This just cannot be denied, no matter how strongly one may defend it.
Trust is related to actions, speech, thoughts, touch, smell and taste. Trust refers to all aspects of man’s perception of the world and that is why it is important. The thought ‘what is he or she doing?’, ‘what will he or she do?’ is enough to keep man gambling with trust.
As long as man thinks he and the other are the doer, he cannot trust the other or himself. He may very well deceive the other, but no-one can honestly say he is trustworthy. He would be lying if he said so.
So, the first point to be understood is that man cannot be trustworthy. Life will happen to him just the way it does to anybody, all illusory though and nothing real. The drama of trust is high drama. Trust is very much emphasised in all quarters as the best virtue to possess. It is drilled into man from childhood to be ‘trustworthy’. He is taught over and over again to be trustworthy.
The reason is the moment in life which contains the doing, speaking and thinking. The moment in life is neither done by man nor woman. The moment and what the moment contains is a manifestation of the process in evolution and the process of evolution is not controlled by man. The wise understand that life will go the way it is meant to go.
The enlightened trust every man and woman as he or she is in any moment and accept them as they are, no matter what they do, speak or think in any moment of life.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
Society has always put a high value on trustworthiness and for a valid reason. A man or woman who has a reputation for being trustworthy, albeit illusory, is respected by friends and colleagues: ‘he is as good as his word’, they say; ‘a pair of safe hands’, they say – and not without merit. Mind, however, makes an impossible attribution for trust and that is certainty. In wisdom, as revealed in this article and elsewhere, man is not the doer. The attribution of trust is the certainty of each moment the content of which is as it is. With maturity of understanding, the shackles of expectation, criticism and disappointment will dissolve, if it is meant to happen.
Julian Capper,UK
German Translator’s Note:
Social fears are based on the need for security. The question is: "What do the others think about me and how can I control the situation, make a good impression, gain goodwill in society and be treated well? As human as this need for inclusion in society, recognition and acceptance by others may be, on closer inspection it becomes clear that these are conditions about how life has to happen. Dr. Shankar's article "Trust (2)" shows how one can keep calm even in seemingly difficult social situations: By understanding that every human being thinks, says and does what is determined by life. This understanding does not mean that you always have to like what others think, say or behave about you, but it helps to let go of the control compulsion that turns any undesirable situation into a problem to be solved.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.