TRUTH AND HOW YOU KNOW IT

I don't know if I have any loyal readers (most, if any, of you, are probably just friends of mine), but to anyone who knows me, I am wont to argue against statements of absolute truth or moral certainty. You'll be a bit surprised to find me now arguing in favor of truth in probably the strangest places to find it: psychological and emotional motivations.

This basis for this thought starts with a conversation with my girlfriend (love of my life, of course :) ) where we were discussing a conflict that had arisen. During this conversation, I traced the things she had said, connected them with other things she'd said and believed, and tied them all down to a psychological understanding of her motivations and emotions in making the statements that she did. As I reached the conclusion of my understanding, we were both filled with this sense, this resonance inside of us that the explanation that I was making was true, that these were, in fact, the thoughts and motivations that caused the actions we were talking about.

In the middle of writing this post, the reverse happened, where I realized something about myself that I had kept buried. More often than not, we attempt to rationalize them into something else, or refuse to admit them, or dismiss them as untrue. These are egoistic responses, designed to protect your fragile psyche from the possibility of failure or truths that may hurt you, and we all do them. However, if you work with your mind on a consistent basis (which I should be doing more of, I'll admit), you'll very quickly notice the feeling you get when this comes up.

Quite often it's a feeling of resistance. Your mind is searching for alternative explanations for the feeling it doesn't want to admit. Commonly, this results in attacking the source of the anxiety, usually another person, in an attempt to deflect the criticism. Sometimes it's just flat denial. It's not true, you won't believe it. Sometimes it comes out as a form of apathy, where you don't care in order to prevent yourself from feeling hurt by it.

All of these feelings may come up in different situations, depending on causes, and it is only through practice dealing with these feelings that you can let go of them when they come up and not let them control you. The inability to deal with your own faults and work with them will only cause suffering.

We're all working on these type of things, and if you believe in personal growth, becoming intimate with that which is preventing you from being the person you want be will help you eventually not be overpowered by those feelings.

The only TRUTH is the one that exists within you.