I am continuing to reflect on Truth as a key issue in moving through the Pandemic. While preparing my talk last Sunday on "The Mind of Truth", I realized that the Pandemic has brought such a rupture of public trust in truth, that it now seems to me essential to continue to affirm the value of truth. So although I may repeat myself, I want to review aspects of Truth to contemplate and explore as summer winds down and we prepare for an uncertain fall. We start with the basic definition of truth as that which correlates or is in agreement with what is. To speak the truth about the Pandemic is to state what are, in reality, actual qualities and events of the pandemic. If we equate truth with scientific facts, then we are looking at what has been demonstrated as true, through scientific testing, research, and review, meeting the standards set for medical research through precedence and accumulated knowledge. We expect coherence of truth, that is, new facts about the Pandemic fit together--not mirror--but hold together with our understanding of previous Pandemics, and that we gather understanding of the ways in which this Pandemic is different. We expect coherence of truth about the virus itself as new studies are completed and reviewed. Because Covid-19 is a "novel" virus, understanding has wound it's way through different medical frameworks that have had to be revised as new knowledge comes to light. What first seemed to be primarily a respiratory virus is now understood as a multi-system virus, and possibly a blood-vessel illness, with severe inflammatory responses.
One of the amazing truths of this pandemic is the international exchange of research that allows multiple projects across the globe to study various components and rapidly share information with other scientists. Unfortunately, one of the reasons that truth has been distorted is that scientific information has been dispersed, distorted and disseminated through social media so rapidly that scientific precision is lost. Emotions and often the need for attention, over-ride the need for truth. The seriousness of the Pandemic and it's destruction across the country and the world, of course, make every piece of information seem urgent, but we cannot afford to lose sight of truth in a desperate race for answers and solutions.
One of the benefits of finding the Still Point, through meditation and spiritual practice, is to step outside the pressure of urgency that leads to haphazard understanding and undermines truth--both truth as scientific fact and truth as spiritual wisdom. While we may not reach what Evelyn Underhill, a scholar of mysticism, called, "the leisurely-ness of eternity" as she described the peace of sainthood, we can find our own timeless moments, where truth is revealed. The truth is not just "out there", it's in you. The truth that comes from inner calm, is not separate from the facts of the Pandemic. You can move through both levels of life in a re-affirmation of truth.