Reality and Truth?
John Michael Talbot

What is the truth? So did Pilate question Jesus during the trial before His execution. Jesus says that we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. He also promises the Spirit to the Church to lead us unto all truth. Indeed, Jesus says that those who worship God must do so in Spirit and in truth. But what does he really mean?

Many commentators have said that this does not just apply to a cold objective truth about doctrines of faith and morality, though this is part of its meaning. It is really about ultimate Reality. We could easily use the word "Reality," instead of "truth," in order to find its deeper meaning.

There is a certain objective truth to religion, to be sure. Most religions teach a certain objective truth about their faith, and the morality of their way of life. Christianity is no exception. Jesus was a man in history. He was born, lived, died, and was resurrected on the Third day. These are objective truths that simply tell us who Jesus is. He also taught certain things about how we are to follow him, and chose leaders from the general disciples to guide the community after he was gone.

These things are all given to us through the Church. Jesus chose the apostles, who installed successors to transmit the teaching as it had been received from Christ. A certain apostolic tradition was developed under the guidance of the successors to the 12 apostles and Simon Peter. Eventually, this primary teaching was written down and collected under that same leadership in the Bible. These are all objective truths about Jesus, and how he wants us to live as his followers.

In Hinduism and Buddhism a similar tradition developed. The Buddhists call it the Dharma Transmission. Dharma simply means the teaching, but it includes an intuitive understanding of ultimate reality that can only be had through the experience of Awakening. Yet it must be authentically transmitted through a teacher to insure that serious mistakes are not made. Like wise in Hinduism, submitting oneself to a teacher means actually receiving the spirit of the guru, called "standing on the shoulders" of one's teacher. A similar thing happens in Christianity when we submit ourselves to the successors to the apostles chosen by Jesus, and receive the Spirit of Jesus as given to the Church since the beginning.

The fullness of the teaching is much bigger than a mere parroting of correct doctrine about Christian morality and faith. It also includes the mystical. This is beyond concepts, emotions, or form of body and soul. It is a matter of spirit, and must be spiritually intuited to be known fully. Most major religions include a mystical aspect to their faith that is beyond words.

The world has become enslaved to a false perception of reality. It is based on reverse priorities in our own human being. Most of us gauge our life based on the senses and emotions of the body first, with the mind getting negative and confused in the process. The spirit gets almost entirely lost in the shuffle. This means that we live our lives only on the surface of Reality at best. We must break free from the addiction to this false perception if we are ever to know the freedom of truth and Reality. This happens when religion makes the jump from objective truth to pure mystery.

The mystical aspect of faith is found through paradox, or an apparent contradiction that speaks a deeper truth. These paradoxes awaken the very spirit of humanity through a breakthrough experience. Examples of this would be finding eternal wealth through poverty, or hearing a Word through silence, and finding ultimate Communion through solitude, and so on. These things all ring true on the deepest levels of our spirit being, but they often seem like contradictions on the more superficial objective levels of thought, emotion, and senses.

These paradoxes break us through the shackles of the deeply ingrained habits and patterns of our false self. They take us back to the Ultimate Reality for which we were originally created. They break us free of the bondage to the misuse of the senses and emotions of the body, and the confusion of our minds, to the Reality of freedom with a spirit guided priority for life.

Jesus is the Ultimate Paradox in his Incarnation and Paschal Mystery. Especially in the latter, he no longer merely teaches these paradoxes as other great masters and religious founders have so often done. Here, he IS the Paradox. He is the I AM, who can finally awaken us to simply BE in the Ultimate Reality of Spirit.

When this happens, then all the rest of our life falls into place. The senses and emotions of the body, and the concepts of mind, are not forgotten or discarded. To the contrary, now they begin to find their right place and really function in a healthy and prosperous way.

So what is your truth? Are you still trying to make life fit together from the outside or have you discovered that the key to happiness lies within? It is found through the reordering of your very being through Christ by learning to live according to Ultimate Reality, rather than by the transitory and illusory things we have often become enslaved to over a lifetime of falsehood and delusion. If you can know this deeper Reality and truth, then the truth will really set you free!

This article was part of a 20-week series originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper between July 14 and November 24, 2001