What is truth?

[How to be wise]

When we ask the question ‘is it true?’, how do you know whether something is true or not? Is it by your direct experiences? The reason I’m asking this question is to help my own self-inquiry practice. I’m not posing this question for a metaphysical discussion. Any ideas are appreciated.

[the_end_of_me]

You should definitely read "The book of not knowing" by Peter Ralston. Pretty much answers your question in the first few chapters. 

[How to be wise]

@Etagnwo I’m talking practically. I’ve watched Leo’s videos and I’ve heard the concepts of infinity and nothingness to death. But really, in your day to day life, how will you qualify something as being ‘true’? What measures do you use?

Edited July 14, 2018 by How to be wise

[Victor Mgazi]

The problem with the truth is that it will forever be subjective and with that being said, it will all ways be a matter of perception or exist as a belief. Truth implies meaning so therefore it's not absolute and that means it will always be dependent on the perciever. Experience however is experience, from my perspective it is neither direct or indirect and everything it offers will be perception literally .

[How to be wise]

@Victor Mgazi I know that perception is reality. But is there more to truth. For example, you can’t percieve bacteria. But are they real? Is it true that bacteria exists?

[iamme]

truth is that which never changes, brings deep peace and doesn't stir emotions

When you inquire about your beliefs, see if it's true or false, not right or wrong. 

If you're not sure which is it, it's probably false.

[How to be wise]

@Etagnwo but how can you be sure that bacteria doesn’t exist? Can awareness prove that they don’t exist?

[ajasatya]

truth only exists within logical systems, which are built upon convenient axioms. thus, truth is relative to its context of definitions.

the Truth that spiritual seekers talk about is different, though. it does not depend on logical systems so it cannot be expressed with symbols. it can't even be thought!

the Truth that spiritual seekers desire is the raw answer to the most fundamental sort of questions: what is this moment right now? how does Reality come to be? what exactly is reading these words right now?

[Leo Gura]

@How to be wise Very practically for your self-inquiry, start with the premise that only what is strictly in your experience is true.

Under this premise, your face does not exist unless you are looking at it. And even when you are looking at it in a mirror, it still is not "yours" or "a face" because those are concepts, not direct experience. Notice that under this premise even the notion of "Truth" is not real but conceptual. Notice further than even the notion "real" isn't real!

The first most important distinction to make is between concept/thought & actual experience.

But then inquire further.

By deconstructing your web of materialistic beliefs your experience will ultimately become recontextualized into Absolute Being.

The Absolute in none other than what is in your direct experience right now once you strip off all the concepts. But there are a lot of concepts to strip off. Way more than you can presently imagine.

Psychedelics will help you see the Truth directly. Which will then help self-inquiry and deconstruction.

Truth cannot be spoken because it is the the sum total of everything that is the case. You could say that Truth is the physical substrate of reality.

Be careful with trying to conceptualize or imagine Truth. All concepts and images take you away from Truth or Being.

See video: Grasping The Illusory Nature Of Thought.

[Victor Mgazi]

Yes bacteria is real, yes it's true that they exist but only if that's what you have deemed, like I said it's a matter of perception thus not objective. I could literally stare at an apple and consider it unreal because I believe in something that rejects it's existence. So think about it, what decides that something is true or false? An experiment? Then what decides how an experiment proves something to be true or false? Critically analyze this and you will find that it's all based on the perciever. How a practical investigation proves something to be true will be based on beliefs. 

For example, seeing is believing - this old paradigm is no more than a belief, a product of the perciever. 

[Arkandeus]

if its true it genuinely makes you feel better, it brings joy, excitement, expansion

[How to be wise]

@Leo Gura the premise that ‘only my direct experience is true’ is what I’m struggling to accept. For the past two months, I have been using that premise to deconstruct a lot of my beliefs. When I ask ‘is that true’, with that premise I could see that it wasn’t. But for the past few days, there was a huge resistance from my mind that my direct experience alone is true. My entire body started resisting that notion, and I feel pain in my body whenever I try to use that premise for deconstruction. My mind is telling me that my direct experience needs my interpretation in order to get the truth, and that my direct experience without my interpretation formed an incomplete picture of reality. Any advise?

@ajasatya my current self-inquiry method is to use the question ‘is it true’ to deconstruct my beliefs. So I need a sort of basis for what truth is.

@Victor Mgazi my mind is currently rejecting the idea of ‘seeing is believing’. If my perceptions only was truth, the world would look very strange indeed. My entire body is reacting against that.

[How to be wise]

@Arkandeus not very convincing for self-inquiry. But generally, I think you’re right.

[Leo Gura]

15 minutes ago, How to be wise said:

my direct experience without my interpretation formed an incomplete picture of reality.

In this work you are not after a "picture of reality" you are after pure reality itself, which means all picture must be discarded.

If you want pictures of reality, go study science. Inquiry is not about pictures. It's about BEING reality.

This notion you have of "reality" has to go. It's just a concept. Deconstruct it. What is this thing you call "reality"? Notice it's just an idea. What you see in your direct experience is prior to your notions of "reality".

Strip all knowing from the present moment until you are just left sitting in your room with no idea what anything is. Even remove the idea that you are alive, sitting in a room. Or that were ever born. Strip it all off! Try to get to pure raw sensation without any ideas or images of what it is. Don't worry about missing out on reality. Everything that is true is independent of interpretation or images in the mind.

The fact is, you do not know what anything is. Period. Try to get your mind to see this. Don't just think it, experience this not-knowing.

One of the biggest reasons you are stuck is because you have an image of "an external reality" in your mind. You are taking this image to be reality when it is not. This image must go.

Consider the possiblity that there is no such thing as external reality in the same way that there is no such thing as Santa Claus.

[Erlend K]

The colloquial meaning of "True" is something like "in accordance with my experience of reality". This is obviously a grossly facile concetualization.

What "Truth" means, in a strict sense, has been a central point of contention among philosophers for millenia, for good reason. "Truth" seems  to to be one of those truely acaleptic concepts, without any plausible consensus-conceptualization. 

A few uncontroversial (and insipid) statements about truth:

Some pedantic teutologies like "Every apple is an apple" and "1 = 1" seems incontestably true.

A cartesian contention of the type "subjective experiences exists" seems incontestably true.

Then there's socially constructed, definitional truths of the type "two" is defined as "the sum of one pluss one" => It is true that "1 + 1 = 2" within the context of this edifice.

Organons like the laws of logic are mostly assumed to be true, but are occationally challenged.

Any deeper/more interesting claims about truth thruth tends to be fraught with speculative assumptions, contrived definitions poorly maping onto the concept of "Truth" or just plain old sophistry.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Erlend K

[pluto]

When you awaken to your true self(so to speak) you just "know" what is authentic and what is not.

[Leo Gura]

3 hours ago, Erlend K said:

The colloquial meaning of "True" is something like "in accordance with my experience of reality". This is obviously a grossly facile concetualization.

What "Truth" means, in a strict sense, has been a central point of contention among philosophers for millenia, for good reason. "Truth" seems  to to be one of those truely acaleptic concepts, without any plausible consensus-conceptualization. 

A few uncontroversial (and insipid) statements about truth:

Some pedantic teutologies like "Every apple is an apple" and "1 = 1" seems incontestably true.

A cartesian contention of the type "subjective experiences exists" seems incontestably true.

Then there's socially constructed, definitional truths of the type "two" is defined as "the sum of one pluss one" => It is true that "1 + 1 = 2" within the context of this edifice.

Organons like the laws of logic are mostly assumed to be true, but are occationally challenged.

Any deeper/more interesting claims about truth thruth tends to be fraught with speculative assumptions, contrived definitions poorly maping onto the concept of "Truth" or just plain old sophistry.

Be careful with all of these Western philosophical notions of truth. They are not Truth with capital T.

If you want to see Truth with a capital T, just silently look around the room you're in right now. You're looking at Truth. But you're not fully conscious of just what it is yet because ego it taking this room as "my experience", which is a subtle conceptualization still.

The Truth is exactly what's right in front of you. Train your awareness right on it and hold it there for a long time without moving. Just silently observe the Truth. Connect with the mystery of existence.

Your body is made of Truth, the floor is made of Truth, the coffee table is made of Truth, etc. The question is, what the hell is it? It ain't molecules or atoms. It ain't even experience. What is it?

[Salvijus]

90% of what was being said here in the comments is wrong.

Ego is distording your reality now. Take away the ego and you will see things just the way they are. That will be the truth. Now you see things the way it's good for your survival only. 

Now what you like you will exaggerate, what you dislike you will belittle.

Actually physics tells you that your eyes see everything upside down but your mind turns it around for your convenience.

You can achieve this level of perception that your mind is so clear like a mirror. That you start seeing everything upside down.

If you’re in any doubt as to the truth of this, try gently pressing the bottom right side of your eyeball through your bottom eyelid—you should see a black spot appear at the top left side of your vision, proving the image has been flipped.

The mind is like a mirror. A concave mirror exaggerates. A convex mirror depreciates. A plain mirror shows you life the way it is. #SadhguruQuotes

Sadhguru on seeing things in truth.

https://isha.sadhguru.org/us/en/wisdom/article/mysticism-going-beyond-logic

Edited July 15, 2018 by Salvijus

[Highest]

How do you know anything? Direct experience. You are right now gazing at what IS, you are gazing at eternity, pure Truth, pure reality. 

[Guest Quanty]

Breath, Dragon & Change are the universal truth.