What is Truth?

YIN DOLMAH

TRUTH

Sometimes, I wish I could set a trap and capture this thing

called truth, and lock it up in a bottle like I do with the juice

from my freshly squeezed oranges.

I am yet to come across a man or woman who did not express

their desire and love for that which we call truth.

Great wars have been waged and many have perished in

battle because they believed in their hearts they were on the

side of truth.

Does truth exist to serve a purpose or is truth wholly

independent and unaffected by any purpose; whether that

purpose be worthwhile or otherwise?

Does truth evolve or is it unchangeable? Is truth affected by

motive or is it unaffected by intent?

These questions have bedeviled me greatly for much of my

life. I have traveled the world and exposed myself to many

cultures and traditions hoping to better understand this thing

we call truth.

In my quest for truth, I once came across an old woman in

Brazil named Mariah.

This old woman was greatly revered by all who knew her in

the land. She was respected for her wisdom and ability to

understand complex matters regarding humanity.

I posed to her the same question regarding truth. She smiled

and asked me if I ever considered time, and the relationship

time had with truth? The old woman asked me, “does time

change Yin?” to which I replied in the affirmative.

The old woman gently retorted:

I beg to differ. I do not believe time changes.

YIN DOLMAH

Events change.

It is what we do with time that changes. Not time itself.

We measure the interval between changing events and refer

to those measurements as time.

Yin, the same time which existed at the beginning of the

universe exists unchanged today.

No one knows what time is in its true form. No one has ever

seen time or touched it.

No one has ever felt it in his or her hands.

However, we are witnesses to different events which take

place within time and that is what we measure and refer to

as time.

Time provides us the resource which permits unique events

to occur within space.

How is that related to truth?

Just as time is unchangeable, so is truth.

Just as time is unchangeable except what we do with it, so

truth is unchangeable except what we do with it.

Just as none of us will ever have a full grasp of time; just as

we are all accorded little glimpses, just as we experience

aspects as they relate to time, so none of us will ever know

truth in its fullness.

Everyone experiences time in a different manner even

though time is unchangeable, and so will everyone

experience truth in their own unique and personal way even

though truth is unchangeable.

The old lady told a story to highlight what she wanted to

explain to me regarding truth.

YIN DOLMAH

She told me about a great painter in medieval Europe who

was commissioned to paint the portrait of the last supper of

Jesus Christ and his disciples.

The painter decided to find thirteen men to serve as models

for his painting. One model was supposed to represent Jesus

Christ while the other twelve models would represent his

twelve disciples.

The painter expected his models to have physical features

which closely resembled each of the men he was going to

represent in his painting.

Finding the right models proved to be the hardest part of the

painter’s work.

He searched for several weeks until one day, he encountered

a young man in church whose appearance was a perfect fit

for what he imagined Jesus would have looked like. The

painter went on to find other models whose appearances

matched what he imagined was a true reflection of each of

the disciples.

The painter found models for every disciple except one.

He could not find a model who perfectly fit his

conceptualization of Judas Iscariot.

The painter imagined Judas, the traitor who sold his friend

Jesus for a few pieces of silver to those who sought to harm

him; would have an appearance which immediately evoked

the imagery of wickedness.

The face of Judas was supposed to scream ‘greed and

betrayal’.

A decade after the painter was commissioned to paint the

last supper, he still had not come across the man who

perfectly fit his profile of Judas Iscariot.

YIN DOLMAH

One day, while visiting a prison, the painter came across a

prisoner whose eyes immediately reminded him of Judas.

The man’s face bore the exact look the painter imagined for

the traitor and which had eluded him for a decade.

The painter was granted permission to use the prisoner as his

final model for his painting of the last supper.

The painter worked for days with his model making sure to

capture every feature on his face, so no detail was lost.

As he painted the image of the prisoner, the painter noticed

a change in the prisoner’s demeanor.

The man had an uneasiness about him and seemed to be

greatly bothered by something.

The painter noticed the uneasiness of the prisoner was

getting worse each passing day, so he stopped painting and

asked the prisoner what it was that bothered him so much.

The prisoner was in uncontrollable tears as he screamed:

“I was your model for Jesus Christ ten years ago!”

Yin, why am I telling you this story? What is the relationship

between this story and truth? the old woman asked me.

I tell it to you because what was true regarding the

model at the beginning of the painting project was still true

ten years later, but the application of that truth ten years later

would not have worked the same way it did at the

beginning of the painting project.

While I was still trying to marinade the old woman’s story

regarding the last supper, she continued to hammer home her

point regarding truth.

Consider this statement, Mariah continued as she wrote

something on a piece of cardboard.

YIN DOLMAH

“YOU SHALL GO YOU SHALL RETURN NEVER IN

WAR SHALL YOU PERISH”

She handed me the piece of cardboard and asked me to

interpret what she wrote.

I looked at it carefully and I told her it meant the recipient of

the message would go to war and return safely with no harm

coming their way.

Mariah looked at me and said “your interpretation is right

based on where you put your punctuation.”

She wrote two sentences on another piece of cardboard and

handed the cardboard to me.

The two sentences she wrote were:

“YOU SHALL GO YOU SHALL RETURN, NEVER IN

WAR SHALL YOU PERISH”

“YOU SHALL GO YOU SHALL RETURN NEVER, IN

WAR SHALL YOU PERISH”

As I looked at the two sentences she wrote, she asked me if

they meant the same thing. I responded, “no. The first

sentence means the subject will return safely from war while

the second statement meant the subject would perish in war.”

True, the old woman retorted. That is what truth looks like.

Truth comes to us in an unchangeable manner just as the

statement I wrote for you.

YIN DOLMAH

What truth does is, it presents us with a punctuation, and it

is our job to figure out where to put that punctuation so that

the unchangeable truth becomes our individual and personal

truth. Love, and an open mind are the punctuations truth

presents us.

If we act in love and with an open mind, we will often find

that we place the punctuations exactly where they need to be

so that our personal truth is in perfect alignment with the

unchangeable truth. Any other considerations other than

love and an open mind will likely lead to misplacement of

the punctuation which the unchangeable truth provides us.

Misplacement of the punctuation, will most likely place our

personal and individual truth out of alignment with the

unchangeable truth.

How then do we handle truth so that we do not create

unnecessary strife and wreak havoc on ourselves in the name

of ‘defending the truth’ like we have done for millennia?

What have we done with time to avoid conflicts and wars in

the name of time that we have failed to do with truth to

prevent chaos and bloodshed in its name?

We created two things for time: Calendars and watches and

they work great for us. I am not aware of too many wars that

have been fought in the name of time.

The reason being, as long as each person follows what the

watches and calendars stipulate, there is agreement the world

over even though ‘time’ and dates are different everywhere

you go in the world.

Have we created anything for truth to keep us from getting

at each other’s throats as we have with time?

We do not need a new invention. We already have the

tools.

YIN DOLMAH

Truth has already presented us with the two pieces of

equipment needed to serve the same purpose watches and

calendars do for time.

The problem is we do not use them the same way we use our

watches and calendars. Why we do not use them baffles the

living breath out of me.

The two tools are:

1. Love: Do all things with pure love and you will

operate in truth.

2. Open mindedness: Approach all things with an open

mind, casting away all filters

and preconceived notions and you will operate in

truth.

That is the truth. Do you have any further questions?

The old woman asked me. I looked at her, greatly impressed

by her wisdom. I was speechless. After a moment, I

answered, “no, no further questions.” I thanked her and as I

turned to walk away, something struck me, so I turned

around and asked the old woman a question; I enquired of

her,

“if truth is so elusive, should we then never try to seek it?”

“Great question,” she answered.

YIN DOLMAH

“If I may add my own little take on truth, the search for truth

is desirable and I have come to find out based on my own

experience that we tend to go far and wide in search for the

truth only to find out the whole time, truth was staring us in

the face and yet we conveniently refused to recognize it.

Sometimes, because of traditions and culture which provide

us a safe haven from truth. Truth is no respecter of persons,

does not have any favorites and will come to you in the form

of your neighbor who you hate passionately or come to you

in the form of a sibling who makes you angry whenever you

see him.

If we use the second tool truth has presented us, which is:

‘Approach all things with an open mind’, we will more

quickly identify truth when we see her,” she concluded.

May we operate with love and an open mind in everything

we do so we might get close to the truth in all our endeavors.