Finding the Truth According to Alan Cohen
Through the ages, poets and philosophers have sought to define truth. It’s unlikely that anyone will ever come up with a definition that will satisfy everyone. Words can only eat around the edges of the topic.
Today’s post is an extended excerpt from Alan Cohen‘s book, The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
The real organ of truth is not the brain, but the heart. …. Hafiz, the Persian poet, said, ‘ O you who would learn the marvels of Love from the copybook of reason, I am afraid that you will never really see the point!’
We feel or sense Truth more than we think it. We know it more than we understand it. We can see it more than we can explain it. When we attempt to analyze Truth, we lose ourselves in the dead-end labyrinth of the thinking mind. When we love Truth, however, the storehouse of universal wisdom is opened to us. Our respect for Truth is our investment in its understanding, and our suffering the price of its denial.
The Truth, we discover, cannot be found in a book. We may find words and descriptions of the Truth in a book, but not the Whole Truth, for the Whole Truth is fathomless, ever free of containment, confinement, and conformity….
Truth re-creates itself by its own beauty. There is nothing secret about Truth it will find us where ever we are….
It is said ‘The Truth hurts.” The Truth has never hurt anything; only illusion hurts. The Truth knows only how to heal. Those who resist Truth resist healing, and those in need of healing can find it by embracing Truth.
The Truth brings with it a peace and satisfaction that falsehood cannot imitate. The lover of Truth lives only for the vision of his ideal and he is nourished only by his awareness of it. ….
The Truth is simple … When we return to simple things the Truth reawakens in our heart like a long-exiled lover. If you want to know what the Truth is, put aside your textbooks for awhile and walk along the seashore at sunset. Take a child to the park. Gaze at the stars. Observe the gentle rhythm of your breath. Listen to the sound of the bamboo flute.
Cohen is talking about the timeless, changeless, yet uniquely individual Truth that flows through each of us at every moment. He suggests that by aligning ourselves with it, we will find peace and contentment. By living it we can become truly who we really are without pretense.
Are you living your truth or are you living according rules written by someone else? As long as you live by someone else’s rules, you will never be the person you are here to be. That would be a real shame.
Just in case no one else has reminded you today, you are awesome!
Ray
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