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WHAT IS TRUTH?  by Stefan Carey 

What is truth? It has been defined as something to be relied on, firm, established, honest, faithful (Etymological Dictionary, 669.) The question is very tricky perhaps because of its utter simplicity. Jesus was asked, “What is truth?”, by Herod, but he did not answer – perhaps because Herod was not the kind of person who would understand even if an answer were given, but I wonder if Jesus’s non-answer is an answer in itself. However I am not going to cheat and say that “Truth is”… and make this the end of my article. 

Truth is. Yet each of us perceives the universe differently – that is a truth is it not? This is a paradox, but a workable one for it keeps life interesting and keeps you guessing as to what reality is all about! Truth is relative to the beholder, i.e. its perceptions depend on the mind, however our perception cannot change the truth itself. For example the law of cause and effect as expressed by gravity we accept as a truth – ignoring it will not make it disappear.  Theosophy is an attempt to pass on what is described as a golden thread running through all the ancient and modern religions and philosophies. It is an attempt to define the inner workings of the universe – beyond what you can see or perceive. It is an attempt to keep alive a great tradition called the wisdom tradition, to pass on teachings that are open to questioning, examination and exploration without creating an authority who says you must believe so and so.  

“Just because there is no way of perceiving truth or of interpreting nature, just so there ought to be as many different visions of theosophy as there are theosophists, balanced with the idea that the task of the society is to transmit the teachings as we have received them. Paradox again: on the one hand the Theosophical Society has no creed or authoritatively proclaimed beliefs or tenets to which an applicant for Fellowship in the organisation must adhere; the only prerequisite for joining the T.S. is an acceptance of the principle of universal brotherhood, the implication being that a member is expected to support its philanthropic and humanitarian goals, even if he does not become versed in the philosophy of theosophy. On the other hand the doctrines – imbodied in theosophy are the modern heirs to an ancient heritage of imparted truths, a living, wisdom-tradition that is ever young because renewed time and again as it is rediscovered and reinterpreted by every seeker and original thinker with “inspiration of his own”. (Grace Knoche, General Letter, page 4, July 1983.)              It is also worth mentioning here that no-one else can do our growing for us, no-one else can enlarge our consciousness for us – we have to do it for ourselves. Theosophy attempts to provide some of the answers to our big questions, but asks that each person consider and weigh up all the possibilities for themselves. Theosophy does not dictate the terms of our understanding. It presents (with no apologies) what it believes to be a fundamental explanation of reality through three propositions. Theosophy is not a science, a religion or a philosophy, but explores and expresses all three, and definitely does not wish to start a new religion. Basic to all the ideas in theosophy is the idea of a universal brotherhood. Theosophy is altruism.  But, before we discuss this serious side to the determination of what is fundamental to the workings of the universe, let us turn our minds to a more personal side of the question.  How do we approach this search of ours for the answers? What attitude of mind should we have? What ideas could we consider, to help us to be open minded about what we are and what we see? I would like to quote from several inspired pieces of writing, the first from John P. van Mater which appeared in December 1978 Sunrise: “Truth will never die”, secondly his paper titled, “Is the Universe Alive?”, and the third from a Sunrise article of Jun/July 1987 titled “Revelation and the Hunger for Truth”, by Jules van Bergen. All these are available from our library in Melbourne.

Quote 1: “In today’s life one of our great lacks appears to be a grasp of the wholeness of knowledge of truth. At the present time our general outlook is dominated by the views of rather materialistic scientists, i.e., when we consider the structure, origin, and destiny of the cosmos and man, we usually have in mind a mixture of various of the physical and life sciences. Few indeed in the West turn to religion or philosophy when discussing this subject. The result is that when we read ancient works on cosmogenesis, etc., we are scarcely in a position to appreciate the meaning of their succession of gods and goddesses describing how the universal being came to birth, breathing forth the suns in vast recurring cosmic cycles. And when it is added that man is a spark of this central fire and had his origins in the primal genesis of our earth, we feel all this to be highly metaphysical – indeed imaginary! Yet, in truth, when these ancient cosmogonies are properly understood they do not contradict any scientific facts – though they may conflict with many materially based theories devised to explain these facts. We shall be in a far better position to understand the principles of the ancient wisdom expressed and symbolized in archaic cosmologies, if we accept the premise that in former eras the cosmos was considered as real spiritually as it is tangible physically.” (‘Truth Will Never Die’ John P. van Mater.

Quote 2: “The real factors or – elements that make up most of what we term life or living things are invisible to us – such as consciousness, for example, which is the motor behind all our actions and comprehensions – our drive to be and to know. The inner nature even of our best friends cannot be seen. We can feel their inward presence, sense the love and comradeship – We see the faces we know so well. But we cannot see into the inner space – the thoughts and aspirations and perhaps rightly so. These qualities are there, nonetheless, even though we can only vaguely sense them. They are unseen to our everyday eyes. Yet these hidden thoughts and aspirations within all of us are the most important factors that shape our character and our lives. This same reasoning can be applied to the cosmos. The actual laws governing its structure and its operations are also invisible. We become aware of these laws only because of the manner in which they organise and regulate nature and the world around us. The laws themselves we cannot see. From out of the visible flows forth the visible. Consider, for example, the birth of a human, being: Where was that invisible entity before it overshadowed a fertilised germ cell and gradually unfolded and proliferated it into a human being? A human being is a veritable cosmos of lesser lives: atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, not to mention feelings, thoughts, activity, and conscious awareness. The same may be said of all seeds of life, each at its own level – whether animal, vegetable, or even minerals.” (‘Is the Universe Alive?’, John P van Mater.)  ^{Quote 3: “Not long after the war, in a time when no one thought about pollution of the environment or atom bombs, and we were filled with the feeling that we would be able to work for a better world, there was a theosophical youth camp in Ommen. One sunny afternoon a game was organized. A number of posts were set out on a route through the fields and woods. Maddy and I were stationed at such a post and we received at intervals the small groups of children who had to learn a watchword from us in order to continue on their way. The watchword was simplified for the children, and was whispered to them because it was a secret Seek this wisdom by doing service, by strong search, by questions, and by humility. We repeated this so often that afternoon, and the words made such an impression on me that I have never forgotten them. They are from the Bhagavad-Gita. In the years that have passed since then, those words have been faithful friends; they have never lost their potency. On the contrary, their magic has continued to reveal itself. In his Fountain-Source of Occultism G. de Purucker talks about the manner of instruction in the Mystery schools: ‘The method is not to fill the mind of the learner full of other men’s thoughts, but to arouse the spiritual fire in himself which brings about an awakening of the understanding, so that in very truth the neophyte becomes his own initiator.’ ‘What one receives from outside in the way of ideas, of thoughts, are merely the outward stimuli, arousing the inner vibration preparing for the reception of the light within… Devotion to truth, to the point of utterly forgetting oneself, opens the channel of reception, Light and knowledge then enter the mind and heart – from oneself, from one’s inner god…; and it is in this wise that the man [person] initiates himself. – pages: 57-8.  When you read this for the first time, it is rather surprising and you have to really consider whether you can agree with it. One afternoon at the beginning of summer we were discussing this passage and, while I was busy with the coffee, my friend Menno suddenly said: “The sparrows are gone. Do you know that the sparrows are gone?!” My immediate reaction was: “Yes, you’re right.” Though I had not seen them for a good five weeks, until that moment I had not missed them. But I did not have to reflect: the knowledge was there at once. The gulf between that which happens in the outside world and the springing up of it in one’s consciousness is bridged so quickly that it can scarcely be distinguished – it appears as one and the same thing – and we think that reality is outside of us. The sparrows showed me how imperceptibly knowledge is stored, knowledge that later emerges at the right moment. Coming out of an endless past, we have stored an infinitude of knowledge in our more perfected higher principles. When we learn to tap that source, all knowledge will be within our reach. It is our “dreams of matter” that keep us from that knowledge. We mistake the road-map for the road, we take the dead-letter for the truth, and the life of our personality for the true life. (Jules van Bergen ‘Revelation And The Hunger For Truth’}

Second the eternity of boundless space as the ground for the emergence and disappearance of numberless universes and their inhabitants in accordance with cyclic law.   Third, that all beings are fundamentally identical with the universal spirit and must reimbody repeatedly in all types of forms in order to evolve forth their full potentials. The ideas are expanded in many of the books produced by the Theosophical Society – the Secret Doctrine here on the table before me now is but one of the most famous. But for me they are not the only useful and fundamental truths as far as I can see, there are the workings of the universe, but what about our immediate problems of human existence?  Long ago a man sat under a tree in a park and spoke to his friends. He had something rather useful to say to them, as it was the product of endless incarnations of experience: the four noble truths” From Douglas Palmer’s article in 1988 August/September Sunrise, I quote: “Immediately after his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, tradition affirms that the Buddha went to Benares and in the Deer Park gave his first discourse, in which he expounded the celebrated Four Noble Truths. “One thing I teach, O Bhikkhus, sorrow and the end of sorrow,” said the Buddha, and also: “It is through not understanding these Four Noble Truths that we have wandered so long around this cycle of rebirth, you and I.” The First Noble Truth concerns the problem we all face as human beings: the fact of suffering. Old age, disease, and death are the most obvious physical forms, but we also suffer mentally from sorrow and grief. The actual word used is duhkha and in most texts this has been translated as suffering. This does not imply that all life is suffering, and some writers have suggested a better translation would be “frustration” or “unease”. The Second Noble Truth deals with the cause of suffering, that is trishna variously described as desire, clinging, or grasping. We are “always struggling to get things that are pleasurable and avoid things that are painful, to find ease and security, and generally to manipulate people and situations to be the way we want them. And because the rest of the world does not necessarily fit in with what we want, we often find ourselves cutting against the general flow of things, and getting hurt and disappointed in the process” (Christmas Humphreys). It must be clearly understood that desire is neither good nor evil, for it is the motive force behind samsara (the cycle of births and deaths), the phenomenal world, and produces what the Buddha called “the unrolling and rolling up of the worlds”. As the late Dr. D.T. Suzuki remarked, “desire rightly directed leads to compassion”. The Third Noble Truth states that “suffering and frustration can be ended.” How? By the attainment of nirvana. This Sanskrit word has been interpreted as the blowing out or extinction of a flame and as the cessation of the whirlings of the mind – this is the aim of Raja Yoga, as defined in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. 

In the Fourth Noble Truth Buddha described the means whereby this state may be attained. This is known as the Noble Eightfold Path, each aspect of which is preceded by the word samyak meaning perfect, complete, or right. It is a series of graded steps commencing with right viewpoint or belief and ending with right meditation, contemplation, or Samadhi. Little can be said in words about this final stage. It is a non-dual state of mind – thinker and thought, subject and object cease to exist as separate entities. The state of Samadhi is the ground from which we may take an existential leap into satori or nirvana. In Zen, it is the last foot of the Hundred Foot Pole which we gradually climb, and from which we finally jump off! But long before we reach this supernal state, we have to make a choice. Whether to seek liberation for Self alone; or, having reached the threshold of Nirvana, to turn back as the Buddha did, and inspire wayward humanity to tread the Path of Enlightenment.” [See Stefan’s lecture on this site on ‘Two paths of Spiritual Development’]. To end this topic I would like to mention the viewpoints of other thinkers, my wife included, who made a rather profound comment this morning after we were discussing universal laws over coffee. She said: “Universals laws are a form of conscience”. I’d be interested in your reaction to this idea! 

From Krishnamurti (Commentaries on Living, p.46, J. Krishnamurti.)we also have a very interesting perspective: “Truth is not an idea, a conclusion. Is God to be found by seeking him out? Can you search after the unknowable? To find you must know what you are seeking. If you seek to find, what you find will be a self projection; it will be what you desire, and the creation of desire is not truth. To seek truth is to deny it. Truth has no fixed abode, there is no path, no guide to it, and the word is not truth…” This article goes on for quite some time, and ends up in saying that truth comes where there is no resistance, no searching!!  From Jesus: Through a dark glass darkly – Jesus addressed the Corinthians – referred to the blurring of the primal vision, the elementary self obscured by the experiences and vicissitudes of normal daily life.  From the Buddhist tradition: Truth is like a diamond that fell to the earth and shattered allowing many different refractions and reflections. Because truth is not a thing – it is the very inner nature of the universe itself, how much of this is revealed to us depends on us. How noble the truth is – but our finite minds cannot embrace the infinite – we are advised by the wise to keep our conceptions of the universe and infinitude or the boundless all simple – ‘never ending life and consciousness in unceasing motion everywhere’ – the ancients recognised the reality of being and let it go at that.  To end, I’ll quote from the work of the late Ainslie Meares, the famous Australian psychiatrist, in his book The Wealth Within, who bravely attempted to define the boundless: “And what of this other thing that comes in the eye of the storm and in the stillness of the night, yet resides in a drop of dew? Cherish it, for it is born of the spirit and transcends all else”.

The above is the text of a lecture presented to the Theosophical Society Pasadena in melbourne Australia. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Theosophical Society Pasadena.