So, said the sage, you already know truth, or you could not recognize truth, even as you know your own face, so in the mirror know it to be your face looking back at your face. You say, "I came to know the truth," but, rather, "You came to recognize the truth your heart already had become one with in Love." That you know truth in the heart, leads you to desire to hear truth put into words, to see truth in the face of a lover or friend, to feel truth flowing through the lyrics and music of song, or to be in awe of truth before a majestic landscape. Truth seeks form, for loving. Since we are one heart, one spirit, in Spirit, we all already know the truth, but we do not all recognize the truth. And many of us long to taste the truth in words, in sight, in sound, in the eyes of another, while many have become disconnected from the living truth, and they flirt with form, but never unite with form, never make love with truth, at best talk or read about it . And, through words, faces, sounds, all means where the invisible is offered us in a shape, by grace, one makes love with the Truth, through truth. So, through truth being born into and as matter, again and again and again, the Word eternally becoming word, one is given form in which to be gladdened by truth, to merge in union with truth, to reunite with the Beloved through truth that corresponds with the Truth.

At times, you speak of truth with a little "t," such as a truth? At other times, Truth with a capital "T", as in, the Truth? Sometimes, you seem to use "truth" with a little "t" in a manner that could refer to Truth with a capital "T"? What's the difference among these?

There is no difference, not in the sense of polarity or opposition, or essentially, but there is continuity. Truth as a truth is anything consistent with, in correspondence with Truth, so deriving from Truth directly. The Truth, as the Absolute, is an abstract way, common in Hinduism, of referring to what many mean when speaking of God, again the Absolute.

How does one discern when something is truth, or in correspondence with the Truth?

Discernment is often spoken of when persons refer to "spiritual discernment." But they have it wrong. First, "discernment" is an interesting word. "To discern" literally means "to sift apart," and "discern" derives from a root noun "sieve." The mind functions as a sieve, when we analyze something. We humans, thankfully, have been given capacity to do higher thinking. We develop critical skills. I can say, "I arrived at understanding," or "I solved that mathematical equation," or "I came to a crossroads and decided, after thinking through things, that going left was likely the better route."

But what about "spiritual discernment"?

Yes, I was getting to that. In contrast, the "I" has to be diminished in spiritual discernment. Technically, one cannot, from a spiritual orientation, say that he or she discerned something. No one, then, spiritually discerns anything.

Then, how's spiritual discernment possible?

By surrender.

To what? of what?

Surrender arises as the rational act when reason hits the limits of its creative function. Intuitive wisdom arises when intellectualization, or analysis, relaxes, this creating space for that insight to show itself. So, surrender is the relaxing of the mental effort. Surrender is to the Divine, or Truth, or Wisdom, however you refer to the Real, the Absolute.

Interesting, you say that the surrender of the mental effort, itself rational in nature, is a rational act.

Based on context, this can mean that the surrender occurs after the rational aspect has brought the mind to the gateway of the Mystery, so it cannot be anti-rational, for rational brought the mind to that limit, carried itself to a logical dead end. Otherwise, it is rational for it is only rational that the mind was not designed to go beyond its limits, so to surrender the effort is rational, aligned with common sense, with respect for the mind itself. So, this is not, again, anti-mind. The mind works perfectly well in the domain it is designed for, yet only there.

So, what we mean by "understanding" usually is something we arrive at and conclude to be truth, but truth itself comes to us.

Yes, well said. Something true means factual, truth means correspondence with the Truth. Sometimes "understanding" is used for insight, spiritual knowing, if so, how appropriate, for we can divide it into under-standing, for we are to serve truth, in a sense, be under the yoke of truth as that we give ourselves to, as that we love.

Are you playing with words?

We are all playing with words, the question is seeking a positive correspondence with the words we select and what is being indicated by them.

Then, how do you know when something corresponds with the Truth and so is truth?

We are discovered by truth in one of two says, a more relaxed, uneventful manifestation. We simply know, we slightly feel the truth, the correspondence within the body. At other times something is more striking, we feel a sudden, though always subtle, burst of energy in the body ~ not characterized first as emotion, but deeper, more subtle; to have an emotional liking or happiness about an idea, for example, is easily misleading. ~ That latter is like truth fireworks going off, the prior ore like an underlying whisper. In both these ways, the Truth is witnessing to Itself.

So, this whole idea of discovering the truth is incorrect, we can't do it?

It is more true to say, not that we discover truth, but truth discovers us. Another way, we and truth meet, a mutuality, a communion, arises.

Many Christians speak of Jesus referring to himself as "the Truth"? What's that?

Jesus is portrayed as saying, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." All three are one, not three distinct, separate realities. When you meet someone married to the Truth, you meet the Truth, that simple. Few persons are that devoted to the Truth, or even truths. We often prefer our versions of reality, of the Real, of our truths. Yet, truth and the Truth cannot be shaped by our preferences, what is convenient to us. The truth can be upsetting, such is foremost not interested in comforting us initially, but convincing us of itself. If comforted, that often comes later. The Truth, by truth, shapes us in Its image. Remember, I have said, we become what we give ourselves to. To one co-joined, mixed with, truth and Truth, when meeting that one, one meets that he or she has become through Love. No one becomes truth, but by love of truth, or the Truth, but by love of the Truth. You can like ideas, but you fall in love with truth. There is a huge difference.

So, Jesus isn't referring to himself?

Yes and no.

There you go, again, with that yes and no.

When you are married to the Truth, merging with the Truth, so that you can say, "When you see me, truly see me, not merely look at me as a person, a personality, you see the Truth," you as person are not annihilated, you as person separate from the Truth are no more. Person, then, is only a self-sense moving about in the orb, or around the orb, of the Self, the particularized essence in communion with universal Grace, the Absolute, the Beloved, our Friend. So, Jesus as Jesus, the man speaking those words, is fully present as Jesus the man, yet has been oneed with the way, the truth, the life; he speaks as man and more than man. He speaks as the way, the truth, and life, which he, as we, lives within and breathe within.

If one were to ask you, "Where do I begin the search for truth, the Truth, where do I begin?," what might you say.

"Be quiet, enter the Silence. There you will be shown, Silence is the home of wisdom. Truth will be given, there." Of course, there are other means of truth, but this is the foremost, the primal, the indispensable for one who wishes to live intimately with truth and the Truth. No other means can so effectively, so directly convey truth. All other means are indirect, while truth is always direct, even when utilizing indirection through means. Silence itself is a direct way, providing a spaciousness for the unmediated epiphany. Silence is where your nakedness welcomes the nakedness of truth, in the Truth, in the intercourse of Love with Love. The one, then, who loves truth, will see truth, while truth hides itself from the one who is not prepared to appreciate its beauty and its grace, and its fierceness, like a sword cutting through the ignorance that blinds us to Beauty, the glory of Life. To love truth, is to love Life.

*Brian Wilcox. 'Kuan Yin ~ Bodhisattva of Compassion'. Flickr

(C)Brian K. Wilcox, 2019

*The theme of "Lotus of the Heart" is 'Living in Love beyond Beliefs.' This work is presented by Brian K. Wilcox, of Maine, USA. You can order Brian's book An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, through major online booksellers.