What Can You Trust?
તમે શેનો વિશ્વાસ કરી શકો?- ડગ પાવર્સ આજના યુવાનો ના મનમાં એક મોટી દુવિધા છે, કે, તેઓ પોતાના અનુભવમાંથી શેનો વિશ્વાસ કરી શકે.
૧૯૫૦ અને ૬૦ માં, આપણે સંપ્રદાય, મહાવિદ્યાલય, વિચારધારા અને અર્થશાસ્ત્રીઓ પર વિશ્વાસ કરતાં. અનેક ક્ષેત્રો માં જુદીજુદી કક્ષા ના નિષ્ણાંતો હતા. વ્યક્તિઓ માનતા કે તેમની શાખ છે અને તેઓ સમાજ અને સંસ્કૃતિની રચના ના પેચીદા તંત્ર ને પોતાની ઉત્તમ રીતે સમજવાનો પ્રયત્ન કરતાં.
પછી તેઓ માં રહેલ આ વિશ્વાસ સંપૂર્ણપણે પડી ભાંગ્યો, અને લોકો ને સમજાયું નહીં કે ક્યાં નજર કરવી. ૬૦ અને ૭૦ ના દાયકામાં સત્તાધીશો સામે બળવો કરવાનું ચાલ્યું, ત્યારે આપણી પાસે એવા સત્તાધીશો હતા જેની સામે આપણે બળવો કરીએ, ત્યારે હજી કંઇક અસ્તિત્વ હતું ; આપણે અડધા વ્યક્તિત્વ અને અડધા બળવાખોર હતા. છતાંય કંઇક માળખું હતું. જો કે, હવે, ક્યાંય જોવા જેવું નથી રહ્યું, જ્યાં આપણે સત્તા કે માળખું કોઈપણમાં વિશ્વાસ કરી શકીએ. ઈરાદાઓ હવે શુદ્ધ નથી રહ્યાં . આપણે સાધારણપણે જ એવું નથી માનતા કે કોઈની શાખ છે – અને જો કોઈની શાખ હોય, તો પણ, તેઓ ના બીજા ઈરાદાઓ પણ હોય શકે છે.
તો હવે મોટી સમસ્યા એ છે કે ક્યાં નજર કરવી. હવે, આ શરુ કરતાં સત્તા નો સવાલ આવે, પણ પછી , ઊંડું વિચારતા આ સવાલ એકબીજા પર આવીને ઉભો રહે છે – સંબંધો માં , શું આપણે એકબીજા પર વિશ્વાસ કરી શકીએ છીએ? અને પછી આપણે એવી જગ્યાએ પહોંચ્યા છીએ જ્યાં આપણે આત્મવિશ્વાસ ગુમાવી બેઠા. એટલે હવે, આપણે આ રસ્તે એવા બિંદુ પર પહોંચ્યા જ્યાં આપણે માત્ર આપણી ક્ષણિક લાગણી ના આવેશ પર વિશ્વાસ કરીએ છીએ. મને તો ખાત્રી નથી કે આપણે આનો વિશ્વાસ કરી શકીએ, કારણકે આ બહુ અસ્થિર છે. તો, મૂળ સમસ્યા એ છે: આપણે ક્યા આધાર તરફ નજર કરવી જ્યાંથી આપણે આપણા વિચારો અને કર્મો નક્કી કરવા, અને આપણે ક્યા આધારે આ વિચારો અને કર્મો નું મૂલ્યાંકન કરીશું, અને જીવન જેના પર આપણો ભરોસો છે.
----ડગ પાવર્સ એક શિક્ષક, વિદ્વાન અને સાધક છે. તેમના એક લેખ માંથી ઉદધૃત
મનન ના પ્રશ્નો:
૧.) તમે શાનો આધાર લઈને તમારા કર્મો નક્કી કરો છો?
૨.) તમે ક્યારેય એવો અનુભવ કર્યો છે કે ઘણી જૂની સંસ્થા પરથી તમારો વિશ્વાસ ઉઠી ગયો અને તમારે પોતાનો આધાર શોધવો પડ્યો હોય, તો વર્ણવો.
૩.) તમારું માર્ગદર્શન કોણ કરે છે, જે સ્થિરતા થી હંમેશ તમારે માટે હાજર પણ હોય?
Doug Powers is teacher, scholar and a seeker. Excerpt above is taken from this article.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What is the ground that helps you determine the actions that you are going to take? Can you share a story of a time you lost trust in long-standing institutions and had to find your own ground? What guides you and is stable whenever you reach for it?
Add Your Reflection
28 Past Reflections
On May 14, 2020 Sumit Bhatia wrote :
I am a teacher, and I love teaching!
Little less than four years ago, I joined an organization, simply to develop personally & professionally. I was always good at mentoring, hence the graph of my promotion moved high and fast. Soon, there was pressure of performance, targets and visibility, which made me cross my own ethics! Soon, I was two living personalities, doing well in none! My social contacts started getting scanty, people started missing me, whereas on the other side, myprofessional network side went higher and higher!
The parents of the organization being highly passionate and goal oriented, the pressure went so high, that it started making me realise, i was not working for my development, but theirs! What I ran for, ignored my family for, compromises my health for, our my own profession at stake for was not my goals, but theirs! I also realised, my core values never matched theirs, and feared becoming someone I never wanted to!
CORE VALUES - Core Values are like bric... [View Full Comment]
2 replies: Jane, David | Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Jane wrote :
I dont think I ever had trust in long standing institutions - certainly not political - and the crumbling of that old system and order points to the illusions perpetrated. While my nature is to rebel against something I can see how I Iose sight of my own intentions and integrity in that process by making my position right and yours wrong. Now Im tending to what David Papa so beautifully describes. Still a work in progress - I want to rely on all the outer forms and structures at times - but they will disappoint always. I rely on what Eckhart Tolle calls spaciousness or the inner witness or my higher self.
Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Alex wrote :
My abusive Father began training me at the age of Seven to use my intuition.Ironically, this knowledge helped me protect myself from him. Over several decades of life it is my heart that provides the ground on which I stand. Such listening has served integrity andguidanceindark times and doubt. It is the true source of happiness.
Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Janet wrote :
I trust my inner direction which is cultivated by being still and listening. It is often prescient and never leads me in the wrong direction.
Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 David Papa wrote :
There is a part of all of us that is stillness. Deep inside, in-between our cells, atoms, and physical matter, and hovering at the edge of our skin. It is a deep alive stillness that is untouched by circumstance. It is like a flame that does not flicker in the wind. It is still, aware, at peace, observing, but not influenced. One teacher I follow calls it the indestructible core. Because it is infinite and never dies. It is You. When I get into that place, through meditation or prayer, or "dropping in", I Trust. Trust just emerges. It is self-evident. It is the wisest part of me knowing how and what to trust, and where to put my energy into action next. May all beings know happiness and freedom. xo
1 reply: Janet | Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Veena Panjwani wrote :
Although a good start of the article, it ends at a question with inappropriate direction. The problem of identity and authority will persist as long as we search for confidence outside of the self. The problem will also persist so long we do not accept diversity in existence as the rule of the nature and we are part of the nature. Individual differences is the key.
Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Patrick wrote :
It is a good article for as far as it goes. It leaves us to wrestle with the questions ourselves. For me personally, and many who have been brought to their knees, it is about finding trust within the deaths of our hearts, wherein Divine LOVE "speaks" to us. We must start there, with ourselves.
2 replies: Patrick, Aj | Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Mark wrote :
I ask my self who am I? It is a practice from Sri Ramana Maharshi. Each of us has an inner guru, though, like myself it was covered up for most of my life. My practice is taken from David Godmanwho has been practicing it many many years (youtube) and a publication called Who am I written by Ramana Maharshi. Mr. Goodman intreprets some of the hindu terminology that westerners might not understand.
Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Patricia wrote :
I have come to trust my inner guidance, which I recognize as the power of love within me. It is that part of me that is an extension of the loving, intelligent power from which I emerged - sometimes called God, or Source or the Universe or many other names. It is my true identity, but I have not yet been able to experience myself in that way. So, I think of this part of me as a wise friend who knows much more than I do and whom I can trust. It has often led me to places or people I could never have known to seek out on my own. It has inspired choices that my that logical mind would never have made – choices that brought me to exactly where I needed to be at that time in my life. We all have this wisdom within us. We just need to call on it and learn to listen, then trust it enough to take the inspired action. There is no security in the outer world that we can trust better than the security within.
2 replies: David, Jane | Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Radhika Agrawal wrote :
Only the actions and our true efforts matter
As long as we perform them without any further expectations from it, we will be saved form the disappointment thereon.
Therefore it is very important to have faith in almighty and leave the results of our actions(karma) upon him.
As long as we perform them without any further expectations from it, we will be saved form the disappointment thereon.
Therefore it is very important to have faith in almighty and leave the results of our actions(karma) upon him.
Post Your Reply
On May 12, 2020 Mamta Nanda wrote :
There is no one truth. The truth, as you say keeps changing. Perhaps the call of this time of so much uncertainty is to be flexible. Keep listening, and trust the guidance that arises in that moment. The source of this guidance may keep changing. But that is okay. At this time of so much uncertainty and change, it feels as if something new is coming through about trust. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and helping me realise this. Trust has not been easy for me either. The relationship is getting better each day, with each breath.
1 reply: Jane | Post Your Reply
On May 11, 2020 Jessie Paul wrote :
I trust what is life-affirming. Not just human life, but diversity of life. I think actions that protect ecosystems and the environment are the most important.
Post Your Reply
On May 8, 2020 Amy wrote :
Heaven is the ground that helps determine the actions I am going to take. I have come to learn from the Bible (and personal experience with God/His Saving Power and Plan) that Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life. There is nothing/no oneoutsideofHim proven worthy enough to standon! There is a lot of "sinking sand" to be found here on earth. At the foot of The Cross, I am most at home. Amen
1 reply: Tats | Post Your Reply
On May 8, 2020 David Doane wrote :
I listen to and consider input from many sources. Ultimately, the ground that determines the action that I take is my own inner judgment, experience, and wisdom. Once upon a time, I very much respected and trusted institutions. I was naive. I've lost trust in every institution -- including church, government, education, and medicine -- as I came to see that each of them cares only about their company line, each has a great deal of error, each has a great deal of corruption, and each tries to get individuals to trust them instead of one's own self. As I said, I listen to what each institution has to say, and some representatives of each institution make at least some sense to me, and then ultimately the ground I trust and act on is my own sef. My own self isn't always stable, but it is me, and I listen to me more than to any one else and definitely more than to any institution. What guides me is me.
2 replies: â¤ï¸, Anjulie | Post Your Reply
On May 8, 2020 Jagdish P Dave wrote :
As we grow up we need to make clear choices about many aspects of our life. In order to make wise choices we need to have clear intentions. My decision is usually based on the intention on the ground of good will and greater good not only for me but also for others. That is the main criterion I apply in making important decisions in my life. Have I always made wise choices? Of course not. As a human being I have made mistakes and have made decisions that have hurt me and others close to me. I woke up and and started walking on the right path. To me life is a journey with a clear destination and clear intention.
Making clear and and right choices in our political, social and economic domains has been difficult for me. Our policies and actions are not always based on good will and well being of others. The big egos of the decision makers have been causing a lot of harm to the majority people in our country. When I was young I participated in the movement against Vietnam War. Even though... [View Full Comment]