Universal Truth

What is real? What is true? One way to think about this question is to ask another question. What is true for everyone, at all times and all places? 

The answer to that question is the answer to the first. While we may not understand what gravity is exactly, we know it’s real. If I jump into the air, I will most assuredly come back down. So will you. And so will every single person who does the same.

But if my friend does something that I don’t appreciate, and I say to myself, “He hurt my feelings,” this is not the same kind of reality as gravity, is it? There are many questions you can ask about my statement. What exactly did my friend do? What was his intent? How can I really know his intent (even if he tells me, I still don’t really know why)? How much of what he did is simply my perception? How does one actually “hurt” someone else’s feelings? Could I have allowed my friend’s actions to hurt me, thus hurting my own feelings? You get the idea. There is virtually nothing in this example that we could say is true. And yet, I can make myself miserable by deciding to embrace the idea that my friend hurt my feelings. In other words, I can choose to believe “as if” my thoughts and feelings are universally real.

But they’re not.

This is enormously important in moving from a place of misery to a place of joy. Always ask yourself, is this universally true? If it’s not, you CAN let it go because it’s just a thought, just a feeling, and it will pass. If you choose to. 

The choice is yours.