Trust and Faith

What is the difference between faith and trust?

During the recent Real Freedom 2025 online class, i was asked this question and it made me pause. On the one hand trust and faith seem intertwined, and on the other, they elicit different responses in me. Trust makes me feel grounded, while faith asks me to take a leap, sometimes into the unknown. Both are often accompanied by a combination of surrender and gratitude.

I have meditated on this question a fair amount. It stirs up memories and stories. A magical moment occured while resting against the trunk of a Tree. I suddenly experienced profound trust, I knew I could rely on this trunk to support me. It had my back. As I looked up throught the branches, the sunlight dancing on the leaves, i exprienced a rush of faith, I sensed the innate joy of soaring on the wings of love.

I made several diagrams to condense my understanding of trust and faith. I will share two of them here.

The Overlap

I experience trust and faith as overlapping, integral to each other, yet subtle in what they signpost. At that moment of overlap the energies of resistance and doubt cease to exist, and surrender and sacrifice arise. I’ve always found it intriguing that there are two main phrases that Eddie (my beloved husband and Guru) repeated regularly:

1. Go with the Guidance
2. Have Trust and Faith, or have faith and trust

In terms of, Go with the Guidance…

I remember having a few conversations with Eddie, where I asked him, why don’t you say, trust the guidance, or follow the guidance, why Go with the Guidance. He left it up to me to figure it out, and when I did, he just smiled at me and we exchanged knowing glances of – ohhh, I get IT now.

My understanding landed when I witnessed what happened when he said, Go with the Guidance, he would it say as a blessing that encapsulated – you’ve connected with the Illumined Self (your intuitve wisdom), you’ve received your guidance, it’s in your hands, it’s your choice, it’s the grace of God, go forth and do whatever you need to do. The guidance is your gift from the Illumined Self, how you unwrap it, discard it, or utilise it, is entirely up to you. Now I can see there is an element of permission embedded in this phrase as well.

The second one, have trust and faith, I get now.

Let’s go to the diagram – Faith and Trust

Trust, I would say is the experience of – I rely on and Faith would be – I believe in. Trust feels circular, encompassing; a circle of trust. Acceptance, letting go, and forgiveness seem to enhance and emerge from Trust all at once. Faith on the other hand is vast, an open cup, like the wings of love, it goes beyond what is known.

Where trust and faith intertwine there is surrender.

The more I reflected on this, Faith became a golden chalice (diagram above) filled with the nectar of immortality, truth, and annihilation of ego. Trust the infinite bridge within the creative principles of the mind and heart connecting our intuitive compass of the 4 Tenets – Truth, Self-Responsibility, Peace, and Love – with Faith.

Faith – I believe in the SELF, I believe in God

Trust – I rely on the SELF, I rely on God

It brought me to a deeper inquiry; can we experience liberation, oneness, union with God, without Faith?

Blessings and Love, Appoo Ranjana Eddie