Is There a Truth That Is True for All?

A Chinese worker from Yunnan, a Somali from Mogadishu, a New York yellow cab driver of Tamil origin: nothing brings them together, neither language, nor culture, nor beliefs. And yet, something is rigorously common to them. This text starts from this simple observation to question an idea that has become suspect in our individualistic societies: that of a truth which would not be relative.

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Is There a Truth That Is True for All?
What Life Has in Common with Itself, Beneath All Our Differences

A Chinese worker from Yunnan, a Somali from Mogadishu, a New York yellow cab driver of Tamil origin: nothing brings them together, neither language, nor culture, nor beliefs. And yet, something is rigorously common to them. This text starts from this simple observation to question an idea that has become suspect in our individualistic societies: that of a truth which would not be relative.

The fundamental truth exists. It is true for all and has always been so. Some, jealous of their freedom of thought, may rebel upon reading this affirmation and say: "There isn't just one truth, to each their own!" Yet fundamental truth is not in competition with each person's truth. It is what is common to all living beings: Life itself.

That each person has a personal truth does not prevent fundamental truth from existing. One does not exclude the other.

We all have our opinions, our convictions, our way of seeing things, our history, our culture, our sensibility. All of this constitutes a personal truth, relative to a person, a situation, or a given moment.

But fundamental truth is of another order.

It was never born and will never die. Everything depends on it and it depends on nothing. It is the common denominator of everything that exists. What answers to this definition is Life. Life, not existence.

Existence is that span of time running from the birth to the death of the body. We exist with a name, a history, a character, memories, plans. All of this begins one day and ends another day.

Life is beyond this particular existence. It does not belong to us. We participate in it.

A human being can be Chinese, Somali, French, or Indian, live in a large city or a village, be a believer or an atheist, rich or poor. They may hold ideas completely different from their neighbor's. Yet, if they are alive, they possess something in common with them: Life. This is what is primary. So a question arises: who created Life? God?

But God did not create Life, since He was alive before creating it. Perhaps, then, we must stop considering God and Life as two separate realities. Perhaps they are, at bottom, the same principle.

Words often complicate what is simple. We speak of God, of Life, of the One, of Grace, as if these were necessarily different things. Yet these words can designate different aspects of one and the same fundamental reality. And it is possible to bathe in this reality, to be inspired by it, provided one knows the right way to go about it.

The word "truth" has become difficult to use in our societies, where individualism has been raised to the pinnacle of values. Each person rightly holds to their freedom of thought, their opinions, their choices, and their way of living. But from this freedom was sometimes born the idea that all truth would necessarily be relative.

"To each their own truth." This formula has become a kind of philosophical ready-made, tailored to one's own measure. To each their opinion, their fashion, their desires, their certainties. Fundamental truth has taken quite a hit from this. And yet, affirming that a reality common to all exists takes nothing away from anyone's freedom.

All of this stems, in part, from a misunderstanding about the word "truth." There are truths, and there is Truth. To state a fact without distorting it is to speak a truth. Not to lie about this or that is to tell the truth about a particular matter. We speak of the truth about Chernobyl, the truth about prices, the truth about the food industry, the truth about a political or historical event.

At that level, there is true or false information, interpretations, opinions, and sometimes extravagant beliefs. Some will think the Earth is flat, others will not. But when we speak of truth in a spiritual sense, we are not speaking of these truths. We are speaking of fundamental truth.

It is not a matter of accurate information about something, nor an opinion, nor a theory. Fundamental truth and individual truths are almost homonyms: the same word is used to speak of different realities. This is why claiming that a fundamental truth exists sometimes arouses suspicion.

One is quickly suspected of wanting to impose a doctrine, of wanting to undermine reason or freedom of thought. One is sometimes suspected of being a proselytizing sect after one's freedom and, worse still, one's money. And yet, fundamental truth does not ask to be believed. It already resides within each of us.

When we encounter it, when we rediscover it, it seems obvious and simple. It is the same for a Chinese worker from Yunnan who has come to work on the building sites of Shanghai, for a Somali living in Mogadishu and trying to lead a normal life amid violence, for a New Yorker of Tamil descent driving a yellow cab, or for any other human being living on this planet. Their languages differ, their histories differ, their cultures differ, their beliefs differ. The Life that animates them is the same.

Fundamental truth thus possesses a few simple characteristics:

It has always existed and will always exist.
It is unique.
It is the same for all.

Lao-Tzu spoke of it in the Tao-Te-King and gave it the name Tao: "The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth. The Named is the mother of all beings. He who is free of desire sees its secret essence. He who is enslaved to desire sees only its fleeting forms. These two states have a common source but different names. This unity is a double depth, the gate of all mysteries."

The Path recognizes in Lao-Tzu one of its ancient masters. This does not mean that The Path is Taoist in the religious sense of the term. What concerns us here is not a religious affiliation, but what Lao-Tzu bears witness to.

The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. In other words, the word is not the thing. No discourse, no theory can truly bring us to know fundamental truth. Only direct experience can make it known to us.

Every living being possesses an energy that makes it alive. This energy of life is fundamental truth.

Biology describes the workings of the living. Physics describes matter and energy. But no description suffices to exhaust the question of Life. Life is not, in our view, solely the result of a blind mechanism. This energy possesses an order, a reason, a purpose.

When the great physicists turn to the origin and nature of the universe, they themselves end up encountering questions that go beyond the mere description of matter. Einstein spoke of God and said He did not play dice. Physics speaks of matter and antimatter, dark matter, dark energy, of a universe a large part of which still escapes us.

After describing what happens, another question remains: what, at bottom, is all this? And why?

Science has its methods and its areas of competence. Spirituality asks another question. It seeks not only to explain how things work, but what this fundamental reality is that makes Life possible, what has given us life, and what it leads us toward.

Spiritual traditions have given different names to this reality. In Buddhism, one speaks of emptiness. Jesus spoke of the Kingdom. Lao-Tzu spoke of the Tao. In The Path, we speak of the One and of sat-cit-ānanda, using words drawn from the Indian cultural background.

The doctrines are not identical and the words are not interchangeable. But behind these differences, we recognize one and the same fundamental reality, understood and expressed across different cultures.

There are not several fundamental truths. There are several ways of speaking of it. This statement does not claim that The Path alone knows the truth. That would be a sign of great pride. Other paths, other yogas, sincere believers, mystics, and beings who sometimes belong to no particular tradition at all can know this same truth within themselves, even if they give it other names.

We hold in admiration all those who possess discernment, light, and an intimate knowledge of the Grace of God.

Truth cannot be possessed. We cannot say it belongs to us. We can only know it. We simply promote our path, wishing to share the happiness that is ours.

The Path offers a way of turning one's consciousness toward this truth, of bathing in it, of being inspired by it, and of recognizing, beneath the agitation of thoughts and the changing circumstances of existence, this Life that has always been there. Then fundamental truth ceases to be an idea. It becomes an experience. Yes, fundamental truth exists and, without possessing it, we know it.

Do you want to know it too?

If you have any questions, please write here:

madhyama.marga@gmail.com