Truth Detector

2003-10-7 05:53:00

My Friends,
It warms my heart that some of you seem to be as familiar with my own writings as I am. Bryan, Larry, Susan, and others are making great use of the archives in bringing up pertinent data. I am honored that the writings touch your souls.

The Question: How should the seeker handle the various writings and teachings he studies? For example.

(1) The Bible or other scriptures with a long tradition of containing truth that humanity is supposed to accept without question.

(2) Writings such as those of Alice A. Bailey which obviously have high intelligence and original thought behind them - and claimed to be the work of a master.

(3) Other channeled or transmitted writings that seem to have intelligence behind them.

(4) Writings that you are pretty sure are just the product of a big ego.

(5) Writings that you believe may be from the dark side.

Should your approach in discovering the truth be different for each one, the same or what?

One answer that was given is that some writings have an earned authority and that the reader needs to give some extra weight to these.

On the other hand John C says: "I look more at what is said, rather than who said it."

Which approach is correct?

The answer is that they both have their place. As the Course in Miracles says "the truth is true and nothing else is true."

In this sense it does not matter if a true statement is made by Christ, Caesar, or the devil himself. The truth is true.

Let us take a phrase uttered by Christ, for instance:

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Would this be any less true if it were said by some demon frothing at the mouth?

No, it would not, though the average person would most likely find something wrong with it because of its source.

Therefore, it is always good to remain open minded, for truth is where you find it, and when you find it, if you are sensitive to soul contact, the truth will register within.

On the other hand, while those who are dark in consciousness can learn and quote true scripture and data, they do so with no understanding from the soul. Such persons will speak or write true statements mixed with false ones and twisted with warped logic. Thus the seeker will have to study for some length of time from the teachings of a darkened one to glean a few truths - even with the help of his soul.

This is where earned authority comes in - as far as spiritual; teachings are concerned. An earned authority is one who has proven time and again that his words touch the soul and therefore the expectation is that future words will continue to do this.

Many see the scriptures as an earned authority because past studies in them have produced much light and soul affirmation. If this is the case one would expect to learn much more eternal truth from them than he would the National Enquirer.

Even though one may find a spiritual truth in the National Enquirer every million words or so he can find the same thing in the Bible maybe every thousand, or a hundred words. This illustrates that the advantage of an earned authority is spiritual speed learning.

It is logical to not only give more weight to an earned authority, but to spend more time with him/her/it. If one finds a gold mine for truth then it makes sense to work the mine until all the gold is in the hands of the miner.

The point to keep in mind is this. All of us spend time with our earned authorities, but often because of the demands of the day, we have very little time to learn from the best of sources, or the best books. In the meantime we are exposed during most of our waking hours to many unenlightened sources. Some of them are: (1) Newspapers (2) Television & Radio (3) Earthy friends and family. (4) People at work. (5) Neighbors (6) Casual acquaintances at organizations, clubs, entertainment sources, shopping etc.

Because we are exposed so much more to unearned authorities than the earned ones it is wise to keep our truth detectors open at all times, for even a stopped clock is right twice a day. You just never know when someone is going say something that will trigger the soul mechanism and cause a light to go on within.

As far as the DK writings go some here have a lot of faith in them because of soul registration whereas others have reasonable doubt. How should we then approach the Bailey books in our approach to truth? What if they were really some device from the dark side to appear as truth to deceive us?

This concern of certain material being from the dark side suppresses the acquisition of true knowledge upon the earth more than any other principle. If one finds material that strikes chords with the soul he is wise to pursue the course until "all the gold be mined."

If the disciple stays in touch with his soul and seeks the truth with pure intent then his soul will lead him to the discernment of truth from error even if he should be reading from a source which contains partial error.

If the soul of the disciple recognizes a high percentage of truth in a source then he must learn to trust his soul connection to find the truth and leave the error behind.

The trust of our innermost selves is a difficult lesson to learn but a Pearl of Great Price to the mind of the seeker.

I had some eyeglasses. I was walking down the street when suddenly the prescription ran out. Steven Wright