CAN WE TRUST PEOPLE?

A Question and a Answer On Everyday Life

The Theosophical Movement

Himalayas. Nicholas Roerich Paiting, 1933

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Reproduced from the April 2005
edition of  the monthly
magazine “The Theosophical
Movement”, Mumbai, India.

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The Question:

The Enlightened One says: 'Trust is the best of relationships.' However, we find that it is not easy or practical to trust any and everyone. Often, people betray our trust. How do we understand and live up to the Buddha's precept?

The Answer:

As beginners, we may keep in mind the cardinal virtue of 'Prudence.' Prof. C.S. Lewis writes: 'Prudence means practical common sense, taking the trouble to think out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it....  Christ told us to be not only 'as harmless as doves,' but also 'as wise as serpents'.'   In other words, we may use our discrimination. For instance, when someone gives us back the money he owed, we must count before putting it into our pocket. So also, if a person is known to be a cheat, we may think twice before dealing with him or trusting him. Then again, it is possible that some people cannot be trusted with money, but can be trusted to keep a secret, to keep their word, or to finish their work on time, and so on. In short, there may be areas in which they are perfectly trustworthy.

We must have a healthy relationship with ourselves and with others. If we lack faith in others, we find ourselves in a terrible state of mind — a mind full of suspicion. As a matter of fact the world runs on trust. We trust that the Sun will rise at a certain time and it does. It is not only nature which is trustworthy, but even man-made things and affairs run on trust. We travel by trains, buses and planes without any feeling of apprehension or doubt, as we know that the driver/pilot has taken on a job and will do his best. We trust our servants, not only to do the work they have been assigned, but also not to steal from our homes. There is the exceptional servant who will even murder for money. But have we stopped employing servants? Why not? It is because we feel that, by and large, we can put our trust in them. The murderer becomes news, the trustworthy don't.

We trust our teachers, our parents and our children. If our trust happens to be misplaced, if we get cheated, can we say it is only chance? If there is not even a misshapen day in our lives then everything comes to us under law. We must have sown some causes that have led to the present situation. In such a case let us not blame the person but only the act. We may decide not to have any future dealings with him, but we must not put him out of our heart.

'Trust is the best of relationships.' This verse occurs in the chapter on 'Happiness' in the Dhammapada. It seems to suggest that among other things, mutual trust in human relationship is productive of happiness. Trust begets trust. If we do not trust the law and other human beings, we cannot live in the world. Trust alone can bind humanity into one grand whole. The dictionary defines trust as (1) confidence in the honesty, integrity and reliability of a person and (2) faith.

The book “Light on the Path”  describes faith as 'a great engine, an enormous power, which in fact can accomplish all things. For it is the covenant or engagement between man's divine part and his lesser self' (p. 50). In other words, faith or trust in the other person, is trust/faith in his spiritual nature. We may say that it is trusting his spiritual nature to ultimately triumph, because at the base of every nature, there is faith, love and hope.

Robert Crosbie remarked about W. Q. Judge: 'I trusted him then, as I trust him now and all those whom he trusted; to me it seems that 'trust' is the bond that binds, that makes the strength of the Movement, for it is of the heart' (Vernal Blooms, p. 1). Trust or faith is one of the innate ideas possessed by all human beings, that which was burnt into the minds of infant humanity and which manifested also as devotion. Infants and children have immense trust in their parents. A child holding the hand of the adult goes wherever it is taken. When man received 'the spark of consciousness, the first feeling it awoke to life and activity was a sense of solidarity, of oneness with his spiritual creators—as the child's first feeling is for its mother and nurse...DEVOTION arose out of that feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature; for it is the only one which is natural in our heart, which is innate in us, and which we find alike in human babe and the young of the animal.' (“TheSecret Doctrine”, H.P.B., vol  II,  p. 210)

We would do well to differentiate between spiritual principles on the one hand and our ability to apply them on the other hand. Just because we cannot apply them up to the hilt, does not mean that they are not practicable. We must admit—deep down in our heart—our inability to live up to a spiritual precept, but never seek to dilute, belittle or explain it away. Immanuel Kant described moral and ethical injunctions as 'Categorical Imperatives,' i.e., there are no 'ifs' and 'buts' about them. It is no use saying, 'Don't expect me to be a saint,' because, if we want to be spiritual, we must act as spirituality requires us to act. Often, it is also a question of how willing we are to suffer the consequences that practice of such a spiritual precept may bring. Spiritual life is never easy. Is it easy to live up to Jesus' injunction and offer our right cheek to the one who smites us on our left cheek?

However, we must keep in mind that a spiritual man trusts irrespective of the consequences, unafraid of betrayal. Just as we have to learn to love unconditionally, so too, we have to learn to trust unconditionally.

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“The Theosophical Movement” is published by associates of the United Lodge of Theosophists.  It is one of the two existing monthly international magazines in the theosophical movement nowadays.  Part of its collection can be seen at the website  http://www.teosofia.com/TTM.html .

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