Truth Is Illusion

We have all seen them, those water puddles in front of us as we are driving on a long stretch of road on a warm summer afternoon. The instant that you get to a certain distance from the water puddle, is suddenly disappears, it was only a mirage. If I posed the question to you: "is such a water puddle real?" what would you answer? What about "truth," is there a link between truth and reality?

What do we mean by truth? How do we know when someone is telling us the truth? If I tell you: "go into my office and on top of my desk you will find my watch." You do so and sure enough, you find a watch on top of the desk, was I telling you the truth? Lets bring our inquisitive eye really close to this. What is the element that makes something true? It seems that when something in the external dimension of objects matches an internal object of the mind, a bell rings and truth has been accessed. If you came from an indigenous part of the world where watches have not yet been invented, let alone the name label for it, how would you know if I was telling you the truth?

My point simply is that "truth" can only exist in the realm of forms, "exclusively," in what Ken Wilber often refers as "flatland." Truth requires consistency, for objects to hold still long enough for a match to be made between our idea and the external pattern. Yet, we now know that even the most seemingly solid object are anything but solid. The amazing thing is that you do not have to visit a university lab in order to realize the impermanence of all objective forms. Simply become aware of awareness and it will be realized that the only constant is indeed change! Right now the forms before you seem to be steady. This computer monitor, these words, etc. but before you know it, everything looks different! You are within a building, inside of a car, outdoors, etc, all form dancing within the boundless field of ever present awareness.

I make the point that truth (all truth), "ultimately" is an illusion, simply because truth necessitates form, whether it is a conceptual, ideological, or tangible. The fuel that propels truth is conceptual identification, yet all concepts, just as all things, do not hold still. It is why all the sages of time immemorial have pointed to the states of consciousness. We all go through, simply because we are human, the 3 basic stages. What we call the waking state, dream state, and deep "dreamless" sleep state. It is the third where the impermanence of all concepts is most acutely realized. In deep dreamless sleep there is no concept of being Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, being Democrat, Republican, a scientist, a chemist, a teacher--none of these "concepts" arise in deep dreamless sleep. There is therefore no division between a truth and an untruth. Truth needs its contrasting element of untruth in order to exist, or else it could not be known. Just like pleasure would not be known if pain did not exist. We would not know joy if we had not shed tears of sadness.

This disappearance, non-static element that all form harbors, is the reason why truth is ultimately an illusion. It is why those who have studied the higher stages of psychological development have pointed out that there comes a point in our maturation that knowing truth no longer becomes a driving force, it looses its appeal. Just as one no longer wonders whether the story of the three little pics is true, once one matures beyond the childhood years. Maturity enables us to transcend the stages when we confuse the map (concepts, ideologies) for the actual territory (direct, here, now actuality) and what draws one most at these higher levels is to know, no longer what is true, but what is "real."

Reality does not necessitate a concept or an internal/external match in order for a bell ring. When one wants to know what is real, awareness even takes itself into consideration. Here is when the really mature questions are asked, but not to a priest, not to a congregation, not to a physicist, not to a psychologists, but to the one birthing the question. Here, the water puddle phenomenon is clearly seen, that everything that forms within the field of awareness evaporates the minute awareness is directed at it. It is when all concepts lose their adhesive strength, no concept, no matter how beautiful, can ever hold, can ever stick. You smile because it is nothing new! No concept has ever stuck! No concept ever can! Not for you, not for me. We both will close our eyes tonight and in deep dreamless sleep there will be nothing to identify with! Psychological maturity only makes this a more permanent trait in what we call the waking state. You have seen too much, caught your parents placing the presents under the Christmas tree instead of a white bearded man!

Even the "me" that once believed was too a mirage! It is why the search for truth burns itself out in the formless flames of reality--and as a great teacher once said: "the not finding becomes the finding" (Adya, 2002).