Commentary on ACIM Lesson 86
Reviewing Lesson 71 (Only God's plan for salvation will work.)
and Lesson 72 (Holding grievances is a attack on God's plan for salvation.)
What is truth? And can you know it?
The answer to the second question is both yes and no. The first question has no answer.
Why is there no answer to 'what is truth?'. Because, just like the question 'Does a tree falling in a forest make any sound if there is no one to hear?', the actual truth of God (remember an earlier Commentary mention of Buddha declaring 'My true home is brighter than ten thousand suns') is not graspable by any being still identifying with their physical form as 'who they are'. So any answer given about Truth at best points in the direction of it, but it cannot actually answer What It IS.
Why is the answer to the second question both yes and no? Because, yes, it is valuable to ask the question even without hope of answer, for your call commands God to call you back. That is universal law. If you are sensitive to His call back, you can get your bearings (direction to head) on the next segment of your spiritual journey. As you keep calling God and then following His headings, the journey becomes one of deeper and deeper trust, and a functional kind of knowing becomes tangibly present. It is not 'revelation', but it is a complete freedom from doubt. So in that way, we can know truth while still self-identified as a body. But is that really KNOWING TRUTH? I would say no..... it is knowing the effects of truth.
Why am I writing all this? Just to lay out the paradox, and describe the game we are in (this game called Life).
I went to a wonderful satsang (spiritual talk) tonight (yesterday, by the time you read this) on the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the central holy books of Hindu theology. It says the same thing the Course does, but with a completely different cast of characters set in a different cultural and time setting. Remember Rumi's poetry.... "Out beyond all ideas of right or wrong, there is a field.... I will meet you there"....? That field is the setting of this chapter's conversation--- discussing what is knowledge, who is the knower of it, and can it be attained.
In my life, I love to get as many points of view on a thing as possible. I have been trained to recognize that they are all valid, which allows them to be merged to create a fuller picture than any single view ever could. And as a 'Sufi', the teaching always was: Use what you can, don't worry about the rest. Put it on a shelf. Perhaps one day it will also be useful. One quickly apparent benefit of accepting this teaching is one is more open to studying many 'often widely varied' other teaching.
In this process, God is the Guide. After all, God KNOWS you. I mean totally. In fact, God IS YOU (which is way different than You IS God, by the way). So, 'God IS YOU-ness' Guides you to and through all the necessary curriculum that will 'forward the action' (as they say in Landmark).
The quickest way to fast forward spiritual growth is probably the simplest and the most difficult. It is to get there are no exceptions, ever, to our unity with God. There are only illusions, and truth. Having said that, I must now say that the Way, the Great Way (to God) is to Know the Truth. Which, of course, I have also just explained that you can't. But that just means 'you' can't.
So what I am saying is 'The Truth is self-obvious, but not to a self'. Which explains why a spiritual practice of surrendering/releasing/ transcending our 'self' is a good choice, if Knowing Truth is what calls you. Correction. If the call to Know Truth is what God has given you as a priceless graduation gift.
This I teach that I may also learn, and in this writing especially, every time I said 'you', I definitely also meant 'I'.
Namaste,
David
Reviewing Lesson 71 (Only God's plan for salvation will work.)
and Lesson 72 (Holding grievances is a attack on God's plan for salvation.)
What is truth? And can you know it?
The answer to the second question is both yes and no. The first question has no answer.
Why is there no answer to 'what is truth?'. Because, just like the question 'Does a tree falling in a forest make any sound if there is no one to hear?', the actual truth of God (remember an earlier Commentary mention of Buddha declaring 'My true home is brighter than ten thousand suns') is not graspable by any being still identifying with their physical form as 'who they are'. So any answer given about Truth at best points in the direction of it, but it cannot actually answer What It IS.
Why is the answer to the second question both yes and no? Because, yes, it is valuable to ask the question even without hope of answer, for your call commands God to call you back. That is universal law. If you are sensitive to His call back, you can get your bearings (direction to head) on the next segment of your spiritual journey. As you keep calling God and then following His headings, the journey becomes one of deeper and deeper trust, and a functional kind of knowing becomes tangibly present. It is not 'revelation', but it is a complete freedom from doubt. So in that way, we can know truth while still self-identified as a body. But is that really KNOWING TRUTH? I would say no..... it is knowing the effects of truth.
Why am I writing all this? Just to lay out the paradox, and describe the game we are in (this game called Life).
I went to a wonderful satsang (spiritual talk) tonight (yesterday, by the time you read this) on the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the central holy books of Hindu theology. It says the same thing the Course does, but with a completely different cast of characters set in a different cultural and time setting. Remember Rumi's poetry.... "Out beyond all ideas of right or wrong, there is a field.... I will meet you there"....? That field is the setting of this chapter's conversation--- discussing what is knowledge, who is the knower of it, and can it be attained.
In my life, I love to get as many points of view on a thing as possible. I have been trained to recognize that they are all valid, which allows them to be merged to create a fuller picture than any single view ever could. And as a 'Sufi', the teaching always was: Use what you can, don't worry about the rest. Put it on a shelf. Perhaps one day it will also be useful. One quickly apparent benefit of accepting this teaching is one is more open to studying many 'often widely varied' other teaching.
In this process, God is the Guide. After all, God KNOWS you. I mean totally. In fact, God IS YOU (which is way different than You IS God, by the way). So, 'God IS YOU-ness' Guides you to and through all the necessary curriculum that will 'forward the action' (as they say in Landmark).
The quickest way to fast forward spiritual growth is probably the simplest and the most difficult. It is to get there are no exceptions, ever, to our unity with God. There are only illusions, and truth. Having said that, I must now say that the Way, the Great Way (to God) is to Know the Truth. Which, of course, I have also just explained that you can't. But that just means 'you' can't.
So what I am saying is 'The Truth is self-obvious, but not to a self'. Which explains why a spiritual practice of surrendering/releasing/ transcending our 'self' is a good choice, if Knowing Truth is what calls you. Correction. If the call to Know Truth is what God has given you as a priceless graduation gift.
This I teach that I may also learn, and in this writing especially, every time I said 'you', I definitely also meant 'I'.
Namaste,
David
posted by Rev. David Seacord at
7:37 AM
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