Trusting Your Real Self

When we think of trust, we think of people, places and things. That kind of trust, even though you experience it within, is directed outside of you. When we face a challenge, we need to learn how to trust ourselves. When we trust ourselves, we are open to receive powerful inner resources. When we do not trust ourselves, we can be resistant to inner resources because they do not fit into our self-concept. We trust what is important to us. In my work, I teach people how to take the importance out of their thoughts and return importance to life and their deepest wisdom.

The "Zero Point" is the name I have given to the state of consciousness where we are free to "preside over" our bodies and create conscious programs in harmony with the wisdom of the body. It is where we do not trust our thoughts as much as we trust inner wisdom. Understanding the Zero Point is the key to understanding trust. Too often, we are programmed during difficult situations, creating disharmony in our lives. Arriving at the Zero Point, we are free from habitual programs and can make corrections, programming harmony with our deeper wisdom. At the Zero Point, we are free from damaging thoughts and real change is possible. When we are free from tension-producing thoughts, we can enter a deep relaxation that is always there, but otherwise covered by thinking. Entering this depth not only feels incredibly positive and peaceful, it is the home of our inner resources.

One of my own recurrent problems in social situations has been the fatigue brought on by MS. The fatigue I have struggled with is an exhaustion that has nothing to do with lack of sleep. During the times I experience this difficulty, the only comfort I find is at the Zero Point, where my thoughts do not touch me. My fatigue is often hard for those around me to understand, because it seems as though I am not interested in the social event or the people I am with. Probably the worst part about it is the thoughts I have about the circumstances. Again, I have been forced to find a shelter in Silence, which is free from thoughts and there find comfort. In Silence, I benefit greatly from not tuning into my negative thoughts. At those times, it is necessary for me to just “be.”

Many of the veterans that I work with also suffer greatly from their thoughts. The Zero Point is easier to find in an extreme external situation, such as wartime, but this shelter is also needed in "peace." A veteran who understood the Zero Point told me, "In combat, you can't think about yourself, or else fear sets in and paralyzes you. In combat there is no past or future, we just live in the moment." Our perception of time exists as we know it when we replace the experience of the Zero Point with the ideas of self. In the intensity of war, close to the Zero Point, the only time is the moment.

The Zero Point has nothing to do with the world around us or our perceptions or conceptions about it. Our perceptions and conceptions are part of the illusions created by the brain. When many of the vets came home, their memories of war were stored in their emotions. These memories stopped the veterans from re-entering the Zero Point because they avoided the traumas they buried there. The Zero Point is not a "mind-made" reality; it is the purest consciousness connected to life. But the fact is, it takes consciousness to realize experience and to listen to our thoughts and memories. The Zero Point, then, is the pure consciousness beyond both thoughts and experience.

From the Zero Point, we can understand how to "be." When I became legally blind, the outside world was blurry. I put less importance into my visual perceptions. My awareness was freed from my thoughts, and I became more and more aware of the way I was thinking.

Imagine the human brain as a movie projector. The light of the projector is consciousness. The film is our conditioning; when light flows through the film, it projects the movie on the world we live in. Going beyond thinking is like taking film out of the projector, so that it is much easier to work on our thinking processes. Unfortunately, we act as the movie director and it is hard to let go of the film we identify with.

The Zero Point is a shelter from "bad movies," for in that state of consciousness, no thought is more important than life. If thoughts bother us, we can arrive at the Zero Point and be totally free from the thoughts that bother us. If we find ourselves in a threatening situation, connecting to being may be the only door out of that situation. The ongoing trauma experienced by many Vietnam veterans has only one exit. They have to re-own the Zero Point and live in a reality beyond memories and thoughts. In a way, this dilemma of the veteran is a gift, because he knows the Zero Point very well. It is thought which triggers suffering and he is forced to find the Zero Point, a natural shelter.

One veteran who was having a wonderful experience of the Zero Point gave this example to some others: "Say we were sitting somewhere in Vietnam and I said something that really pissed you off. Maybe I said something about your mother and you went into a rage. If at that time we started to get overrun (by the enemy), at the first shot you would still go to the Zero Point, just like that, instantly." In response to this, I said: "No thoughts would get you there; just your passion for life would connect you. But now, in 'peaceful circumstances, you think you have to rely on thought to get you there. This doesn't work very well."

A seminar participant at "Step-Up on Second", a day center for the mentally ill homeless, once said this when talking about finding himself: "You have to go through death to get to where you really want to go." Death is a reality where we can't "do" anything. To the ego, it is inconceivable, but at the Zero Point, it is possible. Since our thoughts and conditioning have created the ego we think we are, going beyond those thoughts is like going through a "death.” We do not want a laborious journey every time we want to connect.

We need to learn trust in our daily lives. Conscious habits allow us to connect without thinking about it. For instance, in the tender moments of intimacy, we do not want to think about "getting to" the Zero Point. When we have a sincere prayer, trusting ourselves allows us to receive without self-doubt. Simply, when we are alone, without having anything to do, self-trust allows our moment to be full.

© 2014 Marc Lerner