To Tell the Truth...

What is truth?  Can it be defined as your belief?  If it is supposed to be a known fact about a subject or concept, then how can belief be truth?  How can faith in something be attributed as a truth?  Faith is still the belief that something is truth.  Hope, as is faith, is a desire for something you believe to be truth.

There is no absolute truth in religion.  If there were then that would mean that one of them is right and the rest of them are totally and completely wrong.  And for all of you “Analyticals” out there, science is in the same boat.  Since you can only prove what you can prove, there is no absolute until you can prove what you currently cannot prove.  And since you do not know what that is…oh well.

I find myself constantly at odds with what I know and what I believe.  I even have to keep reminding myself that just because I do not necessarily believe something does not mean that it is not true.  It is only not true for me.  And that being only for the moment that I do not believe it. 

Think about it.  No matter how much knowledge and information we have at this very moment, it is infinitely less than what we will have in ten years, or even, in some cases, ten minutes.  And while it is accepted that truth and knowledge build upon that which we already know…imagine the possibility that at some point in the future, in order to move forward, you have to throw it all away and bow to a greater, and extremely different, perception of truth.

You believe what you believe, as we all do, but how much of it is truth and how much of it is Faith?  And is faith the same for someone who has knowledge beyond your own?  A teacher has knowledge of a subject and the student has only faith…until the knowledge is imparted and then the student becomes the teacher.  But the TEACHER must always be the STUDENT.  Because Truth changes with Understanding and Understanding changes with Knowledge.

It is good to believe in something, because a belief can determine how you live and what you can achieve in this life.  And Truth?  It should always be pursued though it is perpetually elusive.  The hard part is to go past your learning and establish new behaviors to complement the truths.

She's Sly...She's wiley.

In the Spirit of continuation, I was getting ready to take a bike ride into town yesterday and I was looking for roads less traveled on google maps.  The path that google recommended would take me on the main road into Lake Oswego…and I just did not want to go that way.  So I magnified the computer screen and found a direct route that actually took me down a side road when I saw a business locator pin on the road that I had chosen.  It read: New Thought Center for Spiritual Living.  Curious I had to click on it and see what it was.  It instantly loaded a web page that had a video with some rockin’ music on it and it grabbed me.

This is cool, I thought and began reading some of the text on the page.  The more I read the more I knew that I did not just find this page, but I was directed to it.  And I had to attend their service that evening.

Luckily I have a spouse that is similarly enthused by ventures of this nature and she said she would love to attend as well. 

I have been getting up early every morning this week to go to work, so I took a little down time and napped for a couple hours and when I awoke my first thought was to get ready to go.  Now this is significant because my general nature is to get excited about something and then when it is time to do it…the desire was gone.  But there were far greater forces than I at work.  I still had my joy associated with the task…so we went.

It was supposed to be.  I had a bounce to my step afterward that was heretofore missing.  I don’t know if it was the space or the people or the message, but it all fit together.  Even my wife was moved by the experience.

But I caught it…out of the corner of my eye…my wife?  She was smiling.  And at that moment…I knew she was behind all of this.  She had summoned all of her angels to get behind me and push me out the door.

Hey…whatever works…right?

Connection.

I saw the oddest thing today.  Well the thing itself was not odd, but setting in which it occurred seemed odd.  I was sitting at my kitchen table, which faces the apartment courtyard, and a small in stature oriental woman was saying what I assumed are her morning prayers.  She was faced toward the morning sun with her arms outstretched and I could see her lips moving as if to ask her God for grace, or love, or peace, or perhaps just to say good morning.  Then she crossed her arms on her chest for a moment and then placed her palms together and bowed her head (In my mind I heard the word Namaste’ but I am sure it was something different.  I am guessing that you don’t say Namaste’ to God.  But Maybe!). And then she was gone.

Instead of judgment, I instantly thought how beautiful this was.  I am sure that it was all about the connection and not about being ostentatious.  I did not get the sense that she was performing for anyone who might be watching.  It was pure, clean, and sincere.  Definitely not rote.  And it made me wonder…what if everyone…if even for a moment…stopped to have a quick conversation with God…in whatever form each individual preferred.  What kind of change would that effect in the world?  Perhaps none, but my sense is that it is a connection, like many, that we have broken from over the years:  The breakdown of Government;  the breakdown of community; the breakdown of family, the breakdown of introspection.

It’s true that we live in an evolving world.  Things are changing at a prodigious pace.  We get more information thrown at us in 30 minutes that we used to get in a week of daily living and yet we continue to survive.  But at what cost?  If we have freed ourselves from everything that has tethered us in the past then will we float aimlessly through space?  And while I personally believe it is necessary to cut ties with things that do not serve us, what doesn’t serve me may serve you well.

I am just going to say it and live with it.  We all need connection.  Every one of us.  We just don’t all need the same connection.  But if you have lost all of yours, or if you have purposely cut all of yours, I would encourage you to find something with which you can reconnect.

Trust me on this one…it cannot hurt.