It’s Not About Trusting The Process (Part 2)

Redirecting Misplaced Trust

What are the steps you can take to journey through life with Self-Trust?
We saw in the first part of this article that the first step involves Letting Go:

• Of your thoughts, that is, not believing every thought that appears  and following its trail
• Your conditioned Self and its beliefs
• The urge to follow the wavering mind

The second step is to steer the direction of your Trust from without to within –  towards the Self. Many people conclude they don’t have Trust or faith. This is because they have misplaced it. They have placed their Trust in external objects. people, and circumstances instead of within themselves. Everything in the external world is temporary. Change is the only constant there. So if you have placed your Trust in the external, your Trust is lying on shaky foundations. Every time a change occurs your Trust will shake. If you want you can choose to redirect your Trust.

When you closely observe yourself and question, ‘Who am I?’ or you stay with the sense of ‘I Am’, simply ‘I Am‘ and not label it you’ll realize that the only constant is You, the one who is aware, the constant presence, the one who is behind the knowing “I AM.” When you steer your trust towards this presence, now finally you have returned it to where it belongs. The ultimate reality.

And when Trust returns to this constant presence, this ultimate reality, it’s like the return of the prodigal son back home. This is the space from where creation happens.

Steering your Trust Inwards-Towards the Self

Here is how you can steer back your Trust inwards:

1. First find a quiet space and be still. Then focus on your breathing and take a few deep breaths. Now, place your hand on your heart and repeat very softly to yourself, “I trust You.” The more feelingly you repeat, the faster the Source energy makes its presence felt.
Then be completely quiet. If you find your mind wandering and you’re getting disturbed by it, place your focus on “I AM” / AUM / Aham Brahmasmi / So Ham.
You will gradually go into complete stillness. This is practicing the first principle.

This first principle is: ‘Be still and know that I am God.” No matter what happens turn within and be still…

Neville Goddard

A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. ……Be focused on the ‘I Am’ till you become a witness to it, then when you stand apart, you have reached the highest…..My original state is to be in that state where there is no ‘I Am’

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

When Nisargadatta Maharaj says. “My original state is to be in that state where there is no ‘I Am’ ” he is talking about the awareness behind the knowing, “I Am.” “I Am” is still a thought. Who is the one behind the thought I Am? Who is aware of “I AM?” Who is the one who knows “I Am?” That Awareness is Who You truly are. And here it’s home. You are home. Everything is still and complete. You will know when you’ve reached your true presence.

2. If you had any question to which you wanted answers before starting the meditation, you can softly let it drop in this space and simply be. Become aware of any inner guidance that comes through to you from your Higher Self.

The guidance comes from a place of immense stillness. There will be a quality of firmness and calm assuredness about these guidances from within. Pay attention.

3. The next step you can take is to become aware if you are being directed to take any action based on the guidance. The guidance that’ll come for you to take action will not ask you to ‘try.’ If you need to take a seemingly big step, there will be noticeable, persistent nudges from within but without any forcefulness or ‘efforting’. You will have an inner knowing of what action needs to express itself through you.
That is inspired action.

Actions can also mean inner steps, such as meditation, visualizations, uplifting self-talk. Drop all your limiting human notions and ideas and be open to any guidance that comes. In the first part of this article, you saw that you need to drop your mind and follow the path of the heart – the center of intuition.

This is the time to keep your heart completely open and let it all flow in. There is no space for the mind and its workings here.

The mind’s work will start after you come out of this state, back into daily life, and that too only if you receive any guidance to take steps in the outer world that requires planning. Else separate yourself from it.

If the actions you are guided to take sometimes seem weird, overwhelming, or too big, then now is the time to put your mind to work to plan and break down each action into small steps, and complete them.

When you are fearful of taking a ‘big’ step because it does not seem ‘correct’ from the external world’s point of view, but you move towards it anyway, you send a signal across to your Higher Self that you trust Him/Her/It completely. If, at this juncture, you turn around and start asking for opinions and taking votes from those around you in the outside world on what you should do, then you have moved the needle of your Trust to the outer world again. This is taking a step back.
It is absolutely fine to listen to what everyone says but keep following your heart.

Even if doubts and fears plague you, even when chaos surrounds you, even when you are unsure and feel wobbly about the steps you take and are greatly tempted to look on the outside for ‘advice,’ for ‘confirmation of the right way’…that is when all the more shut down your senses, and with complete determination keep moving.

Decide even to trust your mistakes, to trust the delays for delays are simply detours. Look within and keep going.

This is how you completely win over all parts of you, including your Higher Self. Your Higher Self’s confidence in you grows, and the inner voice becomes louder and clearer because now it knows you are committed to your Self and Self-Trust. But most importantly, this is how you learn to trust yourSelf. By wobbling but still looking within and moving ahead.

The Wobble

Initially, after all these years of placing your Trust in the external world, you may feel a little shaky when you begin getting back into pure, undiluted, childlike Self-Trust. You may term this as ‘falling back’ or ‘old patterns coming back.’

But consider this, let’s say you lost a child. In the interim years, the child loses the ability to walk straight or sit up straight because he /she was forced to lug heavy objects all the time. One day suddenly, you’re reunited with your long-lost child. Would you judge your child? Would you ask your child to stop walking or sitting because it is ‘not the right posture’? Instead, wouldn’t you make sure your child never carries any load again and slowly train your child to practice the correct posture so that he/she can walk and sit up straight?

You are that child. Suddenly, with all the baggage lifted off you, as you learn to straighten up and walk normally with pure Self-Trust in a different direction, you may wobble. That’s perfectly fine.

Be patient, loving, and compassionate with yourself. Patience, self-compassion, and self-love are the steadfast companions of Self-Trust. Doubtful thoughts may creep in. Let them come and go. They’re simply visitors. They cannot become homeowners in your head until you allow them to. Notice them and turn your focus elsewhere. Uninvited visitors leave when they do not receive attention.

If any strong, disempowering feelings accompany the doubtful thoughts, pay attention to the feelings. Reassure the feelings that it is safe for them to come up. Let them come up fully and pass through your body. Don’t follow the trail of thoughts accompanying such feelings. Be with the feelings, let your body react the way it wants to, be it crying, curling up on the bed, etc.

(Note: If the intensity of the feelings is too much, then it would be wise to seek support in the form of therapy or by confiding in someone you completely trust, who will not judge you and make you feel safe. )

All the while, be aware that the feelings are not you. You are simply the space in which the feelings rise and pass through. The feelings are like the waves that crash around on the surface of the ocean.

The wave said to the sea: Could I be like you?

The sea replied: It’s easy just settle down.

Shri Ramana Maharshi

That’s all your mind is as well. A restless pounding wave on the calm sea of consciousness or awareness.

Keep your focus on the sea.

Soon you’ll touch the still bed, the field of pure Self-Trust underneath again. With patience, steadfastness, self-love, and compassion, you’ll be embedded in Self-Trust. And that’s when magic and miracles become your new normal.
Because miracles are only reflections of Self-Trust.

In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without effort on your part.

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

In Self-Trust, the Way Finds You

When you walk in Self-Trust, towards what you want, the way finds you.

Because in the field of Self-Trust, all possibilities exist. That includes all the divisions of time – past, present, and the future simultaneously. Time is not linear in this field, the way we perceive it in human form. And since every possibility exists simultaneously, there is no separation in this field. There is no distance. Everything a human mind or for that matter any Being’s mind can conceive of, is present in this field. Therefore, the way, the path you seek to reach your goal too exists within this field of Trust. And since Trust is already in you, the way too is in You.  

I am the way and the truth and the life.

John 14:6, The Bible

When Jesus said, ” I am the way….” He did not mean Himself exclusively. He knew no separation. When He pointed towards himSelf, he meant you. Every being. For He is in every being. He was pointing towards himSelf as an example for everyone.
YOU are the way, the ultimate truth, and the life force itself, flowing through the human body. There is no reality other than You, the One who inhabits the body. You are the One and Only, who’s undergoing a human experience, and maybe forgetting your divine nature. The swiftest way to manifest what you seek to experience in this world and the swiftest way to return to the Source in a spiritual journey is with Self-Trust.

The grain of a mustard seed is not the measure of a small amount of faith. On the contrary, it is the absolute in faith. A mustard is conscious of being a mustard seed and a mustard seed alone. It is not aware of any other seed in the world. It is sealed in the conviction that it is a mustard seed in the same manner that the spermatozoa sealed in the womb is conscious of being a man and only man.

Neville Goddard

The Trust of the mustard seed in itSelf is Absolute and pure. Uncontaminated.

It rests in absolute Self-Trust that it is a mustard seed alone and never questions whether it will become a mustard plant. It knows. Inherent in its knowing is the way for the mustard seed to become a mustard plant.

And that’s why Lao Tzu said:

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Lao Tzu

When the flower blooms, the bees and butterflies arrive. The flower doesn’t go. They come. The flower here is your Trust in Self  fully blooming.

All will come as you go on practicing. Take the first step first. All blessings come from within. Turn within. “I AM” this you know. Be with it all the time you can spare until you revert to it spontaneously. There is no simpler and easier way

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

You prepare the field with absolute Trust in yourSelf, and everything else seemingly “arrives”. Seemingly because they actually don’t ‘arrive’. Because there is nothing to ‘arrive to’. Everything was always within you. So it all simply surfaces, becomes visible, or manifests. Earlier your focus, your trust was placed on the outside world. Therefore you experienced and felt the distance. You created the distance. When you steer the Trust towards the Self, then you realize there is no distance….there never was, because nothing ever was separate from you. It was You and in You all along. Everything.

A Game of Forgetfulness

In addition to what LaoTzu said above, he also said:

When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.

Lao Tzu

A true teacher will wean you off like a mother weans a toddler off and lets it wobble, and then walk on its own in self-confidence/trust.

A true teacher knows as long as you remain dependent on him in the external world, a part of him. i.e., you, will remain attached to the transitoriness of this world. Because for the Teacher, there is no separation. You are not separate from him.

In reality, there are no others – and helping yourself, you help everybody else.

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Questioner – How should we treat others?
Ramana Maharshi – There are no others.

The Teachings of Shri Ramana Maharshi by David Godman

In weaning you away from himself, a true teacher is freeing a part of himself into Source again.
If a teacher lingers on, he will only become a crutch that will keep you wrapped up in the illusion that you are not whole or enough, that you’re somehow ‘broken’ or ‘crippled’. You are not. You never were. You’ve only forgotten who You are because You chose to forget to be able to play this game. 
You are the Source or God as much as the Teacher is, who’s also playing a Game of Forgetfulness. To return to Who You truly are, you should be able to walk by yourself with Self Trust, even if you wobble initially.

So, when you are truly ready, the teacher disappears.

And why are you playing this Game of Forgetfulness, you may ask?

I separated MySelf from MySelf to Love MySelf.

Shri Sathya Sai Baba

All along, there was no teacher. There was no student. You are the journey and the destination. You are all there is, playing a Game of Forgetfulness so that you can experience Love. Reach out to the Self-Trust. True Love will follow. Because Love is bound to Trust.

Believe me there is no goal, nor a way to reach it. You are the way and the goal. There is nothing else to reach except yourself.

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

So play the game. Play all the roles you are here to play, but all the while, place your awareness, your Trust steadfastly in who You truly are. The Source of it all. The Self.

Steady faith is stronger than destiny. Destiny is the result of causes, mostly accidental, and is therefore loosely woven. Confidence and good hope will overcome it easily ….Our minds are just waves on the ocean of consciousness. As waves, they come and go. As ocean, they are infinite and eternal. Know yourself as the ocean of Being, the womb of all existence.

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

And therefore, it is Not About trusting the process. Trusting IS the process. The journey is of and with Trust from you to You.

When the road ends, and the Goal is attained, the pilgrim finds that he has travelled only from himself to himself, that the God he sought was all the while in him, around him, with him, and beside him! He himself was always Divine!

Shri Sathya Sai Baba

(The featured artwork above is by Sergey Svistunov. You can view his artwork @ https://www.deviantart.com/fear-sas/gallery)