Truthfully...

Truth…
What is truth…or better yet, what is the truth…even better, what is the Truth. Well, I’ll tell you…I don’t know. It could mean that Truth could be good and the opposite of that, Deception, is evil. It could mean Truth is God and the Deception is Satan. Or maybe there’s no such thing as Truth and only truth exists. Perhaps the existence of Truth is simply a deception put forth by evil forces. To be honest, I really don’t care what it is; I’m just a passenger on this ship, and as long as we’re not hitting icebergs and sinking, I’m not going to worry too much about the captain or the destination.

That being said, I believe Truth is a mysterious, strange, elusive part of every human being’s life. (or at least the quest for Truth is.) I believe that no one can possibly know the entire Truth and anyone who is certain he knows the truth is foolish and even dangerous. (example: suicide bombers kill thousands because they believe they know the Truth) (better example: Hitler had thousands of Jews executed by people who believed he knew the Truth) (even better example: Christian crusaders killed thousands because they believed they knew the Truth). I believe they may have had morsels of the truth and twisted or stretched these morsels into the entire thing, which led to grave human error.

So how does one find Truth? I believe that we, as humans, can experience little bits of Truth in a myriad of ways. Usually, when we’re not even looking for it. I believe one way is through aesthetic experience. When I am singing a song or playing the piano, I have moments of clarity. It’s really kind of stupid if you think about it. If I say certain words with certain pitches I can reach something bigger than myself that I can’t quite explain. I guess the Truth really can’t be fully explained, it should be experienced. I believe the Truth can be experienced emotionally. For example, an intimate experience with someone you truly love or being separated from someone you care about deeply can lead to an experience of Truth. I am not going to go into every way one can experience Truth. As a matter of fact, I don’t know every way one can experience Truth and I don’t even really want to know. All I do know is I’ve had my little run-ins with Truth and I like them. I want more; but I’m not going to get greedy, I’ll be content with my little bits of Truth.

So what have I concluded from my little Truth morsels… not much. But here’s what it comes down to: The main reason we are on this earth is to end human suffering; or, at the very least, to not cause anymore suffering than already exists in this world. The Truth I have experienced causes me to ask that question daily, Is what I’m doing ending human suffering or causing more? Through asking this question, I believe we can avoid the aforementioned grave human errors that help make this world a place of suffering for so many. I know, it’s not much and it’s not very specific. Sorry. However, I believe asking that question will give us more and more of these Truth experiences. The ironic part is, the more little bits we get, the more we realize we don’t know much of the Truth. Personally, that’s why I think people who boastfully announce they know the Truth, probably haven’t experienced much of it. But in my mind, the little snapshots of Truth are all we should really expect from this mysterious, strange, elusive existence we have here on Earth. And that’s plenty for me.