None of This Is True

Scott Bradley

None of what I write here is truly true; it does not accurately describe the nature of Reality. This should be self-evident, but I find that I sometimes need to remind myself of this simple fact. This exercise is not an attempt to discover what is "true", but what "works". Truth would be a wonderful thing to know, but I personally do not think it is on offer, at least in a manner which words could convey. Saying this, even if one were to experience Truth, it could not in any way be articulated.

What "works" is what makes life a happier and more positive experience. What works for me by no means necessarily works for you. Indeed, you might believe that Truth is on offer. You may even believe that you have found it. I am in no position to tell you otherwise. All any of us can do with respect to any belief not our own is to ask if it brings happiness and peace to its advocates while doing no harm to the happiness and peace of others. That, to me, is the only criterion. Since I do not believe that any true happiness could simultaneously mean the unhappiness of others, I use the singular "criterion".

I am in the habit of making periodic disclaimers regarding what I write here. These are intended to make clear, as above, that what I say should not be taken as Truth nor that I think it is so. They also seek to make clear the disconnect between what I say and what I have actualized. This post, however, is not intended as a disclaimer, but as a further presentation of my philosophy, specifically, that the stories we weave, however efficacious, are stories still.

As with so many things which seem self-evident, I find this abandonment of the pursuit of Truth to be a radical challenge to what seems the normal workings of mind. To abandon Truth is to turn the mind upside-down. Or is it inside-out? This, I think, is what Zhuangzi meant by the Illumination of the Obvious. However mystical and otherworldly his leap into "the vast wilds of open nowhere" might seem, it is grounded in an understanding and acceptance of an honest appraisal of the human condition. Never does he intend to "add anything to life". The point is to let the human life experience be what it is, as fully as it can be. This is what "works".

You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.