________________
I Trust You, Trust Me
the good work of others? Is there dignity and respect for every all want our children to get a professional qualification so member of staff whether they are a cleaner, a trainee or a man- that they can be economically prosperous. Can this ever ager? Do you take responsibility for your actions or try to find change? I think so. Suppose we experience an environpeople whom you can blame when things go wrong?
mental crisis, say flooding on the river Thames, which Trust creates loyalty. Loyalty creates community. destroys our houses in London. It would not be easy to buy Community builds harmony. Very few organisations today can us out of this crisis with our qualifications then. Also, if we truly demonstrate loyalty. A simple way of assessing this is to have an accident, which disables us from performing our look at employee turnover. What is the turnover rate in your job, then we will immediately become unemployed - will company? Does the organisation care for its staff or does it our professional body support us thereafter? simply use them when it needs them and
Modern society has created institutions discard people when they become out of
and contracts. These enable us to function date? How loyal are you as an employee to "No-one can be without the need for trust. Insurance is a your company?
classic example of this. With insurance, one Lack of trust stems from fear and it fully independent." can cover oneself for any eventuality, at a spreads fear. Are you afraid to take decisions
price. However, what insurance fails to in your workplace? Are your staff afraid of
mention is that upon the death of a close you? When something goes wrong, how do you react? How do relation, the money cannot replace the soul or the love. your colleagues react? If the impulse is to blame, then there is These are far more important qualities, which are priceless clearly distrust in the organisation. If the reaction is to take and uninsurable. They can be cultivated through trust, responsibility and look at ways of learning from the mistake,
though. then there is trust and respect.
Jain culture suggests that we should place our trust in The Jain scriptures are very clear about trust. our soul instead. The essence of the soul is wisdom, love Parasparopagraho Jivanam - interdependence is the essence of and respect, and it can be a valuable guide to lasting happinature; every living being depends on one another. No one can ness. This is also what will accompany us when we die - not be fully independent. Thus trust is a basic requirement for our money and certainly not our qualifications. To trust our peace and harmonious existence. We cannot afford to distrust. soul, we need to care for our body, and also live and Lack of trust is equivalent to human suicide. A species that experience peace. Silence often enables us to experience distrusts will become extinct.
our soul. Soul-consciousness would automatically lead to Let us examine a bit more closely where we place our trust: trust - it would become a natural quality once again, and we in money, the bank and the stock market. Most of us have would directly feel the joy of better relationships and rarely experienced the collapse of a bank and our money is appreciation all around. 2 always safe. Because of this we do not question this trust. However, even today there are examples of people who have
Atul Shah uses the pen to encourage himself and others to paid a high price for this trust. Thousands of Jains in Kenya
reflect on their lives. It is not his intention to disturb but to have lost a lot of money owing to the banking crisis in 1999.
encourage the best in everyone. Their savings have been wiped out and many have had to sell their houses and businesses. A few people even got heart attacks and died as a result of this loss. But until this loss of There are some simple practical steps we can take today to money becomes our own experience, we will accumulate and rebuild trust in our lives. store in the bank
To trust other people we need to be able to trust ourselves Recognise and express appreciation to the people with first. This requires a belief in ourselves and an acceptance of whom we work closely; our own strengths and weaknesses. All too often we • Learn to delegate and trust our employees by assigning concentrate on our strengths and try to deny our weaknesses. tasks and helping instead of blaming or punishing: This breeds ego and personal distrust, a kind of insecurity. On
Identify the needs of others and support their needs the other hand, if we can accept ourselves we can also develop first, before making your own demands: a deep sense of self-esteem and self trust. This will allow us to • Create distance and detachment with money, by giving! trust other people without fear or prejudice. It will enable us to it away regularly and selflessly: connect.
• Use our qualifications for the benefit of others and not We also put a lot of trust in our qualifications. The for the enlargement of our ego or our pockets: marketplace pays a high price for professional skills and this • Practise listening and respecting the thoughts and ideas enables us to earn a decent livelihood. This is exactly why we of others.
June - August 2001. Jain Spirit
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