Theos-Talk Archives (May 1997 Message tl00309)

Hi

All of us, students of Theo-sophia are searching for Truth. Here is
something that Krishnaji wrote about Truth, which may interest for some.

......doss


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TRUTH IS NOT A FIXED POINT

Man has always sought truth. Not the legendary truth or the truth of books,
not the utterances of the priest. Of course the politicians will never have
truth nor the politico-religious, and certainly not the traditionalist. In
spite of them, man has sought truth. In seeking it he has been snared by
philosophies, by the sacred hymns, by all the romantic absurdities of
thought. He has looked and searched in all the distant places, in all the
shrines, in all man-made structures. Except for a fortunate few, it has
always eluded him.

"What is truth and what is reality? One can understand what is reality, but
the other is not to be understood by the brain with its reason or logic."

Reality is all the things that thought has put together, but the forest, the
tiger, that black dog are not made by thought. They are realities, not the
product of thought. The gods in all the temples in the world are invented by
thought and so by hand, like illusions, like ideals.

"The things of thought and nature are two different phenomena; that is
fairly clear and acceptable. Are you saying that that which is not thought
is truth? You have said the things of thought and thought itself are not and
never will be sacred. That again is fairly comprehensible to any intelligent
person."

One is not so sure that this is accepted by the so-called intelligent men.
If it were, all the temples and churches would be empty overnight. It is
very hard and dangerous to realize, not just verbally, intellectually, that
thought with its delusions, images, its logic, ideals, and so on, is very
limited and will ever be so. Peace cannot be the product of thought, however
thought might organize for it. Peace cannot be bought through prayer,
discipline, or through any organization, religious or secular. To have peace
one must live peacefully.

"What you are saying is almost impossible to actually live in the modern
world. Our very existence is a series of struggles, endless conflicts. We
are caught in this everlasting turmoil until we die."

We are educated to strive, to become; this becoming is the very core of our
lives - to become 'spiritually', and to succeed in the outer world.
Achievement is rewarded. Truth is not a reward; that which is nameless is
not be achieved. It is not there at the end of a long, strenuous discipline,
sacrifice and abstinence.

"Then what is one to do? If none of those will lead to that, then there is
nothing to be done."

Please, do understand that thought, do what it will, cannot comprehend,
realize that. Let us go into it, explore the incapacity of thought, though
it is capable of building dams, computers, rapid communications, and so on.
First of   all, truth is not a fixed point; it is not static; it cannot be
measured by words; it is not a concept, an ideal to be achieved. But look
what human beings have done, what thought has conceived. The ancients of
that part of the world now called India, devised three main paths to the
measureless: the path of knowledge, the path of action, the path of
devotion. All these were to lead eventually to that. These three ways of
life are based on different capacities, different temperaments - romantic -
emotional, active, intellectual. The Christian way, the Buddhist way and the
Islamic way, with their different beliefs, faiths, dogmas - thought is the
origin of all these divisions, separative and so conflicting, destructive.

"I see this is the actual state of the world in which we live."

One could argue against these actualities but that would be merely dialectic
opinion against opinion. All right then, what is next? When one truly grasps
the utter limitation of thought, that is cannot fathom the immeasurable,
that it is functioning from only a small part of the whole brain, and that
our senses do not act as a whole, the very profound realization of these
facts brings about the action of that energy which is not the energy of
memory and of conflict. This is insight. The scientist, the artist, the poet
have partial insight - one hopes they will forgive us for stating this. Only
the truly religious man has total, complete insight.

August 16th, 1981