I don't believe truth to be absolute. It's relative. One of my favourite quotes of all time?
The beauty of the truth need not be proclaimed nor believed. It skips from soul to soul, changing form each time it touches, but it is what it is. I have seen it and one day you will too."
[Source: Mark Helpirin The Winters Tale]
The illusion of TRUTH as some solid 'thing' that can be believed in always, the bedrock of life that is ever-unchanging?
Image by Gidon Pico from Pixabay
It's an illusion.
I very much appreciated this quote I saw online in the last days, from @amaterasolar:
I don't believe anything - as My father taught Me. I place probabilities of truth, evaluating the data by asking the question, Does that explain what I see? The more something explains what I see, the higher the probability of truth I give it. In this way, I do not emotionally attach to things being as I labeled them (true/false) and if new data come along that better explain what I see, I adjust My probabilities.
And it brings me to how I measure and evaluate things which might be true (with a lower case 't'), or presented as truth.
Consider the Source was the mantra of one of my lecturers in professional writing school a gerzillion years ago. It has served me better than most advice in my 56 years, and multiple times has required me to change my beliefs as, indeed, I have considered the source. That doesn't need library-level research efforts, or even much time. Rather it needs a willingness to detach - to step back and observe.
Mostly I base what I believe on the vibe a person gives off. That intangible, energetic something that makes me realize that they're sorted in that part of their life and may have some learning or different-new truth for me to consider. When THAT person talks to me, I listen.
The observing of others and the "truths" they espouse is best done in the little things. In the way they relate to others, follow through, explain things away, behave in chat rooms, respond to messages, remember details, and in the way they thrive.
You see, I have come to use THRIVING as one of my best measures for what I base beliefs on.
- The solo person with endless drama with their ex giving communication and relationship advice?
- The person spouting health advice who is chronically unwell, anxious and dysfunctional?
- The person banging the decentralized community pulpit who still sells on amazon?
- The fat person giving fitness advice?
- The vocal vegan who sneaks in a Double Cheese Burger when no one is looking?
I think you see my point. A person needs to LIVE their truth. If they're not thriving and vibing about that thing they're trying to sell me on, then something in me closes them down as valid sources of information.
I choose to focus on those people who have integrated and DO and LIVE what they espouse to be truth. I am far more likely to believe what they say or share, since the quiet testimony they ARE is really all that needs to be said.
Which brings me to my second measure: the amount someone tries to actively sell me or talks about something.
I have learned that the person endlessly shilling something is like a drowning person. The loud verbal thrashing tells me more than what they're trying to say/sell. They could be selling meditation, or the latest new diet, or community as a lifestyle, or religion. The more they push it, write it and try to convince others, the less it's likely to be real and alive for them in the deepest level of their own life.
What makes me believe one thing more than another? The way it is presented to me. And mostly by whom.
I also use what I call the rule of 3s.
Stuff, ideas and people which are meant for me come in 3s, if I am observant. So the first person spouting on about meditation in between pouty anxiety fits may, indeed, be disqualified. But the second person in a short space of time who incidentally is able to confirm an early meeting "cos they are always up to mediate anyway" makes me reconsider. Already my ears are pricked up and sensitized to the idea of meditation. And then it's usually confirmed by a 3rd thing, person or event. A book about meditation is given to me, I turn my laptop on and the FIRST thing-post-article I see is about meditation. The woman next to me in the queue at Immigration is a meditation teacher.
The Rule of 3s has supported my search for meaning and truth for decades.
I believe it to be my higher self manifesting those incidents, events, chance meetings and thoughts which resonate with the frequency of what my deepest self knows that I need to know, and believe.
When the promptings of my deepest being are reflected and resonated (co-created) in the physical world, I KNOW I am on the right track and I can relax into the ease of believing in something or someone.
For a while.
What Makes you Believe One Thing More Than Another?This is my response to @abundance.tribe's Biweekly Question:
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I recently overheard a podcast/discussion hubby was listening to and one of the things that came up was that people lie, they always have and they always will. It's just a fact, so why do many place so much belief in religious writings that have been translated and transcribed by so many different people? As I read the first quotes, that was what came to mind. That and the film, the invention of lying.
Truth is a strange concept, really. It is indeed relative.
I'd really like the link to thhat podcast if it's not too much trouble. Yes, couldn't agree more about the absurdity of people who say 'The Buddha said' or "Jesus said' when it fact is reportage which ha been chinese-whispered for centuries.
!ENGAGE 25
Now you're asking! 😅 He doesn't remember which one it was, but it was Joe Rogan interviewing Duncan Trussell on YouTube. There are a few interviews with him. Joe has a lot of interviews which you may enjoy. Shaun likes to have them on in the background, because they are long.
ENGAGEtokens.For a while, until an adjustment needs to be made.
I love that quote about determining truth based on probability of truth. What I hear, see or read on MSM now has a very low probability of being true for instance. Maybe a tidbit here and there can be trusted, but the overall picture is likely to be false.
Probability of truth is a really honest, and reasonable, way to consider things, no?
And, like you, now how certain news sources, people, places - as soon as they say something, there is something in my yhat recoils, knowing it is most unlikely to be true.
Appreciate you stopping by @owasco
!ENGAGE 15
ENGAGEtokens.Interesting about your rule of 3. I had never heard of that before but I like how it has you believe
A good way to connect to the higher self and your "deeper self" another term I had never heard before yet I feel a need to have depth in your being which would be very similar!
Great response to @Abundance.tribe 's Biweekly Question
I often feel "higher self" carries a level of transcending distance, whereas "deeper self" is embedded within and just needs discovery. It's amazing how words carry suchh levels of subtelty, no?
!ENGAGE 25
Subtleties indeed!
ENGAGEtokens.#POSH
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