Osho and trust

Trust never deceives

It is beautiful to trust and to live full of trust. Trust or mistrust is also a theme in 'spiritual circles' and we talk about trusting ourselves, our partner, the society and the world around us. We often experience the mixed feelings that come with trusting or not trusting. Without trust we feel fear, but looking at it the other way around we see that it is exactly fear or reservations that stand in the way of trust.

Osho breaks through the duality that arises this way with great clarity. He makes it clear that trust is different from trusting in something. And this trust will never disappoint us.

Letting go of the ego

You are saying: When you speak of the need for trust in order to let go of the ego ... You are saying that I say to you: Trust so that you can drop the ego! I am not saying that. I am saying that if you trust, the ego is dropped. It is not like cause and effect - that your trust will be the cause, and the ego will be dropped as an effect. I am saying that the moment you trust, the ego is not there. In trust the ego is not found.

But you are so much concerned with the ego that you say `Okay. If you say in trust it is not found, I will trust in order - so that the ego is not found. That 'in order' you are bringing in!

Please be very careful, because what is being said to you is immensely significant. Don't change it. Don't interpret it. Let it be as it is said to you. I am not saying `Trust in order - so that the ego can be dropped'; otherwise your trust will be a means and the dropping of the ego will be an end. Naturally, the end will be in the future, and the means have to be practiced. You will have to practice for years or for lives, and when you really have come to gain trust, then you will be able to drop the ego. No!

Trust is egoless

I am saying `This very moment, if trust is there, ego is not there!' They don't exist together. It is like the room is dark and I tell you `Take this lamp'. And you say 'If I take this lamp into the room, how long will it take for the darkness to disappear? If I go in the room and practice light there, how long will it take for the darkness to disappear?' You need not practice anything. Simply take the light there and you will not find darkness there. They don't exist together.

Purest love

What is trust? It is the highest kind of love. It is the purest love. It is uncontaminated love-uncontaminated by any desire. If you trust me with a desire, it is not trust. Then you are using me. If you think by trusting in me you will attain to nirvana, moksha, the kingdom of God - then you don't trust me. You are using me: you have made a means of me. That is not very respectful. If you trust me, this is your kingdom of God - this trust. There is nothing else; there is nowhere to go. This is your nirvana. In this very trust, darkness has disappeared, and the light is burning bright.

B. says: When you speak of the need for trust in order to let go of ego...

Now he is creating a great problem.

I feel that's where I'm stuck.

You are stuck because of your misunderstanding, lack of clarity. It is not the ego that is obstructing you; it is the lack of clarity. It is because you have not been present to me, it is because you have not been listening to me without desire. It is not the ego that you are stuck with it is your unintelligence. Now that will hurt you, because it is okay to be stuck with ego, but to be stuck with unintelligence? That will hurt very much. 'Am I unintelligent?' You can accept the idea that you are an egoist, but to accept the idea that you are unintelligent is very difficult. Your ego will say 'you - and unintelligent Bodhiprem? You are the most intelligent person in the world!' That's what Bodhiprem must be saying right now.

But be patient try to understand. We are stuck because of our unintelligence. Call it sleep, call it ignorance, call it whatsoever you want to call it, but basically it is unintelligence. An intelligent person... And I don't mean that there are intelligent persons and there are unintelligent persons. Every unintelligent person carries the potential of being an intelligent person. Unintelligence is just the seed that has not broken its shell yet. Once the shell is broken and the seed starts sprouting, it becomes intelligence. So unintelligence is not against intelligence; it is the very womb intelligence arises out of.

Fear stand in the way

But let me tell you that a spade is a spade. Even if it hurts, one has to understand it. It is unintelligence that hinders us. Intelligence becomes freedom. You have not understood me. Out of your unintelligence you are creating desires.

For me distrust is a tangible thing.

It is not distrust, because you have not even known trust, how can you distrust? Let it be very clear to you. Distrust is possible only when you have known trust. You have not known trust, so distrust is impossible. So what is it then? It is a not trusting - not mistrust and that is a different thing. It is not-trust. What is the difference?

Not-trust simply means you have never tried trust so you are afraid, frightened. Everybody is frightened when there is something new one is going to do, when one enters into an uncharted sea, or goes into a jungle where there are no more any maps available, no milestones, and there is every possibility that you will never come across any other human being that you can ask where to go and how to find the way.

I have heard... It happened in a jungle. A man, an explorer, was lost for three days - hungry, almost going crazy, running from this place to that and reaching nowhere. On the fourth day, early in the morning, he saw another man sitting under a tree. He was overjoyed; he forgot all those three days of suffering when in the night he could not sleep because of the wild animals, and in the day searching and searching and there was no way to find out how to get out of this jungle. It had appeared endless.

Naturally, if you were that explorer you also would have been overjoyed, you would have become full of joy at seeing another human being. Now...

He rushed, hugged the man, and said 'I am so happy' And the man who was sitting under the tree said `For what?'

And this explorer said 'Just seeing you, because for three days I have been lost.'
And the man said `So what? I have been lost for seven days!'

Now even if you can find a human being - who is himself lost - what is the point of finding him? Now you will both be lost together, that's all. Maybe even more lost, because now there will be two persons continuously conflicting. Up to now you were alone, at least free to move on your own. Now you have a marriage partner, now there are going to be more problems, because he would like to go north and you would like to go south. And both will create fear in the other. 'Maybe the other is right and I am going wrong?' And both may create guilt in each other.

It is a natural fear of the unknown that creates not-trust; it is not distrust. Distrust means that you trusted and you were cheated; you trusted, and because of your trust you were deceived. Then comes distrust.

Unlimited trust

But trust has never cheated anybody, it cannot. And I am not saying that through trust people cannot cheat you. Remember, I am saying trust never cheats anybody. Sometimes it has happened that a disciple has become enlightened because he trusted the Master, and the Master himself was not enlightened. This strange thing has been happening down the ages many times.

It happened in a Tibetan mystic's life. He went to a Master. The Master was a fraud - and frauds exist in the world of spirituality more than anywhere else, because there it is very easy to cheat since they deal in invisible things. You cannot see. They say 'Here is God. Look into my hand.' If you don't see, they say you don't trust. If you see, they say ' Then, perfectly okay... can't you see?' and you say `Yes, sir.' And you are not seeing. When you deal in invisible goods it is very simple to cheat. In the marketplace there are frauds, but not so many. There cannot be so many there, because they deal in visible goods. There is some way, some criterion to judge whether the thing is right or wrong.

But in religion there is no way to judge. So out of one hundred, ninety-nine per cent are frauds. It is the best way to cheat people, nothing like it.

This mystic went to the Master, and the Master was a cheat. But this young man trusted - trusted utterly. He thought his Master was enlightened, and whatsoever the Master said, he followed one hundred per cent. It was rumored around the place that the Master was such a great man that even if you repeated his name and walked on the water, you could walk. Nobody had tried it before. And even if somebody had tried, then he must have sunk. Then there is always the rationalization that your trust is not entire. So you cannot catch hold of the Master - 'Your trust is not entire, that's why you sank.'

This young man walked on the water - and really he walked. And that became his usual thing. When you can walk on the water, who bothers to go to the bridge or things like that? People started coming and seeing him, and the other disciples - particularly the senior ones - became very disturbed. They tried in secret, but they all sank. So, even the Master was puzzled. One day, in secret, the Master himself tried thinking that `When my disciples can walk on the water just by trusting in me, then what can't I? I can do anything! I am the greatest Master in the world; my disciples are walking on water. Jesus used to walk on water and my disciples are walking on water, so I must be greater than Jesus!'

So he went, in secret of course, because he was afraid. He had never tried - 'Who knows?' And he knew perfectly well that he was a fraud. The disciple had deep trust in him, but he had no trust in himself. How could he have any trust? He knew perfectly well that he went on deceiving people. He walked and sank.

Then he called the young man and said `How do you do it?'

He said `I simply say your name - 'Master, I want to go to the other side' and you take me. And recently I have started flying from one peak of the mountain to the other, because I said 'When it is possible on water, why not in air?' So one day I tried and said 'Master, take me from this side to the other side' and you took me. Now I can do anything. Just your name...

The Master had to fall at his feet. And he said `You initiate me;you know the secret. I am an ordinary man, and last night I tried walking, and I sank.'

It has happened many times, because it is not really a question of whether the man you trust is cheating you or not, the question is that trust never cheats. You cannot be cheated because of your trust. If the trust is infinite you are impossible to cheat. Nobody can cheat you. Your trust will protect you. Your trust will become your very experience. Your trust will become your boat. Your trust will take you to the other shore. But remember, what you have is not distrust. You can't have distrust; you have never trusted. Distrust can come only as an experience that trust failed. But trust never fails, so distrust is just a word; not-trust is true.

You have never tried, so only just a little courage is needed to try. Give it a try. Be a little courageous. Slowly, slowly go beyond the limitations that you have created around yourself - step by step. And the more you go beyond the barriers that you have created around yourself, the bigger you become, more expanse comes to your consciousness. Then you will see that you can go as far as you want, because every move beyond the limitation brings more joy, more freedom, more being.

See what there is

It is not distrust; it is only fear that is tangible.

It feels painful, but I can't let go of it.

There is no need to let go of it. Meditate on it see exactly what it is. We go on giving names to things that we have not even watched correctly. And once you give a wrong name you will be in a trap. The wrong name will never allow you to see the thing as it is. Don't be in a hurry to name a thing and categorize a thing and pigeonhole a thing. There is no need. Just watch what it is. If you watch you will find it is not-trust, not distrust. If you watch you will find it is simply a lack of courage - fear, not distrust and `tangible', no.

Then things will be different. When you know it is fear, when the disease is known rightly, a right medicine is possible. When you go on calling your TB `cancer', then you go on treating cancer and the TB is never treated. Diagnosis is far more important than medication. And this is the problem: people don't worry about diagnosis and they are simply ready to jump upon any medicine. They are ready to take any medicine without bothering at all what their disease exactly is. And that is ninety per cent of the problem; medicine is only ten per cent. Diagnosis is needed, and that's why a Master can be helpful - to diagnose things.

Absence of trust

I would like to remind you that it is not-trust not distrust, that it is fear and, in a way, natural. It exists in everybody. So don't start feeling yourself a coward; it is natural. The fear of the unknown exists in everybody. And one has to go slowly, slowly beyond the known - just a few steps so that if it becomes too much you can come back. But once you have started going...