Truth - The Ever-Shining Light of Satya - Damayanti.store

November 13, 2021

The Definition of Truth

Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth

Buddha

Truth is a simple concept. The truth is that which actually exists. It is the factual reality. The word for truth in Sanskrit is Satya which carries this sense of reality and existence. It means ‘true,' ‘real,' ‘actual,' and ‘genuine.'

Satya is derived from the word sat, which means ‘being,' ‘existing,' ‘happening,' and ‘being present. So again, the concept is simple. The truth is that which actually exists in the present. A chair is a chair, a flower is a flower, an idea floating through your mind is an idea, and a feeling in your heart is simply that, a feeling.

All these things are true in the sense that they are actually there in the present moment. They are perceptible to our physical, mental, or emotional observation instruments.

The complications arise, however, when we delve into the realm of our perception of truth and examine the veils of illusion that can distort our perception of reality. Like a cloud that blots out the sun, these distortions can make us see things or "truths" that aren't there and miss things that are.

The Definition of Truth
The Difficulties of Objective Truth
Stay Focused On Only Truth
So try this three times every day:

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The Difficulties of Objective Truth

Let's take a traditional story to illustrate where the difficulties of truth can lie.

You are in a field at dusk, walking along a track. In the fading light, you see a snake lying in your path. You are terrified. You can't go forward toward the danger and are reluctant to turn and run in case it slithers after you.

Your heart races, and your mind is frozen. Then you remember you have a flashlight. You slide it carefully out of your pocket and turn it on. You shine the beam on the snake. And you discover the truth - that it is just a piece of rope lying on the path.

Now relief washes over you, your heart rate settles, your mind clears, and your body can move on.

What does this story tell us about the nature of truth and the distorting power of our faulty perception? Let's change the story.

On that very same evening, a different fellow arrives home from a shopping expedition in town. He discovers that he has dropped the rope that he just purchased. He needs it to tie up a sagging fence post, and he doesn't want to go and buy more rope.

He knows it must have fallen out somewhere on the path to home, so he sets out while there is still some daylight. He sees a coiled shape ahead of him and sighs with relief as he bends down and picks up his rope.

Two different people see the same object in the half-light. They react in diametrically different ways.

Where does the truth lie? Where is Satya, that which actually exists in reality?

The rope was always a rope. It was never a snake. But the man who, in the fading light, thought he saw a snake, whose senses brought him plausible information that he was in danger, reacted accordingly.

If it had been a snake, his fight-flight-freeze response would have been appropriate. Shining a light on the path showed him his error, and his reaction changed again quite appropriately.

But before he thought of using his flashlight, it might have been hard to convince him that what he saw wasn't true.

The other fellow experienced his own series of thoughts and feelings about that rope. Mild annoyance and then relief. But his were based on the truth or actual reality of the situation. He was never under the illusory idea that the shape lying on the path was a snake. Lucky him.

There is a lot to unpack here.

Much of the trouble, strife, and misunderstandings in the world, from the petty and the domestic to the political and international sphere, come from a lot of people seeing snakes in the half-light when all that lies in their path is a rope.

And when someone insists there's a snake that others can't see, then a lot of discord is inevitable.

Listen to Sarah Mane, speaker, author, radio host, talking about Satya.

Stay Focused On Only Truth

Here's a simple example of how a little light can clear things up.

I coached a young woman who wanted guidance on a few issues. One of these issues was some trouble at her work. She was well-trained and hardworking and got on well with her colleagues, with one exception. A manager in the office was unhelpful and cold to her.

My client couldn't fathom what she had done wrong, and it played on her mind. I suggested she find a suitable time in a neutral location and ask if there was something she needed to do or rectify. She followed my advice, and the manager was surprised that this was the impression he had created.

In fact, the truth was that he thought the young woman's work was exceptional and was considering her for a promotion. A little light shone on the situation, a little clarity, true statements, and one of life's small snakes was revealed to be a piece of rope.

Of course, not all misunderstandings and misperceptions are so easily solved. And we certainly have little power over the clouds that block the sun in other people's lives. We can't reach into everyone else's pocket, pull out the flashlight and turn their snakes into ropes. But we can take simple steps to do it for ourselves.

The easiest way to clear our perceptions is to repeatedly practice coming into the present moment and simply looking at what is in front of us, hearing whatever sounds are arriving at our ears, smelling, tasting, and touching.

This simple, easy, and effective exercise has the power to transform our lives. It does this by dispelling ignorance and illusion.

Most of us have a lot of snakes in our lives – baseless fears, groundless jealousies, anger, hatred, and insecurities that are often woven into being through our negative self-talk.

Coming into the present moment and actual state, focusing on our physical senses and real things, or truths, takes us out of our heads and gets us grounded in reality.

Some people wear Satya jewelry to continuously remind themselves of truth honesty and goodness. The Damayanti store offers a wide variety of Satya spiritual jewelry.

So try this three times every day:

Sit quietly and relax.
Take a few deep breaths.
Then connect with the sense of touch as you sit in your chair.
Feel your clothes against your skin and the air on your face as it passes in and out of your body.
Then see the colors and shapes of whatever is in your line of sight.
Move gently on to taste and smell.
Then let your hearing receive sounds. There might be a temptation to go out to them and let their mind wander. Instead of that, stay in your chair in the room and let the sounds come to you.

Once you are resting happily in the present moment with your mind quiet, then you can let your awareness expand to take in the whole room, the house or building, and the local area.

You can allow your awareness to expand limitlessly. If the mind wanders off, then come back to your body sitting in the chair.

This exercise takes just a few minutes. Try it two or three times every day, and I can guarantee that you will feel very differently about things after a few weeks.

In my experience, some of those ‘snakes' in your life slither off on their own, and you wake up to realize that a lot of the petty jealousies, annoyances, and fears that used to loom so largely have just disappeared.

Others may require a bit more work, but now you'll have the energy to apply reason or take another practical step. Flashlights come in all shapes and sizes.

For many of us, some of the most persistent illusory snakes are internal. We are not talking here about something someone says at the office. The snakes that can really do with some light are the ones that live inside our heads and hearts.

The negative self-talk I mentioned above is responsible for much of this. Many of us have sentences that run through our heads, like:

“I am a failure,”
“I don't deserve to be loved,”
“I am ugly, hopeless, or stupid.”

Sentences like these sap our confidence and energy; they undermine our relationships with ourselves and others.

And they are snakes.

Unexamined, they lie in our path in the half-light, freezing us with fear or depression or filling us with anger or envy. And these ideas and feelings are not true.

The wise tell us that the truth about ourselves, about who we really are, is that we are limitless beings with the power of pure consciousness and are full of universal energies of creativity, goodness, and courage.

If we examined our achievements in life dispassionately – our friends, our families, our academic and professional accomplishments – there is a lot on the plus side of the ledger. And doing this is a good start to banishing the snake of deceptive, negative self-talk.

But the practice I described above is the best way of getting out the flashlight, shining it on the path, and revealing the rope. Sit quietly for two or three minutes, two or three times a day, and connect with the present moment's reality.

This will connect you to the truth of the vase of flowers in the room and the birdsong outside your window. And, gradually, it will also connect you with the truth of who you really are, an infinite universal being. That is a rope well-worth revealing.