Your Trust Is a Distraction: The Universe Doesn’t Wait
A trust in the universe is a distrust in your own ability
I type this piece while nursing a flu that feels utterly uncomfortable. The occassional shivers are driving me to cover up. There is a noticeable urge to reach for a warm drink. Neither the shivers nor the urge for comfort in a drink are anything that I turned on or that I can turn off. Neither did I choose this ailment or intentionally exposed myself to the virus(es) that are knocking this body’s internal defence. But like everything in the Universe, the virus that rages within this body has a right to live, just like ‘I’ have the right to live. ‘I’ have the right to defend myself as the virus has the right to fight against the barricade of medications I lay in wait of it. May the strongest strategy win. And yet, beneath this struggle, something larger is unfolding: an impersonal, unexplainable display of the Universe being Itself. The virus, the shivers, the craving, the resistance—they are not really separate events. They are a movement within the same unimaginable dance. What’s being experienced here is not something outside of me or even within me. It is the Universe at work, and I, too, am what the Universe is doing.
When we can see the ‘impersonality’ in this display, it becomes easily seen that nothing you could ever do(or are doing) is separate from what the Universe is doing. So much so there’s a great cracking of the mirror of that illusion of agency. Outrageous statements! Just purely outrageous! I know. Well, I intended for it to be— particularly the subtitle of this short essay(A trust in the universe is a distrust in your own ability). It becomes less outrageous if you truly come to terms with the realization that nothing of our own effort has ever been ours. Why? Well, maybe because you are not separate from the Universe. It’s so self-evident yet very elusive. I will quickly say here that “The Universe”, as I refer to it here is the All That Is. All That Is includes everything and excludes nothing.
When in quiet you turn attention inward, you may start to see the proof of this. Look at it, isn’t it clear that you never chose your birth, the time in which you were born, the family in which you were born to, your race, your metabolic rate etc. Look at all the sensations that you are feeling right now. Did you choose to feel those sensations? Are they not happening on their own? Aren’t those characteristics just plain evidence of how the universe moves through you as you? Who is it to which these appear to? Your agreement or disagreement of these ideas that I share, are they truly ‘your’ agreement or disagreement? Can’t you see the immense beauty in this freedom?
So how then can we not see that every event and circumstance in life is also an orchestration of the Universe, working on its own(without a second). In that seeing, would it not also come with the understanding that we can rest in the confidence that whatever is playing out(in our lives, and in the world at large) is playing out on the screen of awareness— nothing personal to it all.
Resting in this Knowing(or in another way of look at it, in the Unknown) almost always feels like passivity. But bend your head sideways again like you’re looking at a lenticular object, you’d see it’s not passivity at all. It’s the surrendering to life by allowing life to move through us. What’s paradoxical about this is that you had no choice at all in this allowing of life to move through us. You are life itself and not something that life passes through. The Universe was always using you. Your surrendering is just your observation of it happening in real time. True surrender is the watching of life as it unfolds in its ‘naturality’. It’s your awareness of life passing as it passes. It’s our trust, our deep trust in the Universe that demonstrates how much of freedom gets expressed.
This passing of life through us could include standing up against injustice, feeding the homeless, speaking up for those who are oppressed. It could include the rage that passes through us as we see those on the fringes being persecuted. It could be the despair we sometimes feel when all seems hopeless and lost. But it’s also the awakening to see that none of these are personal, and if they are impersonal and are in a constant state of flux, then there are infinite possibilities. And so hope by itself wakes up. Once again, nothing impersonal.
These ideas are obviously counter to what we are often taught. The self-help narratives push for empowerment and action and getting on your feet. They push for adding more and more to our lives, changing our routines and diets. They tout how much the individual can offer to or create for the Universe. None of which I oppose. However, I present an alternative viewpoint. It’s one that transcends and includes even these self-referential perspectives. All those words to say, even these are the activities of the Universe.
When we trust in our finite self, we overlook the infinite-ness that’s found in God. When we trust in this vastness, this Goodness, this Godness, this Universe, we lose trust in the finite self.
So you probably have read this all to this point and wondering how this can be applied practically to ‘one’s life’. Let’s try this:
Take whatever situation that’s going on or weighing heavy in the mind. Bring it to full focus.
See that it’s being displayed on the screen of Mind. It’s often times about the future or a narrative about something reoccuring(a reference to the past).
See that in this moment, nothing is happening apart from the sensations, feelings and thoughts that are unfolding in your environment right now. Find the stillness within this awareness. Notice in the stillness, there’s a part of you that’s untouched by those sensations, those feelings or thoughts. Notice it’s the part that’s noticing. It’s the part that’s doing nothing.
Stay in this Nothingness trusting that a situation, an idea or an event will pop up, one that you had no possible way of orchestrating.
Now, reflect on what it means to trust the Universe. What does it mean to trust yourself and distrust the Universe? Are there interesting findings when you explore these questions?
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Hello Seye, just found you and there are no coincidences. I resonate with your writing. I wish you a speedy recovery. Be well. 🙏🏽