THEY SAY, ‘TRUST ME’

The internet is full of noise, they say, and they’re right.

Here’s what I’m guessing today: Whoever said ‘the internet is full of noise’ never also said, ‘trust me on this’.

This is a good thing, because if there’s anything that I associate with noise, then it’s such remarks that use concepts as commodities. Trust is one of them.

‘Trust me when I tell you that this film is good.’

‘This book is awesome. Trust me.’

‘Harvard is crap. It’s not what it used to be. Trust me on it.’

‘I’m good. I trust myself. You can also trust me.’

What the hell … All this trust. How very nice of people to consider my time.

I can just trust them and not waste any energy on seeing it for myself, tasting it for myself, hearing it for myself, touching it for myself, experiencing it for myself.

Here’s a question for you all:

What do you make of trust? Is trust something you can use? Is trust a nice replacement for living life such as it is?

We live in a culture of endorsements, but endorsements are useless when you think of it.

Not long ago someone asked me why I don’t have enabled the comment box on my YouTube channel, as I could benefit from feedback. My response was that not everything I do needs feedback.

Some things I do because of the craft that goes into it. I take simple pleasure in just creating something and then putting it out there. I don’t put it out there for a purpose, not even to inspire. I put it out there because I like it that if I have an idea I can connect it to some visual detail. Idea + image + detail goes somewhere.

If people like what I do for the sake of crafting, fine. If they don’t, fine. I like hearing opinions, but I practice not trusting any of them. In fact, I trust nothing and no one. I stole this practice from Zen masters of caliber. I see that it works for them, and I see that it works for me too.

Not trusting affords you a lot of free and fine space in the head. I like to keep it that way. I won’t ask you to trust me on it, just take your cards and ask them this question:

What motivates my need to trust?

As something new, place 4 cards in a square pattern, clockwise, and read them in line, also clockwise. Think of the Zen circle, the Enso. What you want to arrive at is the space between statements and experience.

In this space you want to image what you’re like when you don’t trust anyone, when you don’t even think that you have to either like this idea or not.

In this space, you open yourself up to experiencing things for yourself. Let you be the judge of what is good and what is bad.

Give yourself time to discover how you can motivate yourself to generate more experience for yourself, beyond even the need to trust your own senses or the trending taste of others.

Here’s an example:

Zanoni Tarot

World, Hermit, Justice, Death (this is the Enso move)

These cards made me laugh and they also made me consider going back to the tradition here of writing about real life readings where the subject is not me and my concerns.

Be that as it may. While the cards pretty much consolidate what I was just saying, that I practice trusting no one, you can still get the idea, as far as motivation is concerned.

What motivates my need to trust is the world. The world simply expects trust as a matter of course. Not only is trust a commodity, but it’s also THE prime commodity. Without trust, no transaction.

‘Fair enough,’ says the Hermit walking on his own Justice, ‘but is that really so? Do you really need to?’

What motivates my need to trust is the basic assumption that the world speaks the truth.

‘Ha,’ says, Death. ‘Are you dumb, or something? Why don’t you get over yourself, a little puppet that you are, and forget about who’s pulling the strings, who gets what is rightfully theirs, and who questions what world. All you need to know is that there are always strings, there’s always someone who pulls them, and that that someone is never you.’

Ouch.

Now I’m really thinking about the empty space in my Enso. I like it a lot.

Like I said, I shouldn’t give myself as an example of what questions to ask, but knock yourselves out.

♠

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