Spiritual Truth

I suspect that most of us believe in the concept of an ‘absolute truth’ about any given thing. The problem is that the reality is usually much more complex than that. Rather than black and white, there are just so many shades of grey.

Although I always make the distinction between religion and spirituality, I will use religious examples here:

Picture two sides going to war – a religious war. Both pray to their ‘God’ for victory and believe the ‘truth’ to be on their side. Technically only one side ever ‘wins’ a war (although no-one ever wins a war, as we know). So an ‘absolute truth’ is difficult if not impossible to define. I won’t even go into how many countless millions have died over the years in the name of wars fought about religious ‘truth’.

Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you are really my disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” This could easily be taken out of context. He wasn’t asking his listeners to tell the truth. The ‘truth’ to which Jesus referred was belief in what He said on behalf of God. The Jews thought they were already ‘free’ as descendants of Abraham, couldn’t get past that, and so did not understand what Jesus meant by ‘truth’. Spiritual truth cannot be defined, put in a box and tied with a bow.

I’m not sure where that leaves us, other than listening to our bodies. We know when what we think, say or do has integrity for us. Our bodies will happily acknowledge a ‘good’ feeling or knowing. It feels ‘right’. When we are out of integrity; being arrogant in our opinions or telling lies, our bodies will be ‘screaming’ at us if we are conscious.

In the end, the ‘truth’ for each of us is what we understand it to be when we have an open mind, an open heart and an open channel to the Universe. No hidden agendas, no scores to settle, no ill will towards anyone else and no self denial contribute to our best ‘truth’. Fortunately Source is forgiving if we are giving it our best shot!

Love, peace and wisdom