Notes on Life and Learning Lessons Chapter 7

A Part of the Truth

vis-à-vis

the Whole Truth

A friend once told me, “Your words have many truths about life. Tell me, do you know the whole Truth? I am a Christian, a Catholic in particular. Will my religious beliefs help me to know what you have known or will it merely limit my knowledge of the whole Truth?”

I thanked him for his compliments and felt a bit shy about it. Then I replied,

“Let me begin my answer by paraphrasing a spiritual sage I read about a long time ago when I was searching for truths. He said: Truth is like a mirror shattered through time into a thousand pieces.

I guess some people walking along the road of life found a few pieces and were amazed by its beauty, its magnificence, and the wisdom of the words written on them. They then declared that this was the Truth, the whole Truth. Later, they called many people to see it. The people marveled. They were awed. Those who found the few pieces invited the people to worship these few things and to follow whatever was written on it. These founders of pieces of truth consequently made their own interpretations of what they saw written on it. Some of them made good interpretations while some of them misinterpreted it. Worse, some used it later to enrich and empower themselves at the expense of their followers.

I stopped for a while and thought about how some religions had misled and confused many people regarding their real situation. I thought of religions which taught the poor people that their poverty is due to their lack of faith. A certain religion in a country with a very big population taught that poverty, which afflicted the broad majority of their people was a result of karma. Social problems have social causes. The real cause of mass poverty is the concentration of wealth and power on a selfish few.

After reminding myself the question she asked of me, I continued, “There were also some who found other pieces of the Truth. They also marveled at it and said, ‘Such a beautiful piece. Such wisdom in the words written. We should treasure it. But it appears to contain only some pieces of the puzzle we call life. We should look for the other pieces. Perhaps, it is in other places or held by other men.’ Tell me, my friend, what is the relevance of this to your faith?”

He thought for a while and said, “My Christian faith, if I follow the logic of your story, contains only some parts of the whole Truth. But where and how will I find the other parts? And if I see what appears to be part of the whole Truth, how can I know whether it is genuine or not?”

Seeing the sincere search for the whole Truth in his eyes, I said, “Practice first faithfully what you have known from parts you have. At the end of each day, before going to bed, have a little reflection. Find out what went wrong and what went right during the day measuring right and wrong on what your religion has taught you. Remember that a part of the Truth also contains many truths though sometimes, people are confused and misled by bad interpretations of the truth. Find out how you handled the wrong things as well as the right things. Continue the things you handled correctly. Regarding the wrong things you did, find out why you made the mistake. Some mistakes have simple causes; others have deep roots. For instance, impatience and the inability to understand another person may be due to the simple pressures of life. However, in some cases, some weaknesses may have deep roots in one’s childhood experiences. If you did not see and feel the virtues of patience and understanding from your parents, how can these virtues be part of you?

Our parents, like everybody else have strength and weaknesses. Of course, some parents have more weaknesses than strengths and consequently, their children suffer. Whatever virtues our parents failed to teach us, we have no other way of learning except by learning it ourselves. In life, we must learn to teach ourselves. We must continuously find out what is the right way and what is the wrong way of looking at things and at people.

After some time, if the Father Above sees how sincere and serious you are in trying to follow His will based on the few parts that you know, He will gradually lead you to the other missing parts. Never claim to know more than what you really know. Do not say you know the whole Truth when in fact, you only know some parts of it. Other people also searching for the Truth might have seen other parts which you have not seen yet. Be open-minded and critical. To be open-minded means to open your mind to new ideas. But new ideas can be right or wrong. Thus, you must have a critical mind to find out which new idea is right and which is wrong. It will do you a lot of good if you exchange notes with these people who might be holding the other parts. Be honest. Be patient. Keep on doing this everyday and every night, no matter what happens. One day, you will find what you have been looking for – the whole Truth.”

He said he found my brief explanation interesting and that it was sad that he had to leave soon. He asked for a few more elaborations. I told him that there is, I believe, another important not-so-obvious thought beneath the analogy of truth being like a mirror. I asked him, “Everyday, especially in the morning when you wake up and look at the mirror, what do you see?”

He said, “Of course, I see myself as I fix myself. I mean, as I wash my face and my body, shave my beard, comb my hair and fix my clothes.”

Then I told him, “Everytime you look at the mirror, do not just fix your physical appearance. More importantly, fix also your emotions, passions, desires, and your mind. If you do this, you will become a much better person, a person with less and less problems. Then, you will have more and more balance and harmony. Someday, when there is little left to “fix” in your body, heart, and mind, you will realize that there is something inside of you that is an indivisible part of the Source of the whole Truth. That realization will lead you to the Ultimate Source of the whole Truth.”