Dear Friends,
The fourth dimension of saddha that Gil Fronsdal examines is trust.
He talks about trust in the Dharma, which he says comes from a word meaning “to support.”
As we practice, … we discover that more is going on within us — processes and patterns of life deeper than anything we could engineer, organize or make happen on our own.
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11066
He uses the analogy of tending to a cut – there are things we can do, like clean the wound and bandage it, but the actual healing process happens without us trying to direct the show. We can trust that process.
We do the same in our practice – there are ways to “clean and protect” – we do our best to live in accordance to our values of not wanting to cause harm to ourselves or others. This helps create conditions where the healing of the heart can happen.
Gil later says, “At some point, saddha becomes more characterized by knowing that there is something we can trust. We know that something supporting us in our lives is really good.” He says we can trust the depth of what is possible – in ourselves and others. The wholeness of this human being, and not our limiting beliefs.
Reflection:
Gil says we can begin to recognize the unhelpful things we are trusting in our lives, like anger, sadness, or our bank account. When we can see how these might not be so helpful, then we come back to what is trustworthy – the inner wholeness or goodness, and reorient to that. Can you recognize an unhelpful thing you might “trust”? What’s it like to rest into a trust of that which is whole?
Poem:
This poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer speaks to letting go of some of the unhelpful things and open to trusting the processes of life
Growing Trust
Now since I’ve tasted trust in life
why would I ever
slip again into armor?
The armor of an insincere smile
sometimes as dangerous
as the armor of a sword.
Why would I ever try to know
what to say, how to act,
how to plan, when,
with zero effort of my own,
life itself will move through me,
will rise up in me to meet itself?
Of course, like the child I am,
I forget this trust.
I slip back into habit,
believe I need protection,
fear I am isolated.But I have fallen in love with life
https://ahundredfallingveils.com/2021/12/08/growing-trust/
at a time when that might seem impossible,
and this strange fact alone
seems enough to remind me
to ditch the armor,
to cast wide my arms,
to unsheath my heart
and say yes, life,
I trust you, I serve you.
Why would I not trust life?
It would be like a seed
evading the rain,
like a sunflower
just unfurling
trying to avoid the sun.
Meditation:
Stephen Fulder led a meditation on the topic of Trust and Faith (the meditation is about 29 minutes – and then he had a talk and Q&A, so the whole recording is 86 minutes). You can access the video and audio recording of his session here:
https://sangha.live/dharma-library/trust-and-faith-saddha/
With good wishes,
Andrea