Osho on Trust

 

 

Trust Itself Is Such a Blessing

 

When everything is going smoothly and beautifully, you can trust. But you are trusting somebody else -- God, God's only begotten son, any messenger of God, a prophet, a tirthankara or a Gautam Buddha, it does not matter. You are trusting somebody else and things can go wrong any moment. The basic trust has not to be in existence, it has to be within you.

 

You should learn to become more conscious and alert to trust yourself. Do you trust yourself? If you trust yourself, that cannot be for any particular reason. That will be unconditional trust. And out of that unconditional trust will grow many branches: you will become a huge tree with great foliage. You will trust love, you will trust the truth, you will trust godliness, you will trust beauty; you will simply trust because your heart is full of trust and there is not even a shadow of distrust. Even if you want to distrust, you cannot.

 

Only when you cannot distrust, even if you want, have you come to the very center of your being, from where arises the trust in existence, in life, in people, in trees.

 

And that is not because of any conditions; trust itself is such a blessing, in itself such an ecstasy! Once you have tasted it within yourself you would like to taste it in the whole cosmos. If it is so great just within you, how much greater it will be when you trust everything. It does not depend on any condition to be fulfilled. [....]

 

Love is another dimension of trust. Have you ever thought about it? People go on saying, "I love you more and more." But love does not know any quantities; it is a quality, you cannot measure it less or more -- one kilo or two kilos or three kilos. It is good that people don't use that: "I love you two kilos, and it is growing. Don't be worried, soon you will see I will be loving you three kilos."

 

It is not a quantity, it is not part of the world of quantities, it is not matter that it can be measured into more or less. Trust is the highest fragrance of love. You cannot say, "I have been able to trust more and more." You are saying it because existence -- perhaps just by coincidence -- has been of great support to you, or perhaps you are imaginative enough that whatever existence brings to you, you start imagining, "This is what I always wanted.

 

In either case it is not trust, so first I would like you to see that trust is not a quantity, but a quality. Either you have it in total or you don't have it in total; either it is nil or it is one hundred percent. You cannot divide it in slices; it is indivisibly one, organically one.

 

-Osho, “Satyam Shivam Sundaram, #21, Q2”

 

 

 

 

When I Say Trust, It Is Subjective

 

Osho,

Recently I have heard you talking a great deal about trust toward the master and existence as being a higher quality than love which can betray more easily. When I try to chew upon the word trust I feel lost. In the past, trusting was more or less connected to certain incidents only. It happened to me in some discourses without my doing anything, or because of that non-doing, that I saw myself disappearing. There was no word for it; I can’t name it ’love’ or ‘trust’. It happened more like a melting. With you I experience for the first time in my life moments of fearless let-go without desperately trying to find something to hold on to. Please help me to go this way more and more.

 

Love is beautiful, but changing. It is beautiful but cannot be relied upon; today it is there, tomorrow it is gone. It is more juicy than trust, more natural than trust, but trust is a higher quality.

 

In the dictionaries trust is almost misrepresented: there it means trusting someone who is trustworthy. It is more objective -- because the man is trustworthy, you trust him. It is not your quality; it is the quality of the other person upon which your trust depends. And because there are rarely trustworthy people around, millions of people have forgotten what trust is. There is no chance for it. A trustworthy person is needed, and there are no trustworthy persons anywhere.

 

Nobody trusts anybody; hence trust has become a dry word, unexperienced -- just a word with no juice, with no taste.

 

When I use the word `trust' it is totally different. I don't mean you trust somebody who is trustworthy; that is not trust. The man is trustworthy, so it is not a credit to you. When I say, "Trust," I say trust in spite of the man -- whether he is trustworthy or not. In fact when he is not trustworthy, then trust; only then will you find for the first time something new arising in your consciousness. And then trust will become a very lighted phenomenon, far superior to love, because it needs nothing from the other. [....]

 

When you trust somebody in spite of the person, then you will feel a totally different kind of energy than is described in your dictionaries and than is ordinarily used in the world; that is objective, the trustworthiness of the other person.

 

When I use the word `trust', it is subjective. Whatever is done to you does not matter: you don't lose trust in the intrinsic value of the individual, his integrity. His action is irrelevant. There may be a thousand and one causes for his action, but you don't take his action into consideration. You think of the individual, not of his actions.

 

And then there is a trust which is a fully grown love, where there is no possibility of hate, where there is only compassion.

 

But beyond love and trust is also a space which is neither objective nor subjective, which is simply there. Once in a while sitting here you may fall into that space -- and that is something which cannot be named.

 

There are many things in existence which cannot be named, and those are the real things. That which can be named is of a lower quality, of a lower stratum, than that unnamed silent space. It contains love, it contains trust, and plus. And the plus is so vast... but it only can come, you cannot drag it.

 

So if it is coming once in a while, enjoy it. All that you can do for it to come again is to enjoy it, relish it. Your enjoying it, your relishing it, is an invitation for it to come again. Slowly, slowly a friendship with this silence grows. It becomes possible that you can just close your eyes and, without doing anything, the silence can descend on you. Not even desiring it... It will be happening more and more if you always remember not to desire it, but only to invite it -- and there is a great difference between desiring and inviting.

 

Desiring is aggressive. And this is so subtle a phenomenon that you cannot be aggressive to it, or you will destroy it.

 

Inviting is totally different. Inviting, you are saying: I am available, my doors are open, and whenever you please you will find me awake and alert and ready. Not that you have to say these words... this feeling of invitation is enough, and the space will go on growing, go on coming more and more. First it will be coming sitting here with me; then slowly it will start coming in other places. Soon it will not be related to any place at all.

 

-Osho, “The Path of the Mystic, #33, Q2“”

 

 

 

 

Trust Is the Fragrance of a Silent, Peaceful Being

 

Osho,

Please speak about trust. What is trust in you? What is trust in your communes? Does trust mean that I have to accept everything?

 

Somehow you have got a wrong idea about trust.

 

Trust is not in someone,

it is not a relationship.

Trust is a quality in you.

 

A man of trust... it does not mean in what he trusts, but he trusts; that is his innocence. Even if he is cheated because of his trust, that does not matter, because trust is more valuable than any small thing that he has been cheated of. You can take everything from him, but you cannot take his trust.

 

Trust is your inner growth, your consciousness at its peak.

 

Certainly your trust will come in contact with many people, but you will be trusting because trust in itself is such a joy, and distrust is such an agony, that you have chosen trust rather than distrust.

 

People are miserable all over the world because they have chosen distrust. From their very childhood they have been told, "Don't trust, because if you trust you will be cheated. The world is full of cunning people, so remain alert, don't trust. Trust only when you have found someone, checked all the possibilities of the person and found that yes, he is trustworthy. Then trust.

 

But to trust a trustworthy person has no meaning at all. It is not your quality it is his trustworthiness. But to trust a person who is not trustworthy... you know perfectly well that he is not trustworthy, still you trust, because trust in itself is such a great value that it cannot be lost because of this person's unworthiness.

 

A man who trusts simply trusts. And each time he is cheated because of his trust, his trust is not destroyed, it is strengthened.

 

Trust is one of the great qualities of your being.

 

So think of it as a quality of your being, and then you will not ask the question, "Does everything have to be accepted?" There is no question about it.

 

The man of trust simply lives out of his trust; whatever happens does not matter.

 

If he is being deceived continuously, then too, it does not matter. Nothing happens to his trust. His trust is something invincible, and that gives integrity.

 

So don't trust in me.

 

Don't trust in anybody in particular.

 

Simply trust. Let it be your fragrance.

 

Only one thing can I say to you: I have always trusted and I have never felt that it was wrong -- although I have been cheated. But strangely enough, I went on trusting the person who was cheating me. And finally the man broke down; finally he came with tears, and he said, "Forgive me, I have been cheating you. And you know it! And it has not been one time, it has been many times. But why do you trust in me?"

 

I said, "It is not a question of you, I simply enjoy trusting. That is your problem, that you deceive. If you enjoy deceiving, enjoy it. But I can see you don't enjoy it, you are feeling guilty."

 

The greater your trust, the greater guilt the person who deceives you will have. And there is a chance that this guilt will change that person -- he will have a change of heart.

 

Trust is tremendously powerful.

 

So there is no question of accepting anything or not. The question is of growing trust as a quality of your being.

 

When the rose opens, its fragrance starts flowing all around. It is not addressed to anyone in particular. If the king passes by he will receive it; if a beggar passes by he will receive it. If a thief passes by he will receive it. If a murderer passes by he will receive it. For the rose it makes no difference who is receiving it.

 

Trust is the fragrance of a silent, peaceful being.

 

Let me remind you:

Trust is the fragrance of nothingness.

 

-Osho, “From Death to Deathlessness, #34, Q4”

 

 

 

 

Trust Is Unconditional

 

Osho,

In one of your lectures something has hit me hard. It is the contradiction between trusting myself and trusting you. There is a part of me that says: if I trust my own self and follow my own self, then I have surrendered and said yes to you. But I am not sure whether that is just a rationalization I have created for myself.

 

The mind is very cunning, and that has to be constantly remembered. This is what I have been saying to you: that if you trust yourself, you will trust me. Or, from the other side, if you trust me you will naturally trust yourself. The contradiction does not exist. The contradiction arises because of the mind.

 

If you trust yourself you trust all, because you trust life. You trust even those who will deceive you, but that is irrelevant. That is their problem; it is not your problem. Whether they deceive you or they don’t deceive you, it has nothing to do with your trust. If you say, ‘My trust exists only with a condition that nobody tries to deceive me,’ then your trust cannot exist because every possibility will create a certain hesitation in you: ‘Who knows? – the person may deceive me.’

 

How can you see the future? The deception will happen in the future, if it happens, or if it does not happen, that too is in the future – and trust has to be herenow.

 

And sometimes a very good man can deceive you. A saint can become a sinner at any moment. And sometimes a very bad man can be very deeply trustworthy. After all, sinners become saints. But that is in the future, and if you make a condition for your trust, then you cannot trust.

 

Trust is unconditional. It simply says that, "I have that quality which trusts. Now, it is irrelevant what happens to my trust -- whether it is respected or not, whether it is deceived or not. That is not the point at all."

 

Trust has nothing to do with the object of trust, it has something to do with your inner quality: can you trust? If you can trust, of course the first trust will happen about yourself -- you trust yourself. The first thing has to happen at the deepest core of your being. If you don't trust yourself then everything is very far away. Then I am very far away from you. How can you trust me? You have not trusted even yourself who is so close. And how can you trust your trust about me if you don't trust yourself?

 

If you don't trust yourself, whatsoever you do, a deep mistrust will continue as an undercurrent. If you trust yourself, you trust the whole life -- not only me, because why only me? Trust is all-inclusive. Trust means: trust in life, the whole that surrounds you; the whole out of which you have come, and the whole into which one day you will dissolve.

 

Trust simply means that you have understood the neurosis of doubt, that you have understood the misery of doubt, that you have understood the hell that doubt creates. You have known doubt and by knowing it you have dropped it. When doubt disappears, there is trust. It is something of a transformation within you, your attitude, approach. Trust knows no contradiction.

 

-Osho, "Yoga: The Supreme Science, #8, Q1"

 

 

 

 

Just Trust, and Godliness Will Come Seeking and Searching for You

 

Trust is not of the mind. Mind cannot trust. Distrust is very intrinsic to mind; it is inbuilt. Mind exists on distrust, on doubt. When you are in too much doubt, you see too much mentation around inside, moving. Mind gets in too much activity. But when you trust, there is nothing for the mind to do. Have you watched it? When you say, "No!" you throw a rock into the silent pool of your consciousness; millions of ripples arise. When you say, "Yes" you are not throwing any rock. At the most, you may be floating a rose flower in the lake. Without any ripple, the flower floats. That's why people find it very difficult to say yes, and find it very easy to say no. 'No' is always just ready. Even before you have heard, the no is ready.

 

I was staying with Mulla Nasrudin once. I heard the wife saying to Nasrudin, "Nasrudin, just go and see what the boy is doing, and stop him."

 

She does not know what the boy is doing: "Just go and see what the boy is doing, and stop him." Whatsoever it is, is not the point; but stopping, saying no. Denying comes easy; it enhances the ego. The ego feeds on no; the mind feeds on doubt, suspicion, distrust. You cannot trust me through the mind. You will have to see the dichotomy of the mind -- the constant duel, the constant debate inside the mind. One part is always functioning as the opposition.

 

The mind never comes to a decision. There are always a few fragments of the mind as dissenters. They wait for their opportunity, and they will frustrate you.

 

Then what is trust? How can you trust? You have to understand the mind. By understanding the mind and the constant duality in it, by witnessing it, you become separate from the mind. And in that separation arises trust, and that trust knows no division between me and you. That trust knows no division between you and life. That trust is simply trust. It is unaddressed trust, not addressed to anybody -- because if you trust me, you will immediately distrust somebody. Whenever you trust somebody, immediately, on the other end, you will be mistrusting somebody else. If you believe in the Koran, you cannot believe in Buddha. If you trust in Jesus, you cannot trust in Buddha. What type of trust is this? It is of no worth.

 

Trust is unaddressed. It is neither addressed to Christ, nor to Buddha. It's simple trust. You simply trust because you enjoy trusting. You simply trust, and you enjoy trusting so much that even when you are deceived, you enjoy. You enjoy that you could trust even when there was every possibility of deception, that the deception could not destroy your trust, that your trust was greater, that the deceiver could not corrupt you. He may have taken your money, he may have taken your prestige, he may have robbed you completely, but you will enjoy. And you will feel tremendously happy and blissful that he could not corrupt your trust; you still trust him. And if he comes again to rob you you will be ready; you still trust him. So the person who was deceiving you may have robbed you materially, but he has enriched you spiritually.

 

But what happens ordinarily? One man deceives you and the whole humanity is condemned. One Christian deceives you; all Christians are condemned. One Mohammedan has not behaved well with you; the whole community of Mohammedans are sinners. One Hindu has not been good to you; all Hindus are worthless. You simply wait. Just a single man can create a distrust of the whole humanity.

 

A man of trust goes on trusting. Whatsoever happens to his trust, one thing never happens: he never allows anybody to destroy his trust. His trust goes on increasing. Trust is God. People have told you to trust in God; I tell you, trust is God. Forget all about God; just trust, and God will come seeking and searching for you wherever you are.

 

-Osho, “Yoga: The Supreme Science, #8, Q1”

 

 

 

 

Trust Is an Inner Quality

 

Once you know the quality of trust, you simply trust. It is not a question of whether you trust in God or you trust in Jesus or in Buddha -- remember it. If you trust, you simply trust. If a Christian says 'I trust only in Jesus not in Buddha', he has not known what trust is, because trust knows no distinctions. If you have trusted in Christ you will trust in Buddha too, because you will not see any difference. Maybe the languages are different, maybe their ways of expression are different, but trust will be able to go directly to the heart of the matter, to the very core, and will see that Christ and Buddha exist on the same plane. It is the same consciousness, the same awareness, the same enlightenment. If you trust Buddha, you will trust Krishna and Mohammed. If you trust me, you will trust Christ, you will trust Zarathustra.

 

Trust knows no address. It is not addressed. Trust is an inner quality. If it is there, it is there. It is like you bring a light, you bring a lamp into the room. Now the light will not fall only on the table, it will fall on the chair too. And it will not fall only on the chair, it will fall on the walls too, and on the paintings hanging on the walls. It will not fall only on the walls, it will fall on the floor and on the roof too. When you bring light into the room, light simply falls on everything that is there. So is trust. It Is a light. If trust is kindled in your heart, then it makes no difference. You trust God, you trust Christ, you trust your wife, you trust your husband, you trust your son, you trust your friend. you trust your enemy. You trust nature, you trust death, you trust insecurity. In short, you simply trust.

 

-Osho, “I Say Unto You, Vol 2, #9”

 

 

 

If you can trust, something or other will ALWAYS happen and will help your growth. You will be provided for. Whatsoever is needed at a particular time will be given to you, NEVER BEFORE IT. You get it only when you need it, and there is not even a single moment's delay. When you need it you get it, immediately, instantly! That's the beauty of trust. By and by you learn the ways of how existence goes on providing for you, how existence goes on caring about you. You are not living in an indifferent existence. It does not ignore you. You are unnecessarily worried; all is provided for. Once you have the knack of knowing this, all worry disappears.

 

-Osho, “The Wisdom of the Sands, Vol 2, #1”

 

 

 

Don't waste your life for that which is going to be taken away. Trust life. If you trust, only then can you drop your knowledge, only then can you put your mind aside. And with trust, something immense opens up. Then this life is no longer ordinary life, it becomes full of God, overflowing. When the heart is innocent and the walls have disappeared, you are bridged with infinity.

 

And you are not deceived; there is nothing that can be taken away from you. That which can be taken away from you is not worth keeping, and that which cannot be taken away from you... why should one be afraid of its being taken away? It cannot be taken away, there is no possibility. You cannot lose your real treasure. And with that real treasure you become an emperor; otherwise you remain a beggar.

 

-Osho, "The Sun Rises in the Evening, #9"