WHERE TO FIND THE TRUTH.n7038 ¶1
The search for truth is becoming more and more extensive, and the desire to know truth for the sake of knowing is increasing with remarkable rapidity. For the same reason the number of new systems of belief are also increasing in proportion, as it is the general opinion that it is only' through special systems of thought that the truth can be found. And the supply along any line of desire is always equal to the demand.n7038 ¶2
But the demands of the human mind are not always properly placed. Therefore we find many minds who desire systems based upon the latest conceptions of truth instead of upon the truth itself. This state of affairs causes rivalry among the various systems, and the question with them becomes not how to find more truth and live more perfectly according to the truth we know, but instead, which system is correct and which one is not.n7038 ¶3
Opposing systems, however, cannot all be correct, but since the advocates of each system believe their own to be correct they finally come to the conclusion that their own is the only true system. This conelusion is perfectly natural, because if you believe your belief to be correct, all other beliefs that do not agree with your own must be incorrect from your point of view. You therefore feel perfectly justified in declaring your own belief to be the only one through which the truth may be found.n7038 ¶4
The average mind looks at things only from his own point of view. He has not enlarged his consciousness sufficiently to know how it feels to be on the other side, therefore has nothing but his own limited experience upon which to base judgment. Accordingly, he cannot be blamed for what he thinks about his own favorite ideas. Though we must remember that no matter how convinced he may feel as to the exactness of his own conclusions we must hot accept them until we have compared them with others and found them to be superior.n7038 ¶5
When we study the nature of the mind we find that the tendency of the average person to think that his system of belief is the only system through which the truth can be found, comes from the general tendency to worship systems of thought instead of the all truth that is back of every system. When you know that all systems are but varying interpretations of one absolute truth you will never say that your own system constitutes the only field wherein truth may be found, because you will know that all minds, even the most ignorant, know some of the truth. If they did not they could not continue to exist.n7038 ¶6
The very fact that a person continues to live and continues to secure certain results in providing for the essentials of life, proves that he is possessed of a considerable portion of the truth. If a person had no truth everything that he had would be false at its foundation, which would make his own individual existence impossible. This is a fact that we must well remember.n7038 ¶7
Another fact equally important is that no person can secure results in any field of action unless he applies the truth in that field. An action based upon mere falseness can produce nothing. Such an action cannot even enable a man to walk across the floor. To walk at all you must apply certain laws correctly. And to apply any law correctly you must have a correct conception of that law, conscious or unconscious. And to have a correct conception of anything is to know the truth to that extent.n7038 ¶8
The true use of anything can alone produce results, and the true use of anything is the application of a certain phase of the truth that lies at the foundation of that particular thing. Our conception of such truth may be subconscious only, but it exists in our minds. We possess it, and when we apply it we have results.n7038 ¶9
There are a great many things that we do not understand objectively, but the fact that we use them successfully proves that certain parts of our minds know the underlying laws and can, at least to a degree, apply those laws. According to these facts we realize that everything that lives must necessarily be in contact with the truth somewhere. If it were not it would produce a misstep at every turn, and nothing can continue to exist that produces missteps or mistakes only.n7038 ¶10
The average person deplores the fact that he makes so many mistakes, but when we stop to consider how many things we do that are not mistakes we conclude that things are not so bad after all. We have formed the habit of taking special notice of our mistakes just as the press of the world records mostly what is not good or desirable, because such things are exceptional, therefore constitute news. / Normal and wholesome actions in the social world do not constitute news./ They are too numerous. /And being normal they can be found in every nook and corner in the world. ' It is the normal, that is, the right and the good, that constitutes the rule of action in the world. -It is the abnormal, or the bad, that constitutes the exception.n7038 ¶11
A man may act like a gentleman sixty minutes out of the hour and we pay no attention to that fact. However, should he act contrary to the principle of right for one minute the fact would be noted by everybody. And if that particular act was striking it would be wired all over the world. In his case the good would be sixty times as large as the evil, nevertheless, it would be the latter only that would constitute news, being so exceptional.n7038 ¶12
In like manner we may, as individuals, act according to the truth as far as we see it, and every minute of the hour. And no one pays special attention to such an unbroken series of good acts, unless, of course, those acts should be very striking or extraordinary. However, the very moment we make a mistake attention is aroused at once. If we make many of them our attention is very much concerned because we know by experience, if not by insight, that when the abnormal outnumbers the normal the end is near at hand.n7038 ¶13
Since a person can bring physical existence to an end simply by causing the abnormal actions to become more numerous than the normal ones, we can readily understand that he could not exist at all if all of his actions were abnormal. In fact, conscious existence could not even have a beginning under such conditions, and organic life would not be possible for a second. A life where every act was a mistake would be absolute chaos, and a state of absolute chaos is nothing. /Therefore, so long as a person lives at all it is evident that his normal actions are more numerous that his mistakes. 7n7038 ¶14
And a normal action is always a right action. A right action is the application of a truth in one or more of its phases, because nothing can be right unless it is based upon the truth. This proves that every existing entity knows consciously or unconsciously certain portions of the truth; And that therefore there can possibly be no one system through which all truth may be found. /n7038 ¶15
The problem that confronts us all, however, is how to so relate ourselves to the all truth about us, that we may find as much truth as we may need now in order to make every action right that we may express. We know that the ills of personal existence come from mistakes or from abnormal actions. We understand, therefore, that if we could prevent all mistakes we could prevent all ills.n7038 ¶16
To accomplish this some advocate this system and some that, each one believing that his system is the one that contains the secret. The fact, however, that all systems produce results has led to the belief that results secured through the system of another were secured through the aid, of evil power. But here the question arises, how can an evil power make correct use of the laws of life ; and again, how can evil power know the truth obtained from those laws ? For it is a fact that evil in every instance is the opposite, or rather the absence, of truth.n7038 ¶17
To build a bridge you require mathematics. Without mathematics you cannot build that bridge.n7038 ¶18
Therefore, whoever can build bridges or who does build bridges, understands mathematical principles. And for anyone to say that such or such a person builds bridges with the aid of an evil power — a power that would naturally tend to eliminate the truth of mathematics as well as remove mathematicians from their positions, is to make a statement too absurd to be considered for a moment among scientific men. Nevertheless, when we come to mental, moral and spiritual fields we make statements every day that are equally absurd; and we even try to prove that such statements are inspiration.n7038 ¶19
The fact in this connection, however, is simply this, that it is only the good that can produce good results. And it is only through the understanding of certain phases of truth that we can apply the good. We conclude, therefore, that any man, no matter what his beliefs may be, who secures good results in any field understands the truth to that extent. .n7038 ¶20
The whole universe is based upon absolute law. If it were not, space would contain nothing but chaos, and nothing could exist. Therefore everything that is to be done must be done according to law. We cannot go outside of the law if we wish to construct bridges or engines. Neither can we go outside of the law if we wish to build character or make real the ideal. We cannot perform a single good deed without using some of the laws of life. We cannot convey our ideas through language without using some of these laws. We cannot do anything and produce the same results under the same conditions without using one or more of these laws. And to use the laws of life correctly is to use understanding^ a certain phase of the truth.n7038 ¶21
Every person is producing certain results in his life. Some of those results are great and others small, but they are results. Therefore everybody knows some of the truth, as it is only through the application of truth that results can be secured. We thus see the folly of claiming any one system to be the only channel through which truth can be found.n7038 ¶22
The truth is just as universal as life, and in fact is the very essence or soul of life. Therefore everything that lives, lives some of the truth — as much of the truth as present consciousness can comprehend. Every constructive action of the mind opens the way to greater truth. But no mind can act constructively to good advantage as long as a certain interpretation of truth is accepted as final. The fact is that when you accept anything as final you bring your mind to a standstill in that sphere of action. And the fact that the whole world has accepted certain spiritual and metaphysical ideas as final is one reason why real spirituality is found so rarely. The same is true, however, in various fields of mental and intellectual realms. Therefore no matter how remarkable a discovery you may make, if you accept that as final in its own field you stop there; progress is suspended; further growth is retarded along that line.n7038 ¶23
And after the new discovery has become a system and lost its life, as all truth does when formulated into a system, we are just as much in mental or spiritual darkness as before; for we must bear in mind that every discovery that we look upon as final in its own field loses its soul ; that is, it dies, leaving us the shell of mere belief only. This is natural because all belief comes from within. And as soon] as we formulate a number of truths into a fixed \ system, we begin to worship the system, thereby ignoring the life and the spirit of the within. To ignore the within, however, is to turn away from the source of all truth, all life and all power, which means that we separate ourselves from those very things that we wish to secure in greater abundance. In this connection we should also remember that the very moment we look upon a truth as final we cease to rise in search of more. It is only the rising mind that receives the life, the substance and the spirit of things. And it is only that mind that is ever in search of more truth that can really understand truth. We know the truth only while we are steadily moving upward and onward into moren7038 ¶24
Truth is everywhere, and truth alone does things. Therefore everything that produces results in its own sphere of action demonstrates truth. And whoever has results has truth. Every demonstration is the result of truth, be it in the healing of disease by any method whatever, or the building of a beautiful mansion by any method whatever. Every method that produces results or that emancipates, builds, constructs, beautifies or elevates, is based upon truth and employs truth. This is natural because truth is everywhere, so that every method can touch truth, be fixed or rooted in truth, and be a constant expression of truth.n7038 ¶25
If every demonstration was not the result of truth some demonstrations would be the result of untruth, which is impossible. The false cannot take away pain at any time. The false cannot invent and construct machinery. The false cannot develop a child into a musical genius. The false cannot write a poem, nor cause barren waste to become a garden of highly developed roses. In brief, the false cannot do anything.n7038 ¶26
The laws of the body are just as much in the hands of truth as are the laws of the mind or the soul. Therefore a man who builds a house or perfects his physical form, employs the truth just as well as the man who builds character or unfolds cosmic consciousness.n7038 ¶27
All life is good. Everything is sacred, and the truth is the foundation of the entire universe. Thus we understand that the only truth is the universal truth; and the only way to find universal truth is to live in conscious touch with everything that gives expression to life or truth in any form or manner. Universal truth is not encased in this religious system or in that philosophical belief. Universal truth l^the spirit of every atom, of every flower, of every creature, of every entity in existence. There is no special path to this truth because every path leads to this truth. It can be found everywhere and in everything. Everything that lives is moving into more and more of this truth, because to live is to move forward, and to move forward is to enter a larger measure of the all truth.n7038 ¶28
Every mind lives in the truth and actually breathes the very life of truth. Therefore to find more truth we must live more, and not search for truth in any particular system, but to try to enter into closer mental touch with the all truth as it lives and moves in all things.n7038 ¶29
Your method for finding the truth you may need now ; it may be the only method that works for you at present. In like manner the methods that others employ may be the only ones that they can use now. Therefore we must never say that our method is the only method that will work for everybody, or that everybody can find truth now in the same place as we are finding truth now.n7038 ¶30
In this connection, however, we must watch a certain tendency that is present more or less in all minds. When we find a new method that does the very thing that we have never succeeded in doing before, there is a tendency to exaggerate or overvalue the merit of that method. This tendency intoxicates the mind, so to speak, and magnifies the new discovery, so it appears much larger than it really is. Naturally, we conclude that it is the best of its kind. In fact, must be the best to our view of thinking, because our view at the time is so magnified.n7038 ¶31
From this belief of the best there is only a tiny step to the belief of the only; and the tendency that produces the former will also produce the latter. Whenever a mind declares that his is the best he is on the way to the belief that his is the only. And if he is not thoroughly balanced he will soon enter the latter view. The reason the mind acts in this way is easily understood when we become familiar with psychological laws. But those who think they have the only way to truth do not study psychological laws, because their belief has limited their minds to the idea that they have found the one only law. However, the very moment that any mind begins to study psychological laws the "only truth" idea will vanish like the darkness before the light.n7038 ¶32
When we all understand the mind, and also .why we think what we think, all systems of belief will be discarded. Then we will all seek the truth itself directly, and seek it everywhere. The result will be perpetual growth into the truth. We shall then find the truth that gives freedom to the whole life of man — the truth that develops every part of the being of man for a higher and truer use. Accordingly, the life more abundant will follow. And from such a life comes everything that mind may desire.n7038 ¶33
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