Reclaim Your Freedom and Trust: Basic Goodness Training Part 2

 If you’ve been practicing with seeing and experiencing the Basic Goodness of your heart, even a little, you’ve been setting the foundation for something even bigger: expanding that sense of Basic Goodness to all beings.

“It is a simple human truth that everyone, just like you, wants to be happy and to avoid suffering. Just like you, everyone else wants to have friends, to be accepted and loved, to be respected and valued for their unique qualities, to be healthy and to feel comfortable with themselves. Just like you, no one else wants to be friendless and alone, to be looked down upon by others, to be sick, to feel inadequate and depressed.” ~Pema Chodron

It can be difficult for some of us to see our own Basic Goodness, but maybe seeing the goodness of others is easier. For others, it’s easy to see it in ourselves because we know that we have good intentions and a good heart … but perhaps it’s harder to see the goodness in others when they act in a way that feels bad-intentioned.

For some of us it’s easier to think of all other beings being basically good but we’re not, not really. For other of us it’s easier to think that yes we are good, but some others are not.

The confusion comes from the belief that there is some way to seek external validation of someone’s goodness. Some system that tells us when we’re good or someone else is good. But the goodness doesn’t come from actions and thoughts — it’s fundamental to our nature. We’re all fundamentally good, without having to validate it.

The practice is to realize that this is all a confusion, and to start to see the Basic Goodness in all beings, ourselves and others included. When we can truly come to know this Basic Goodness, we gain the freedom to be fearless.

The path forward is to realize that this whole situation is a confusion. When we come to know – really, truly, fully know our basic goodness, and the basic goodness of all beings, then we gain the freedom to be fearless.

Imagine if you knew that everyone else around you was fundamentally good — you wouldn’t have to worry about whether they’re judging you, acting badly, having bad intentions towards you. Instead, you could just be free to fearlessly love them and give them compassion, because they’re bad behavior would be a sign of fear and pain that is lying on top of their Basic Goodness. You would just trust that they were good.

Imagine if you really trusted in your own goodness — you wouldn’t have to worry about failing, being judged, doing things wrong, messing up yet again. You might do those things, but you would still have the trust that you are good.

So this week, start to see the goodness in everyone around you. You can see people as good hearts, walking around in confusion and fear and pain much of the time, but truly expressing their goodness in so many beautiful ways. See it in strangers, in loved ones, in coworkers and neighbors.

And if everyone is basically good, you must be included. If you are basically good, so is everyone else. We are all trying to be happy, to do the best for ourselves and our loved ones.

We all have goodness in our hearts, even if we don’t always express that perfectly. Our actions and thoughts don’t change that goodness, because it’s fundamental to our nature.

Start to see that this week. Start to trust it, fully. Start to find the freedom in it.

Homework

1. As you go about your day, and notice other people, do the practice of “just like me”. When you’re stuck in traffic, or when someone cuts you off, you’re in line at the grocery store, or you’re dealing with a work colleague you find difficult, just look at all the other people around, and be curious (not creepy). Say “just like me”, they are basically good. “Just like me”, they wish to be happy. “Just like me”, they don’t wish to suffer. See if you can see below the frustrations, or excitement of each person you see, and touch their basic goodness, their fundamental quality, that just like you, isn’t affected by what they are doing or not doing in the moment.
2. Also – please practice the other way around. If you see or hear of someone doing something amazing, some huge donation, or a huge act of kindness etc., you can say “just like me” – you are just like them.
3. Continue to reduce non-intentional input (social media feeds, TV, news etc.). Share any experiences you are noticing around this.