What Is Truth?

I met a friend for lunch, a friend who is well-read and deep into all forms of philosophy and science and psychology and the arts.  A rich man for sure.  I can be challenged in such situations, even fearful regarding my own relationship with Pathwork.  Will I be debunked or laughed at regarding my passion for the Pathwork teachings in the presence of such an accomplished thinker?

But this day I was less fearful, more open, even more passionate about Pathwork, that which enlivens me, inspires me, and resonates so deeply with my soul.  I talked with my friend about my passion for Mahler, how Mahler expresses feelings I may suppress, and how all this happens unconsciously in me.  For my friend, Beethoven did this for him in his younger years.  “Me too,” I responded, going on to explain my delight in discovering Beethoven in my teen years.  I was excited about our common ground. My friend and I seemed to be on the same page regarding how music can resonate and enliven our souls.

I risked jumping into the topic of Pathwork, expressing how it resonates and enlivens me.  How it draws out of me truths that apparently lie deep within my psyche.  My friend responded with similar passions within his psyche with his favorite authors such as Schopenhauer, Kant, and Nietzsche.  He held the same passions as I did, all be it about different life philosophies.

We then talked about the importance of following what resonates within our souls. What resonates within our respective souls is who we are in some important way. This is not blind following, but informed inquiry.  Neither of us was trying to convince the other that we were right and the other wrong.  Rather we were connecting in the mere fact that our psyches were so enlivened by what resonated as truths to our own being.  It was this principle of inner resonance upon which we could celebrate each other’s being.

This was new for me.  In the past I would have felt threatened by my truth being proven wrong by the other and would have wanted the other to have as much excitement about my truth, my Pathwork, as I did, thereby somehow affirming my path.  Today this old way felt so foolish.  Now I felt so free, free to be me and free to let the other be his own true self. Yes, each of our truths are truth, these truths are what we bring to consciousness in the world.  It is part of each of our uniqueness.

And it is not a fixed truth but rather a dynamic and open truth, taking in new material, new people, new ideas, evaluating them for resonance with our deepest being, and, if they feel true at that deep level, adopting them as a new expression of our deepest truth.   There is no fear, no defending, no preaching in this model. Just sharing what is alive in each of us and being delighted in the presence of another who has a passion as deep as mine for such matters.  I left lunch celebrating both of our experiences of truth and being fully who each of us is and who each of us is becoming as our lives continue to be touched by other ideas, other people, and the arts, Nature, and all that surrounds us.