As I approach my 76th year, I’ve observed that there is far more trust in the world than distrust. This may sound crazy, given the state of the planet, but trust is actually commonplace. Most of our knowledge depends on it. That the earth’s diameter at the equator is 24,901.55 miles is a fact I take on trust without personally measuring it. I also accept on trust that light travels at 186,181 miles per second and that the earth is a minor planet in a minor solar system at the edge of the Milky Way.
These are verifiable facts, I know, having nothing to do with people and their emotions. But, under the right circumstances, we can trust of our fellow human beings almost equally well, according to Mattheiu Ricard, author of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill.
Ricard is a cellular geneticists who left his work nearly 40 years ago to study Buddhism and who now works with the Dali Lama in a monastery in Shechen. His contention is that human qualities arrange themselves in clusters. Altruism, inner peace and genuine happiness are found together while self-importance hopelessness, fear, and resentment have their own relationships. What distinguishes one set of attributes from the other is the degree to which these qualities increase or decrease the gap between ourselves and others. Working for the common good can have a salutary effect even in the worst of times. Whether it’s a natural disaster or one that is man-made, Ricard points out that when people gather together for mutual help and support, feelings of well-being emerge. Institutions that provide inclusiveness rather that exclusiveness, therefore, are the ones where trust is most likely to thrive. (“This is Your Brain on Bliss,” by Fran Korten, Yes, winter, 2009)
Fairness, justice, equality, liberty, happiness. According to Richard’s theory, the meaning of these words vary with the speaker and are therefore untrustworthy. A more reliable measurement for trust is inclusiveness. That is a good we can determine with our own eyes
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