Truth

"Truth is like a great mirror shattered by time into hundred thousand pieces, which enables all who possess a small fragment to declare, 'My Religion-Truth - is the true one'." - Sufi Gibrail Kham


The larger issue: how can we know the truth? I am tempted to give a flippant answer, like: listen to the song "Eyes". Jesus refused to answer. Buddhists, particularly Zen Buddhists, are known to give answers that are incomprehensible, unless you already know it. Maybe that's the point: as the famous quote about pornography goes, "I know it when I see it." But doesn't the tiny word "I" in that sentence make it relative? Don't we all have the sense that truth can be universal, as well as particular? The particular, individual truths don't hold much interest for most people (except Hetairas, in their mission to be a companion), but the truths that affect the many are useful, compelling. Truth that arrives after the fact is not very helpful. We want to know what the weather will be tomorrow, not how it was yesterday.


Robert Pirsig developed the idea that experience happens in the moment: that is where everything is. So all that you knew and all that you come to know intersect in what he called the experience of Quality, which is similar to what I am trying to get at as Truth. Experience is wonderful - it feels blissful, taken in the right way - but we want to "gain" from our experience and be able to predict the future, so that tomorrow can be better than today. I think it is a lost cause, but I am compelled to look in to the matter, from my standpoint as a Mystic (in training).


One way to discover the truth is to see what works. This is the basis of Science, which means literally "to know". But Science is a balancing act of past experience condensed into (hopefully) knowledge (instead of false belief - no way to distinguish), and new experience, which we hope that we can actually comprehend. Can we make a theory so heavy that we cannot lift it? Certainly. And, what appears to "work" - be true - is provisional: we could have a theory that fits the facts but is wrong. Thus the criticism brought against Science that something is "only a theory" - like... gravity? Still, seeing what works is a good test of reality. Is reality related to truth? I guess it depends on your definition. For Hindus and Buddhists, reality as we perceive it is basically illusion, the farthest thing from truth. I guess they don't really go in for Science then, why study an illusion? To reduce suffering, of course, which is also illusory, but gosh it hurts!


For a long time the Western world considered Philosophy (literally: the love of Wisdom) to be the highest knowledge, called Metaphysics: truth beyond what happens in the world. In college I took some Philosophy courses, and in my drive to reduce misery and increase happiness, and in my naive understanding of what Philosophy is (I thought it was knowledge and certainty, but as the name says, it is love) I thought that it would give me answers. Only after the fact. In class one day I drilled into my instructor about how we can know the difference between truth and false belief. He gave the practical, commonsense answer: truth is true and false belief is false. But how can you tell, I asked? Look at what happens. But how can you tell in advance? You can't. So, I gave up on Philosophy. It is no more useful at preventing suffering than a post-mortem is at preventing death. If I wanted a library of past information, I would... go to the library. What I am after is direct apprehension of truth, in the moment. And it does happen. How do we develop that ability? Become a Mystic. (OK, I couldn't resist the flippant answer! I would add: become a Lover.)


I don't seem to be getting any traction. One area that matters to me is duty. (Consider my site about the Warrior archetype.) It is said that we have a duty to self, duty to others, and duty to God. Perhaps we can look at truth as a convenient (even if fictional or illusory) way to reconcile all of these. Because in truth (couldn't resist the phrase) there cannot be any real (there it is again) conflict among them. OK, kidding aside, really, don't we all believe this? What sort of truth could come into conflict for different people? What kind of a God would create intractable perplexity? We only do that to ourselves. So if we follow the thread of duty, perhaps that is a way to get at truth, in a predictive way, to make decisions, not just see where things went wrong. My name for this idea is "personal integrity". As an example, Gandhi said that his commitment was to the truth as he saw it at the time.


If I compare what I am thinking of doing with how my personal integrity perceives it, then I get a good idea of whether it feels right to me. We call this conscience - knowing with. (With what? Shhh! You'll ruin the story!) Be willing to change your mind, particularly if it involves other people. Unless they incite you to a conflict of duties. "Firm as a rock where right and wrong are concerned, yield immediately to others in things that do not matter."


We have free will, so we get to decide. But karma gets to slap us if we decide wrongly. Better that than never finding out at all. Getting down to the truth eventually is inevitable, like getting to Self Realization.