Thoughts on Truth

The heart is the arbiter of the true. This is why a simple truth is… simply: true. It has a holistic perfection that is all-inclusive and all-encompassing.

Once we experience something as true at this level of heart, our mind can then begin to understand it; to sort it out, and apply it — inclusively, holistically, and universally… as well as in minute detail and in very specific terms.

This mental understanding can then inform and direct our emotions, so that they become a means for increased sensitivity to others. Our feelings become more empathetic and compassionate. Emotions can reflect at gut-level the higher Truth of heart.

When we get this process reversed, difficulty ensues. When we begin from a purely emotional place, our understanding of what’s true tends to be highly biased and distorted.

Emotions in and of themselves, and left to their own devices, are generally about the selfish perspective of personal desires and fear. It’s all about me…. It’s about “what can I get for me?”, and “what terrifies me?” Other people are perceived purely as a threat or as a means to an end.

Our perspective becomes necessarily limited, exclusionary, and incomplete. We view the world through the distorted lens of isolation and defensiveness.

We then use our mind to meticulously and “intelligently” rationalize reasons why our distorted emotional biases must be “true”. We become rationalizing rather than rational. We look for and find myriad cause for seeing only enemies, hopelessness, and strife — and dismiss anything which contradicts this perspective.

And we thus cut ourselves off from heart altogether. Because heart is incapable of even perceiving the false perspective of the limited and separative distortions inherent in selfish emotional bias.

But when off course, we can begin again.

Upon the realization that our beliefs reflect only conflict, we can reassess from the place of heart. We can open our heart to an examination of the limiting beliefs. We thereby discover what’s actually true and discard the rest.

Our thinking then is freed to become inclusive once again. And our emotions follow suit.

Similarly, it’s wise to beware those whose voices and interpretations of so-called facts engender only such emotional extremes as outrage and despair. This is a tempting dead-end trap that ultimately robs us of personal and collective power to elicit change.

As this practice of re-examining our backwards beliefs and perspectives becomes habit, our lives more consistently reflect harmony, peace of mind, and a compassionate approach to all whom we encounter.

What other point to life can there be but this?