TRUTH IN LIES

I once asked a friend of mine if he believed there could be Truth in a lie. He said "of course not, it's a lie." But, there actually can be Truth in a lie, if what is being said has a deeper meaning that contains Truth. We must learn, to discern.

For example, what if my son forgot to close the front door and our puppy got out. We spend time to find him and fortunately we do. Now, I can sit my son down and tell him how irresponsible he was for leaving the door open ... which would go in one ear and out the other ... or I can tell him a story. Something like this:

"When I was your age, my friend Tommy left his door open and his family looked for hours to find their puppy and they never did. Imagine how sad they all were when they lost their puppy, Can you please do your best to make sure to close the front door when you come home from school?"

Now THIS ... will stay with him. He'll remember this story because it speaks to his heart and emotions rather than just his mind. The lesson here, is that I never had a friend named Tommy who lost his puppy. It was a bold-faced lie. But not a lie as we see it, there was Truth hidden within. It was a fable, a myth, an story designed to teach a deeper lesson.

This was the way most ancient scripture among many civilizations was written. It was not written to be taken as literal and historical. It was written as parables, metaphors, allegories ... stories containing deeper lessons for a people that had no books, DVD's, Internet, and most without any ability to read or write. They told stories ... passion plays. Dramatic campfire tales. What scripture calls "dark sayings of old." Many of these "stories" contained a hidden teaching "for those who had eyes to see, and ears to hear."

So before we can determine a lie versus Truth, we have to first discern the difference between what we are really talking about - fact versus fiction, and Truth versus illusion. An illusion is a necessary presence and appears to be real, but will dissipate and dissolve in the presence of Truth. It is the duality of one. Fact versus fiction is simply it happened or it didn't.

Here's a good way to understand the difference. When you look into a mirror, the mirror is necessary for you to see the image of yourself. But the job of the mirror is merely to show you ... you. Once you see yourself, you realize the mirror is an illusion, and it is you that is the reality. The illusion is no longer needed but was a lesson for you. You have learned what you needed to know and only the Truth of you remains. The two, have become one, but there needed to be TWO (duality) in order to become ONE.

Ancient scripture and myth, including the Bible, tell many stories that were never to be taken as historical and literal events. They were using people, places, and things as part of an allegorical myth to explain them in a way that would be both entertaining, and that would hold remembrance for us. We may not easily remember what a teacher writes up on the blackboard or prompter, but if the teacher told us a story that contained within it - the lesson, we would retain and understand it's meaning better, and longer. We may even pass it around. It's kind of like a joke, we may not remember exactly line for line how the story goes, but we remember the gist of it, the subject matter, and the punch line.

To wrap up this article, it is important to know that - other than math - none of us will ever experience Ultimate Truth in this incarnation. But we will experience Personal Truth. And we do this through experience. When we actually experience something, witness it, we accept it to be true ... at least for us ... because it is our experience. All else is assumption and opinion. The only way that I would know that you keep water bottles in your refrigerator, is if I look inside and see it for my self. Much the same with our spiritual experiences. We have to look inside, and see for ourselves ... rather than simply accept someone else's opinion. Simply put, if you weren't there to experience an event or happening, then your REALLY don't KNOW that it happened or not. So you must ask yourself ... DID it happen, or DOES it happen?

Just a thought ...

~Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.