“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the Truth, because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
This one hit home for me when I read it the other day. Once you get into your fifth decade of life, you can reflect on more than one experience when you woke up to the Truth about something, and you desperately tried to wake others to the Truth, as well, only to come to understanding that we humans are intensely attached to our stories and to our illusions. And the bigger question is, “Why do we feel it is so important to wake others up to the Truth?” And the even bigger question is, “Are we sure that our Truth is the Truth, or have we just shifted into another illusion?”
Times when I woke up out of an illusion which I was keeping about certain people or entities or clubs or relationships or employers or belief systems or habits, I felt so devastated, at first. I felt so duped and gullible and silly and exposed. Later, I grew compassion for myself and I felt relief and liberated. In my excitement about my knowledge and freedom, I would try to espouse “The Truth” I had recently discovered to anyone who would listen. Some of this came from love and a desire to help others, but if I were to drop all illusions about dropping all of my illusions, a lot of my need to “enlighten others” came from a need for validation and approval of my own beliefs, and maybe even a little bit of superiority. My ego sometimes likes to believe I am one of a chosen few who is in on any particular “Grand Secret.” My ego likes to think she is “The All Wise One.” This may be my biggest illusion of all.
As I have grown older, I have come to see The Truth as less about words, and tomes, and rules, and rituals and judgments and stories. The Truth is just the experience. The Truth doesn’t need justifications and validations and explanations and podiums and trophy cases. The Truth lives on, even in the illusions. No one can break The Truth. Everyone lives The Truth. It can all be honed down to The Truth if we want it to be, but if we want to be entertained by our illusions, that’s okay, too.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Well, I never thought I’d say this, but Elvis nailed it. The truth is always there; it’s never going away.
I’ve opened myself to a lot of truths during the past 3 years. Waking up from a coma can do that to you. It motivated me to spend time going beyond my illusions and the stories that I tell myself to find the “real” story. It motivated me to look for both sides of the story, not just my perception. And it motivated me to sit with the feelings and just allow them to be. Not to judge them or try to change them. That is HARD work.
But guess what? I’m a whole lot better because of that. I am more balanced. Less vindictive. More understanding. More accepting. Not a crazy hot mess of emotion. So yeah, Elvis, you nailed it. The truth is not going away, so our best course of action is to accept it, even if we can’t change it. That just makes life a lot easier.
There is truth to “the truth will set you free”, right Kelly? You are doing amazing. Very inspiring!