The Reclamation of Basic Trust

I have very much enjoyed reading Facets of Unity. I am very curious, however, about a relevant issue that I have not been able to discern within its pages. My understanding is that the loss of basic trust in the child results from the child’s perception of a loss of holding in the environment. The enlightened soul, however, is one in which basic trust predominates. External events that most of us would call terrible do not jeopardize or diminish the experience of basic trust of the enlightened soul.  In the midst of these circumstances, the enlightened soul does not experience itself as helpless or choice-less.

Yet, the perspective offered in your book, along with my own observations of children, suggests that they do start out with a predominance of basic trust...but it is eventually lost. This suggests that there is some aspect in the enlightened soul that is either not present, or not as developed, in the soul of the child. In our common understanding we would say that the child simply does not have understanding and maturity.  Yet, we might then ask: what is it that enables this understanding and maturity in enlightened soul?  So, it appears that there needs to be some aspect that not only enables the development of understanding and maturity, but also allows for its retention...some kind of constituting factor.  My questions, therefore, are:

1)    Am I correct that there is a constituting factor present in the enlightened soul that is either not present or not as developed in the child soul?

2)    If so, what does the Diamond Approach perspective explain this constituting factor to be, how does it arise and develop, and how does its presence enable the retention of basic trust in the enlightened soul?

The enlightened soul definitely includes an important factor not so present in childhood. This is the capacity for discrimination, the discerning knowingness. It exists in childhood in a very rudimentary manner. The infant is not dissociated from true nature but it does not have the discriminating and self reflective capacity to know this true nature and to recognize that it is its nature.

The lack of dissociation is the reason behind basic trust, for basic trust is fundamentally the implicit confidence that expresses the fact that we have a timeless true nature. Through ego development we become dissociated from our true nature, with a resulting limitation in our basic trust, yet this development is a stage necessary for the development of our discriminating capacity.

As our discriminating capacity develops through ego and cognitive development, and we attain its maturity in the stage of essential realization we can recognize true nature and recognize it is our nature.  The depth and certainty of this recognition translates into the stability and permanence of basic trust.