AS I wrote in a previous article, happiness can be best achieved in life not necessarily by finding the right answers, but perhaps by asking the right questions.
To this effect a great question to ask is ‘What is the meaning of Truth?’ Now Roger figure your way out of that one.
Well to answer that, I first want to make two statements of fact that must hold up for any Truth.
No 1. Truth is not my opinion nor your opinion.
No 2. Truth works.
Let’s examine No 1 in more detail. You see, you cannot really have an opinion on Truth as real truth is beyond opinion.
If it is a real Truth and if it is to hold up under all circumstances we have to be very, very careful about opinions as these opinions arise from the thoughts of Man and Man by his very nature can be flawed.
If I was to carry this a little further we cannot believe in the Truth we Know in the Truth. Beliefs by their very nature come from the opinion (thoughts) of Man and thus may be flawed, whereas Knowing is a statement of fact (not opinion!).
A classic example of this is as follows. Since the beginning of mankind, up to circa 500 years ago, man thought that the world was flat (Man and in particular the powers that be i.e. the hierarchy of the Catholic Church).
Because of these beliefs man was afraid to travel too far for fear that he would fall off the edge (there are many ancient drawings to substantiate this).
These beliefs also suited the church as Rome was the centre of power and basically all power extended from there and above it was Heaven and below the fires of Hell.
Two men Copernicus and Galileo began to observe nature and suggested that the world was not flat but round and also that the earth was not the centre of the universe but orbited the sun.
When they suggested this, they were in fear of being of being excommunicated by The Church. It is not important that Galileo was right or that the Church was wrong (except God bless those who disagreed with it at the time).
What is most important is The Truth – the world is round!
No 2. Truth works. It works because it is a Truth and it is a Truth because it works.
The world is round is a Truth. It stand up to all the tests. All of the thousands flights commissioned on a daily basis land more or less on time and can be navigated to perfection because the flight engineers employed by Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary and Virgin’s Richard Branson etc … can work out the exact flight path of any given aircraft based on Truth i.e Fact.
How do we know that it’s a Truth? Because it works.
Another working example of this is – We need to breathe. Let’s test the criteria.
No 1. It is not my opinion nor your opinion
No 2. It works (If you don’t believe me try ‘not breathing’ and see how long you last!)
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true. The other is to refuse to believe what is true.” – Soren Kierkegaard
Next week I am going to write about ‘Bringing mindfulness into the workplace’
• Roger Harty is a life coach and can be contacted on 087-6128336, on twitter at @Innerjoyz1 or by email rogharty@gmail.com
