A Sufi mystic stopped the crazy sage Nasrudin in the street. He made a sign pointing to the sky to test whether Nasrudin was sensitive to inner knowledge. The sign signified, "There is only one truth, which covers all."
Nasrudin's companion thought, "The Sufi is mad. I wonder what precautions Nasrudin will take?" Nasrudin looked in a knapsack and took out a coil of rope. He handed the rope to his companion. "Excellent," thought the companion, "we will bind this madman up if he becomes violet."
The Sufi saw what Nasrudin meant. He had signified, "Ordinary humanity tries to find truth by methods as unsuitable as attempting to climb into the sky with a rope."
* * *
For sacred truth to reveal itself, we use means in sync with it. We employ means to prepare ourselves to receive the truth present. Truth does not withhold itself. We are accurate when saying, "I saw the truth," not, "I discovered the truth." Truth is obvious. However, knowledge in every area requires the means aligned with that domain of understanding, and so with sacred knowledge.
Much religion is spiritually impotent because it does not prepare itself to see the obvious truth by means to see it. Intellectualization alone, including doctrine and social and moral teaching, and ritual, does not uncover the subtle reality always presenting itself to us. One moves along the surface while the depths remain unplumed.
Wisdom paths have taught spiritual practices to see the truth. Still, the question remains, "Do I want to see the truth?" To see the truth will not necessarily make your life more comfortable, especially until you adapt to the vision shown to you. And when unwilling to see the truth, the means we engage in our spiritual path may blind us more to the truth.
Last, truth is not an object to arrive at, to get, or to uncover. It is a subject. When opening to truth, we open to ourselves, the self of All. To see truth, we meet it in a subject-with-subject relationship. Then, we see there is one subject in love. To see the truth, we co-create with the truth an intimacy in which love arises - we are loved, truth is loved, one loving.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
