“What is Truth?”

Posted by: David

To answer this fundamental question, let’s return to the idea of our outer lives as projections of our inner lives.

In this day and age, there’s a deep reluctance to ascribe objectivity to the world around us. “Truth is as variable as the tides,” might be a saying of a post-modern coastal tribe. There would certainly be some truth to that saying since tides are very real indeed—what Mike is calling awakening truths. But the post-modern variable truth is only a reality of the human perception. Truth in its most universal form has nothing to do with variability; truth has to do with clarity. Our reluctance to believe in a universal truth is because we project our inner lives onto the universe. Our inner lives are very messy and befuddled, which is how man sees his world.

In Richard Dawkins’ book “The Selfish Gene,” he described all life as having a tendency toward selfishness which is what he believed the evolutionary process to be. But I think this is his biased projection of man’s selfishness onto the universe, rather than a reflection on objective reality. Naturally, man wouldn’t have seen it any other way. Our vision of reality is colored by our selfish ego.

To analyze reality, we must first have clarity within our interior thoughts and feelings, because it is inside of us where we make decisions. We make our choices and those choices spread outward into our outer lives. Clarity within is essential before we can make judgments on reality.

The Blame Game

When we understand the exterior world as a projection of our interior lives, we also protect ourselves from the blame game. No longer will we say: “Look what cards I’ve been dealt,” “See what life has brought me,” and “How could it be my fault, look at my circumstances.”

My dad said something that helped me when I was in my twenties that I’ll never forget. He said that the first step to healing is to first own 100% of one’s problems. He was so right. When I have trouble with someone, I should own 100% of the problem. When we see the world around us falling apart, we should own 100% of the problem. I’m not kidding here either. We should own 100% of the problems in our families, in our town, and in our world.

He would say that I’ve taken his pithy advice a bit too far, but I don’t think so. The outer world is a projection of our inner lives, not only us as an individual, but us as a collective unit. We are not disconnected from the world, and thus, the world’s problems are our problems. We are blood relatives to every last human out there, from Mr. Sentenced-to-Death-Row to Hitler. Even though my umbilical cord was severed after birth, I still have a fundamental connection to everyone who has lived, is living and will live. We are a part of the family of man no matter how much we try to isolate ourselves from others. Someone has to take ownership of the sadness and pain; it might as well be me and you. This is what Jesus did on the cross. In his innocence, he took the blame for the family of man.

By taking 100% ownership of our problems, we take responsibility not only of our own problems but also the problems of others. As the responsible party, we can ask for forgiveness which is where healing and redemption begins. In the prayer Jesus taught us, he didn’t tell us to pray, “Forgive me for my trespasses.” He taught us to pray, “Forgive us for our trespasses.” The family of man is one body. If I strangle someone with my left hand, my whole body is blame, not just the left hand. What is so marvelous about this is that in our Just universe we have the ability to intercede for the rest of the body. We can stand on the rule for others. We are 100% guilty, because we are of the same body. Yes, you are a blood-relative of Saddam Hussein.

Make Way for the Truth

What does all this have to do with truth? In order to see the truth within the reality of the universe, we must make way for the truth. The big lie must be revealed within us. The big lie is that I’m not responsible. It’s not my fault. I didn’t have anything to do with what happened in Gaza. I didn’t put Jesus on the cross.

However, as a part of the family of man, I did nail him to the cross. And what I allow to go on in my head today does affect reality. My mind and body are totally interconnected with the rest of the humanity. To begin seeing clearly I must clear out the lies within—the only place that I have control. Jesus said, “First clean the inside of the cup, so that its outside may also be clean.”

Truth, untruth, a-truth, relative-truth or whatever type of truth that you see in our outer lives is a projection of our interior understanding of truth. The way we see and interpret the world is directly related to what goes on in our inner lives. When we lie to ourselves, the lies multiply externally to us. Truth becomes obscured and reality begins to seem variable. But we have control over the big lie, the small lies and the white lie. We can control whether or not we lie.

Why do we lie to ourselves? We lie because our ego’s existence depends on a contrived-sense of individuality. The ego must project itself as the all-powerful ruler of oneself. It cannot allow itself to bleed into the rest of humanity. It would then cease to be a solitary unit. To prevent death, the ego must falsely preserve a notion of independence. The ego argues to the mind and body, “No, it couldn’t be your fault,” “Yes, you were right to take that course of action,” and the most deceptive self-preserving argument of all: “Don’t worry, the ends really do justify the means.”

However, by accepting responsibility for 100% of our problems, the power of these lies is broken, the truth begins to shine within us, and the truth of the universe becomes more transparent. When we take on 100% of the guilt, we also find out wondrously that we have been pardoned 100% through Christ’s payment. Our conscious is cleared and life begins.