Truth by Kerry - Thursday, 9 August 2012, 01:29 PM

As I was sitting on the tram this morning I was reading about the Truth. I looked around at my fellow passengers and thought to myself as I often have, is my truth different from yours?? It is better than yours because I respect that your truth is different from mine??

There is no easy answer to this... it does not seem clear to me, even if you can agree to disagree with someone about the truth, you must still extend your truth to acknowledge your fellow citizens, regardless of the evil you think their truth entails.....but they must also extend their truth, supplement it in some way to capture the spirit of your truth.... who does this?? Do you?? Do I??

I don't know how people steal from others, lie to others, cheat to get ahead in life. I don't. My truth does not let this be a part of my life. But I do use take out cups for my coffee, if only that was the worst thing that I did???

I was annoyed with some of the reading - to see that people can manipulate others ideas for their own purposes and then to ride on the coat-tails of that version of the truth.Yet I have seen that in my life, in Australia and working overseas....

What is the truth of today?? The fundamental simplicity of living has not changed much, but our surroundings have - Kothari again....

I lived in Chiang Mai in Thailand for three years, many of my friends were from Burma, many struggled to accept that Aung San Suu Kyi could still lead an opposition, her words were old, she was no longer in touch with the society that she had been imprisoned in. She had not left, but was confined in her community. Her words had aged in relevance with the time she had been 'speaking her truth'.

The only thing I continue to be sure of from the readings, from just simply living, is that I can be responsible to myself for myself. I don't believe in violence. I do believe that we can all be a part of making this world a better place, if we can ever agree on what is better....

Apologies for the philosophical vent.....

Definitely continue to be responsible for yourself, but also try to inspire others to become better people! It’s not only to the benefit of society as a whole, but to the benefit of themselves too: if they do good, they will be healthier, happier people with more kindness and goodness in their life, and then it gets passed forward.

I personally think that ‘The TRUTH’ is too mighty a word. I think everyone has a ‘different reality,’ a different experience in the world, a different education, a different upbringing, thus a different perspective. I don’t think one or the other is better, it’s just different, and we can learn from each other without always having to match.

I think it’s easier for people to take advantage of others when there is no ‘face’ to the disadvantaged. Corporations become a monstrous entity, and lose the ‘human face,’ so the people who lose in the game no longer have individual identities, but rather become pieces of the machine.

If we could deconstruct this machinery and make people human again, then I think we would have more compassionate people, willing to take care of each other, instead of trying to win the rat race to greed and unhappiness!

The concept of what a 'truth' actually is and what it means to different people is a lot more complicated than what I initially thought. As you mentioned Kerry - is my perception of truth the same as those around me- and if not are there any universal truths that we can all agree on and hold the same way? For me now, 'Truth' seems to be related to the subjective creation of judgements and evaluation of facts, which are directly shaped and related to who I am, what I believe in and what I value. The problem with universal truths seems to be, that the pluralized identity's, knowledge's and values of different different people in different situations shape their own personal views of what the 'truth' is and means.

I was very impressed with one of the reading from this week- 'Satyagraha: The Gandhian approach to conflict resolution' which outlined the difference between absolute 'truth' (innate human conscience, love and morals) and relative truth (often conflicting personalized perceptions of reality that humans create themselves). I liked the idea that differing perceptions of relative truth exist within individuals, and that these relative perceptions are 'true' to those that believe in them, but can never be unequivocally proved or discounted when compared to the differing relative truths of others. This makes any means of violent conflict resolution morally unjustifiable as in effect all this means is that you are forcing and valuing your subjective ideals of 'truth' over the subjective views of others- neither of which are completely right or wrong.

I liked the discussion about the differing perceptions of Ang San Suu Kyi that you mentioned the Burmese people you worked with had. I had a similar discussion today about Gandhi with some of my co-workers who originally came from India. I was discussing how impressed I was with his alternative understanding of society and powerful yet non-violent means of social and political change, and was very surprised when I was given a lecture about the 'dark side of Gandhi' and how (in their belief) he sold out the past independence freedom fighter and caused great amounts of needless suffering. I debated the point with them, but when I was discussing this (with my very limited knowledge of Gandhi's beliefs and life) it really hit me that this discussion came down to their belief of what the 'truth' is, and my differing perception. I am really enjoying earning more about what the 'truth' actually is and means, and questioning the validity of my own 'truths'.