Bhante Subharo :xmpp:<p>I've been doing a lot of thinking around the nature of trust. I received the highly beneficial advice to think over who the most trustworthy people actually are, in my life. A diagram that looks like a bullseye was drawn, and I was invited to fill in actual names of people I know - where do they belong within the rings of the bullseye? The people in the middle are the most trustworthy, and the outermost rings are where the least trustworthy names go.</p><p>It was difficult to decide who's name belonged in which ring of the bullseye. So I assigned numbers to the rings of the bullseye. 1 was in the middle, 9 was right outside the bullseye. I then made a list of all the people I knew. I assigned them all numbers, then thought over the numbers, occasionally changing a number a little more or less.</p><p>When I was finished, I described the meaning of all the numbers, 1 through 9. This labeling made the most sense to me, to give more meaning to these numbers. Here they are:</p><p>1. Deep trust. Someone who totally accepts you as you are.</p><p>2. Someone who wouldn't betray you, has affinity with you, but you can't say they totally accept you as you are. They'd like to see you change.</p><p>3. A friend with a solid character, but affinity? Maybe.</p><p>4. A "fair-weather friend".</p><p>5. Any random stranger on the street. No positive or negative to speak of; still undefined and mysterious. No basis of judgement yet.</p><p>6. Negativity starts here, but it's very subtle and insidious; well hidden. Psychological predation and deception begins here. Plays mind games. Wants to come out looking better than you. Is certainly a "frenemy" or perhaps even worse, wants to turn you into a "flying monkey". A 6 has the mind of a perfect salesman or ambassador. Uses a lot of paltering; deceptive framing of everything. Plays on emotions a lot, seldom facts, unless they fit a narrative.</p><p>7. Corrupt. Has a mind of a racketeer.</p><p>8. Sketchy. Criminality begins here.</p><p>9. Predator. DANGEROUS</p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/friendship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>friendship</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/psychology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>psychology</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/spirituality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>spirituality</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/trust" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>trust</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/SelfCare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SelfCare</span></a></p>