Is This The Path of Truth (5458)

One of the things we struggle with in life is the concept of truth.  Somethings are measurable, and verifiable, so there is no struggle here.  But when it comes to matters of the heart, emotion or perception of events, truth becomes a very volatile thing.  It was once said "what is truth".  The reality, is that our personal "truth" may not be the same as another person involved in the same events and seeing the same things. Our personal truth is shaded and informed by our personal experience and past events.  No one can ever share who we are, based upon our own experiences.  In this way we are all unique and how we see our world is likewise unique.  "So How then Shall we Live"  (another quote).  Each of us have to answer this question for yourselves.  For some, the choice will be made to hold grudges, to nurture anger and or hurt, to respond out of judgement and revenge.   For others they will choose different paths, paths of peace, paths that are able to recognize their own frailty and the frailty in others without judgement or condemnation.  In recognizing two different paths, I mention only the poles, the different ends.  Between these two, people will make yet again other combinations of choices, some in one situation, and different ones in different situations.

For myself, I see the struggle in life.  I see the anger and hate that has shaped our nations, world events, communities and families. I think there is a better way.  I believe that people have a right to self determination.  They have a right to choose how they will live, what they will do, and who they will associate with, or choose not to associate with.  I believe that these things have nothing to do with Gender, sexual orientation, religion or any of the other differences in our world.  I believe our North American First nations people can teach us a lot in this area for they have within themselves not only a deep respect for the earth, but also a deep respect for all of creation.  I don't put this forward as an easy answer,only as something to ponder, for even the way that I have suggested has flaws in the application.  We do not need to agree with one another, we do not need to see or understand the reality that another person experiences.  What we need, is the insight and compassion to recognize that people do struggle with different things, perhaps things that are different from the ones that we struggle with.  AND we need to allow them the right to find their path, in a way that respects the rights of others.  To put it in another way, until we can learn to cut others in our world some slack, until we realize that situations can be viewed in a variety of ways, and until we are ready to admit and act like our personal perception is NOT the only one, I anticipate that we will continue to have conflict.  We need to give the right to people to become who they believe they were created to be, without judgement or condemnation.  Until we can to that, we we have not found the "Path of Truth".

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