Trust is the Foundation of all. If we could not Trust Gravity we would be afraid to walk. Look at animals when they sense an earthquake. They get skittish and run about wildly. Their security is gone.
So, too, with humans. When they lose Trust in their government they look for ways to replace it and revolution frequently follows. The damage that is done when politicians can’t be Trusted is enormous. Not only do people lose faith with those who prove themselves unTrustworthy but they lose faith in the very institutions the other represents.
When all Trust is gone cynicism ensues.
When Trust is gone in a relationship there is no place for Love. Love is based on Trust. If that Trust is broken then the Love which was founded on it becomes marred itself. It too is fractured. When Love is fractured it very quickly turns to Hatred, or Despising.
Without Trust there is no Respect. Like many of the virtues both Trust and Respect begin with the Self. Fear is based on a lack of Trust in the circumstances one finds oneself in or is about to meet. But on what is that Fear based? Is it on lack of Trust in oneself to meet the demands of the moment, or in others involved in the situation?
Without Trust in oneself one cannot extend it to others. There can be no Trust in the situation if there is no Trust in the Self. Similarly with Respect. If one cannot Respect oneself one cannot extend Respect to others.
So how to build Trust and Respect? One has to have a standard. Selecting a place to begin – let us say ‘Truth telling’ or more easily understood as ‘not Lying’. Consider the simple Karmic effect of Lying. When one Dissembles or Disguises one’s role or involvement, then one is presenting a false image to the Universe. The result can only be the Universe presenting a false image back. Those who appear to be friends may turn out to be unreliable and not friends at all but enemies, seeking their own self-interest no matter the consequences to oneself. Truth is one aspect of the Divine. That which the Ancient Greeks called The One. They termed it the Good, the True and the Beautiful. Consider those three elements as descriptions of that One who is beyond definition. If we fail to maintain Truth we fail to maintain the Good and the Beautiful. This cannot enhance our lives.
Begin then, by Not Lying.
As we find ourselves becoming more reliable in Truth telling we gain an inner stability in ourselves and our life begins to take on a certain hue or tone. We find our Respect for ourself grows. Where before, we may have viewed ourselves cynically, now we begin to feel pride in ourselves.
As our familiarity with Truth becomes established, we find we are better able to identify when something does not ‘ring true’. We may not identify it immediately and accept the telling of another as factual, but there is something within us which causes it to sound hollow or broken. We ask ourselves, what is that? And pursuing that feeling we discover the untruth they had purveyed. We may feel gullible and be embarrassed at our foolish naivete. But truly we should feel proud that we had successfully identified a lie that was told to us.
As our reliance on Truth grows, so we find Trust also grows. Not only in ourselves but also in others. Not only do we find we Trust others but also that they come to Trust us. With this goes Respect.
