“You want the Truth; you can’t handle the Truth”- Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men. There was a time when I was a Marine guarding the fence line in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. So, I guess this is as good of a spot as any to start my blog post…

To me, the concept of “Truth” is one of the most important considerations for the progress of Humanity.  When one seeks to grow, the more objective one can be at looking at themselves, the better their chances of answering age-old questions, such as “who am I?” and “What am I here for?” 

And how can someone ever fall in love or be loved if the relationship lack Truth? For instance, if my partner is not fully disclosing who he is, then I would have no chance of loving her because I have no way of even knowing her.

Truth is also an important bond that is the foundation of (and links) both Science and Religion; though one tends to think the answer to be more physical and the other metaphysical. Each is seeking to discover Truth.   

Personally, it is my belief that as humans develop (as a race or individually), we walk along a path that started (at some point) with pure instinct (survival, needs, desires) and eventually end up being more concerned with group progress and teamwork.  As such, at some point along this path, we start to become more attached to material goods and form.  For many, this means chasing after money, status, etc in the pursuit of happiness.  Yet, at some point, this path eventually ends with the realization that true fulfillment is not a result of material gain.

Accordingly, as we mature (in one life or over many), we begin to develop a set of values. For instance, we might commit a harm on someone else and then be punished. Through this experience, we learn that we value freedom.  Or later we might have that same incident happen to us.  In doing so, we learn to have compassion for the other’s pain. In both cases, we are developing a character which is based on a personal set of values.   

These Values are what guide us during important moments (usually crisis) in our lives.  For instance, somewhere along the way for me in my life, the value of “responsibility” became an important value.  This was put to the test when my father passed away in 2017.  A few months prior, I had just moved to New Jersey to set up sales offices for Tesla. 

When my father passed, I knew I was needed at home to run his estate and to try to help his clients. He was an accountant with 300+ businesses and individual clients, and he passed away in late March. This was a very important moment in my life, and I was clearly feeling emotional.  My ego might have told me I couldn’t go home because I had an important job and was positioned to make a lot of money.  Yet, because I had established values, I allowed my value of “responsibility” to guide me to the proper decision without my ego clouding my judgment.  I often like to say, Character is like Tea; it comes out in hot water. 

I also believe that as each of us individually evolves, we also begin to have one or two guiding principles (our most important values) that guide us through life.  For me, this principle is Truth. So, I suppose this is one of the reasons I have chosen this as a starting point for my blog.  Therefore, this is also why I have invested time and energy into trying to understand this concept of Truth.  And to gain an even  deeper understanding, I then also try to apply this to a wide range of experiences and relationships over time.

My approach to Truth

I first set out to get a better understanding of its origin.   The ancient Greek word for Truth is “Aletheia”; which roughly means “an unforgetting”.

This really helped put things in perspective for me. That’s because it is my belief that one of the gifts we receive before we incarnate is the gift of forgetting.  We forget that we are all one; that separation and space are an illusion.  This is an important concept because it is in this forgetting that our individual souls are given the opportunity to learn and grow.  Thus, this is a great way for one to put their thoughts to the test.

After all, it’s easy to sit up in a glass tower thinking heavenly thoughts of our self. It’s a whole other thing to put these thoughts to the test. For instance, I might think I’m a loving person, and that would be easy to convince myself of this if I just surrounded myself with only those who thought and acted just as me. But, in the life, I have to put this belief to the test; how do I love someone who has opposing viewpoints or acts in a way I judge as wrong? A dear friend and mentor of mine once said, “you don’t have to like everyone, but you should love them”.

Anyway, the reason this concept of linking the word “Truth” with “unforgetting” is so important is that it runs counterintuitive to what we were taught in school. You see, most of us seek truth my reading books, quoting others or taking classes.  Yet, this is in a way adding things on.  This understanding of Truth says that we already know the answers, we just have to remember. 

Given my belief that we are all one, then we have full access to Truth before and after we are born. So, in order to get closer to Truth, we just have to strip away all that keeps us from connecting with all relations. This is the path to gaining a deeper understanding of Truth.

The other important concept to realize about Truth is that our approach can really limit our ability to get to Truth.  For instance, our separation that happens when we are born gives us another great gift, which is the perspective of duality.  Much of our understanding of Truth gets muddied because we tend to look at it linearly. By doing so, we not only limit our potential understanding, we also set ourselves up to carry judgment. In other words, we then reach a point where we believe our understanding of a Truth is right; which consequently makes the other side of it wrong.  If you’re interested, I’ll try to expand on this in a future post…