What is Truth?! - Page 6

lunamoth · 04-19-2005, 08:57 PM

Here, here! Three cheers for our moderators and let's get back to dialogue.

peace,
lunamoth

earl · 04-27-2005, 09:59 PM

The title of this thread got my attention, though noticed most of the succeeding dialogue was about competing "truth" claims, some of whose pages i skipped!

Thought i'd respond to the apparent intent of its title with a quotation from Brother David Steindl-Rast, that wonderful contemporary contemplative (and integrative) Christian writer. In an interview he was asked if ever in his "moments of truth" he though he had "the Truth" and he responded:

"The key question is not one concerning objective 'facts out there,' but a deeply personal question addressed to the heart of each of us. The question is what is your attitude towards truth? When you think of truth, is your foremost desire to 'grasp it?' Are you convinced the truth is something you can have, possess, hold firmly in one's hand as it were? If the answer is more or less 'yes,' that's where your problem comes from.

Try to look at it with fresh eyes. Remember your own deepest experiences. In your moments of truth, is it ever correct to say that you have the truth? does that truly reflect your experience? Wouldn't you rather say in those moments that the truth has you? You stand under it when you truly understand. But, it is not 'standing' strictly speaking; it is a dynamic movement. St. Paul speaks of 'doing truth in love.' That is a far cry from grasping. Truth is something we discover by carrying it out. It is not a list of statements, but a direction of life. What we grasp of truth is necessarily always partial and limited. No matter how huge your hands and firm your grip, you can only hold so much. The right inner attitude toward truth is not expressed by the grasping hand only, but by the open hand, capable of receiving what e.e.cummings calls 'illimitable reality'...Yes, there many given facts we have to grasp. But mere grasping of facts will lead us at best to the accumulation of knowledge. What our heart really longs for is wisdom. And wisdom is found when we not only grab and use reality, but when we let it grab us, savor it, let it speak to us and so reveal its deep meaning...There is no room here for grasping, but all the room in the world for responding."

Have a good one, Earl

truthseeker · 04-27-2005, 11:13 PM

Phenomenal!

juantoo3 · 04-28-2005, 02:57 PM

Kindest Regards, Earl! Welcome to CR!

Well said.

Paladin · 04-28-2005, 04:32 PM

Beautiful! Thank you so much Earl, I have only read his commentary on Meister Eckhart, the title I believe was Meister Eckhart, From whom God Hid Nothing, or something close to that. Could you please post the title of other works of his for us?

Thank you!

earl · 04-28-2005, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladin

Beautiful! Thank you so much Earl, I have only read his commentary on Meister Eckhart, the title I believe was Meister Eckhart, From whom God Hid Nothing, or something close to that. Could you please post the title of other works of his for us?

Thank you!

You can find a number of Steindl-Rast's wonderful writings online at a website he co-created related to gratefulness:

http://www.gratefulness.org

I'm a huge Meister Eckhart fan-in fact his writings are so purely mystical and so stripped of tradtional christian overlays that he's the main reason i can still feel a part of the "Christian" camp, braodly defined. I've been thinking about starting a thread re him here soon if their isn't 1 here already. Take care, Earl

lunamoth · 04-28-2005, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by earl

You can find a number of Steindl-Rast's wonderful writings online at a website he co-created related to gratefulness:

http://www.gratefulness.org

I'm a huge Meister Eckhart fan-in fact his writings are so purely mystical and so stripped of tradtional christian overlays that he's the main reason i can still feel a part of the "Christian" camp, braodly defined. I've been thinking about starting a thread re him here soon if their isn't 1 here already. Take care, Earl

With quotes, I hope.

lunamoth

Paladin · 04-29-2005, 01:34 AM

Thanks again Earl, I just added the URL to my favorites!

Quahom1 · 04-29-2005, 02:42 AM

Isn't "Truth" the ingredients on the back of a Bazooka Buble gum wrapper? No, my bad, that is the wonders of the universe...

v/r

Q

Paladin · 04-29-2005, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quahom1

Isn't "Truth" the ingredients on the back of a Bazooka Buble gum wrapper? No, my bad, that is the wonders of the universe...

v/r

Q

Hmmm, aren't you the same fellow that thought paradox was another word for two piers?

Or was that me?

Quahom1 · 04-29-2005, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladin

Hmmm, aren't you the same fellow that thought paradox was another word for two piers?

Or was that me?

Naw, paradox, is two medics who can't make up their minds how to repair a soldier's leg...

v/r

Q

Paladin · 04-29-2005, 03:39 AM

ISFP · 05-30-2005, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Try to look at it with fresh eyes. Remember your own deepest experiences. In your moments of truth, is it ever correct to say that you have the truth? Does that truly reflect your experience? Wouldn't you rather say in those moments that the truth has you?

wonderful quote, earl. thank you for sharing! this guy sounds really cool.

essentially this is what i believe, as well. truth is relative and personal. we can project some notion of truth on to big, general questions if we want to, but we can also discover truth through living day to day mindfully.

Quahom1 · 05-30-2005, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISFP

wonderful quote, earl. thank you for sharing! this guy sounds really cool.

essentially this is what i believe, as well. truth is relative and personal. we can project some notion of truth on to big, general questions if we want to, but we can also discover truth through living day to day mindfully.

Interesting. I think that individual truth may be relative, but there is an absolute truth that we can't change, no matter how many people vote in favor of (changing). I think that deep inside us we know that to be fact. But we tend to gloss over it, to better suit our own personal needs, wants and desires.

I think that absolute truth eventually knocks each and everyone of us between the eyes in time. Whether we accept it or not is a different matter.

I think the absolute truth about life is (depending upon how each person is dominated in thought) "what is in it for me?". You know - "Who am I, why am I here, what is my purpose."

Very self centered, though not neccessarily selfish, thought. How we react to the answers we find vs. what we personally want...

my two cents

v/r

Q

Chela · 09-19-2005, 02:32 AM

Truth is that which does not change.