absolute and relative truth

A truth that can be put into words is relative truth

Absolute truth is beyond words

On the spiritual journey we are seeking the truth – the truth about life – and we want to find something that is solid. Everything in life seems to crumble to dust. Where is there something that we can rely upon? Where is there something unchanging? Where is absolute truth?

There is an absolute truth, and our journey can take us to the point where we are experiencing that truth, where we are living it directly. But we cannot say anything about it. For words, language, is of a relative nature. Words divide up existence into this and that. The words create the idea of separation, of fragmentation, and with that of change, coming and going, with no stability, nothing permanent. In this world of words everything is relative, nothing stands on its own.

So we can come to the absolute truth, but we cannot speak of it and if we attempt to speak of it, the words are very likely to be misinterpreted, misunderstood, for they are being interpreted in a relative domain by minds that are thinking in a relative way – it is a different space altogether. That is the deepest truth, the absolute truth, but that we cannot speak of. We can only come upon it when the time is right.

The word truth, like so many words, has come to have two meanings. There is that absolute meaning, and there is a relative meaning that we can use, whilst conversing with our minds, thinking in relative ways. This relative truth is not fixed, like everything else in the relative world. It cannot be clung to forever. In the relative world of the thinking mind, truth is that which takes us closer to absolute truth, closer to liberation, closer to the beauty that is the eternal. But because the mind is so relative, this relative truth depends on where we are, on our current beliefs and understandings, on our current attachments, identifications, these are individual things, so one person’s relative truth will never be the same for another. Furthermore one’s relative truth will change from day to day as we grow, as we journey on. That is why it is relative, it is a truth in the moment for the individual.

There is no problem with the word truth being used in these two ways, as long as we understand from the context which meaning we are referring to. And we should not criticise someone who is speaking a relative truth, if the person listening needs to hear those relative words. It is part of the beautiful dance which leads us eventually home.

All this goes not just for the word truth, but also for the word love. We use this word love in a relative way most of the time. Those feelings that we call love have nothing to do with the absolute love that permeates one’s being when the individual sense of self is absent. That absolute love is unconditional, it is not a love for one particular thing or person, it is just a feeling for all that is, a feeling of appreciation, gratitude, overwhelming one’s being. That is absolute love, but normally the word love is used in a different way, and as long as we appreciate that difference, there is no problem. We should not tear apart those who are speaking of love in the human way, the relative way, for love is one of the most beautiful paths to freedom. And the starting point for us humans caught up in our relative ideas, the starting point for love is also relative, but it is not the ending point.