Help
Sign In
belief
December 2008 
How do you decide that something is true?
Posted on Apr 8th, 2008
by 
doolang
doolang
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for April 03, 2008:
The Essence of Truth
When i am perplexed or troubled by a situation, i find the truth sets me free. When i get the truth of it the weight lifts, the difficulties resolve, the love returns and smiles and laughter often erupt from deep within. That's how i know i have found the truth. The truth makes me happy.
Truth is either constant or contextual. If it's constant it is easily proven: the earth has an exact period of rotation. If it's not easily proven then it will likely change depending on the context: when it's really hot out I like a cool glass of water, at all other times I usually don't. Something can be true in the moment and then not so true later on. It is the clinging to truth that gets me in trouble, the need for constancy, in a dynamic, fluctuating universe.
If one goes about deciding what is true, then one is also deciding what is untrue. One person's truth becomes another's delusion. Therein we may divide ourselves, turning against each other in conflict. In actual fact there is almost nothing on which we all, every single one of us alive on this planet, completely agree about.
A better lesson might be to learn to embrace change and chaos, while remembering that the truth will set you free. Contextual living allows me to adapt to the truth of the moment, to be there and to leave it where it happened without the need to impose it upon every interaction that follows. Allowing each moment to be its own, is the truth that sets one free, but also leaves one without prediction. Prediction, an essence of intelligence, can be either based on comparisons of the past, extrapolations of the present or knowing the future. A prediction is not necessarily true, but knowing or deciding it is true, makes it much more likely to come true.
Truth can also make sense of confusion. Just grabbing something at random and deciding that is true, stabilizes any confusion to some degree. It doesn't seem to matter so much what one decides is true in the moment....
"All i need is this paddle ball, and that's all i need."
--Steve Martin from The Jerk
...though if you wake up one day surrounded by paddle balls, you might want to review some of your decisions--unless you are happy swimming in the paddle ball shaped pool.
Access: Public
oh….doooo..rings so true for me….what a gem you are in this moment…that's truth for me!!
well how explicitly delightful! I am most happy to be of service to you, dear one.