There’s an ancient spiritual teaching: “Know yourself.”
It’s considered essential to the spiritual path.
There’s another old saying: “The truth will set you free.”
It seems that ‘truth’ has a very special power…
It seems to me, the key to spiritual growth is self-knowledge.
It comes from self-awareness, a desire to be honest with ourselves.
It comes from self-trust, a sense that “I am OK and valuable.”
Self-knowledge shows us who we are, where we are, and what we really want.
But the saying, “the truth will set you free” is very interesting.
Does truth have special power to free us from something?
Or, when we know deep truth, does our awareness of freedom increase?
Why is it that ‘truth’ can set me free?
And of course, what is ‘freedom’ anyway?
It seems to me, our mind changes when we contact or experience a greater truth.
Just the act of seeing, contacting, feeling, silently knowing greater reality changes us,
changes the mind, and this change is what develops greater spiritual freedom.
When greater reality is seen, the seer (the one who sees) experiences identity and oneness
with this greater reality.
Seeing truth, knowing more of the real, the personal mind receives universal energy and experiences more space to be itself...
Seeing truth or greater reality transforms mind, and we feel greater life and spaciousness.
The stronger our desire for truth, the more completely and fast mind is transformed...
A poem:
If it is black, I’d like to see it as black.
When it is gray, I hope to see that as well.
If the true color hurts and I’d rather turn away,
It’s painful to me, but I still want to see it clearly.
I can survive heart break, but I cannot live well outside truth.
My most lovely fantasy always dissolves in the heat lamp of reality,
And though it’s unpleasant, I’d rather accustom myself to the truth.
It’s harder at first, but in the end, our tree grows stronger in the light of reality.
At last, the desire for greater truth becomes our companion on the road home.
We do want to be real, to be honest, and to be complete just as we are.
Scott Mandelker PhD
San Francisco, CA
January 21, 2008
