Truth

So, a little bit of a shift. I'd like to keep these sessions to an hour exactly. Let's be impeccable! Right? We'll practice our impeccability. Kira, how impeccable are you? Andrea, how impeccable are you? It's a challenge. Kara's not laughing? Okay.

It's a matter of impeccability, so that means really starting on time and ending on time. I saw that almost all of you showed up five minutes early. We'll start right on time, and this is actually a spiritual practice, to be precise. There's a discipline. There's a spirituality to discipline.

There's also a spirituality to flow, right? So you can actually do both. Let's do the discipline because we're here together. When we're together, flow doesn't actually work, because we'd all be here at different times and we wouldn't be able to meet together. That's just the nature of group meetings, so discipline and punctuality are apropos for this situation.

Another thing is, I'd like to keep it to a 20-minute sermon, 25 minutes, and then a little longer for the meditation. So I'm going to try to keep it a little shorter so we can get high and go deep into that. We'll save super-long discussions for maybe one-off intensives.

For example, we can have a two-hour discussion on kindness, and that should be a separate sort of thing. But for our weekly rhythm, I think a 20-to-25-minute sermon is perfect. That might really change things for people, too, because if you have busy schedules, like Jacob, I know you've probably got tutoring after this. You do, right? Jacob's constantly tutoring. His mind is like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. That's what happens when you tutor.

All right, let's dive right in. Today the topic is truth, and I'm going to share gems today. I have gone to the edges of the earth to find the jewels of truth. I have walked on coals, I have withstood tempests, and I come to you bearing forth the jewels of truth. And yes, there are just a handful of us here today, but this is our small sangha of truth, and we are all very special to be here.

So we'll discuss truth. What is truth? This is something that our world is greatly confused on. Greatly. It's absolutely paramount to not only spiritual life, but happiness and harmony. It's also highly relevant to mathematics and physics. That's what actually makes it quite interesting for our sangha as a part of the School of Futuristic Intelligence.

Truth is fundamentally what is. What is, is. There is no gray spectrum of truth. There are no shades of gray in truth. Truth is what is.

You might say, "Well, how is that possible?" Opinions are not truth. Like and dislike are not truth. What's the truth? Vanilla is better than chocolate? Fact. Truth is fact, right? So with vanilla or chocolate, neither is better. Vanilla is perhaps gentle. Maybe that's an objective truth to vanilla. Chocolate is perhaps rich and seductive and heart-opening because of the cacao, right? Things have certain qualities.

A lot of times, we can't put the truth into words. Chocolate is what it is. The is-ness of chocolate is beyond words. Words can allude to the truth.

I'm going to try and share a bunch of little aspects here. We could talk about truth for a 10-week course, so we'll try to do it in 20 minutes.

Truth is something that oftentimes takes courage. One of the most potent places to explore truth is within ourselves. Am I a jerk? Am I a jerk in these situations? Can I look and say, "Oh, okay, wow, I really can be a jerk at times"? Or am I really smart in this way?

Truth isn't false humility. You see what you are. Are you brilliant, or are you not? Are you nice, or are you not? What are you? Truth is an ability to look at yourself without judgment, without pushing it away, and it's hard to do.

So I encourage everybody this week to really say, "Can I sit and look at myself?"

When I first started working with my teacher, he just flooded truth at me, and it was kind of intense. I think most of it was true. I don't know if everything was true, but I was really listening. He said, "Adam, you're like this. There's a bad thing about you." And I was like, "Really?" He pointed it out, and I looked for myself and said, "Okay, maybe he's right." And I changed it.

Think of a doctor who knows the truth and a doctor who doesn't know the truth. A doctor who knows the truth does a test, does a scan, and can see something. Because they know the truth, they can do something about it. So the truth empowers us. A doctor who waves his hands around and doesn't know what's going on is just giving you false hope, right? But a doctor who knows the truth can do something about it.

So when we look at ourselves and say, "Wow, there's an element of selfishness within me, and that's actually causing my heart chakra to get smaller or my relationships to be in this abrasive manner," I can do something about that. The truth doesn't mean that's what we are forever. That just means that's what we are right now. That's one kind of truth.

Then there's the truth of logic. A lot of times, people phrase language in like and dislike and opinions. It's very important to be precise with language. "If this, then that" is usually a true statement. If you yell at the neighbors, they're less likely to be cooperative with you, right? These if-then statements really hold a lot of truth because they tend to be. Even notice how I'm speaking: "tend to be." I hesitate to speak in absolutes because I always love the truth.

It's like a Vulcan. If anybody's a Star Trek fan, Vulcans cannot lie. They love the truth. Maybe you guys know Spock from Star Trek. I love Star Trek. Thank you, thank you. I love Star Trek. School of Futurism. Did you do it, Mom? Let's see it. You didn't quite have it. She can't do it! There you go.

So truth is Vulcan. A lot of times, truth can bring us together. We've got one religion and another religion, and they clash. They go to war, and they kill each other. Why? Because they both think that their dogma is the truth.

This is an interesting thing about religion. Real religion is based on truth. Commercialized religion, the religion that allows us to sit in a comfortable illusion, is not based on truth.

Who did we lose? Oh, Andrea. I'm sure that wasn't about the religious part. Some people can't handle the truth, although I think Andrea can.

It might be very confronting to people to talk about religion this way, but the heart of religion, real religion, is founded on truth, which means there's some ontological, existential fact at the heart of all religions through which they coincide.

When things are opinions, judgments, likes, and dislikes, there's discord. But when we find what is, there's always consistency. The rock is on the side of the road. There's a rock on the side of the road. There is a tree over there. This chemical process happens this way. This mathematical equation happens this way. These are all facts.

In facts, we come together, and there's harmony in that. It's differing opinions and likes and dislikes that separate societies and religions and divide us. War and the potential for harmony in the world are greatly predicated upon the capacity for a society to apprehend truth. This is why it's really profound and important.

What is belief? Well, belief is not truth. Belief is illusion. I believe that there's something that I don't know. That's not truth. I see that there's something real. Perhaps I have a meditative experience where I experience gold light. That's truth. It's there. I saw it. It's a part of me. Maybe other people aren't seeing it, but there's truth there.

Truth is essentially knowledge. Knowledge is truth. Illusion is belief. Osho says something. He says, "I don't believe. I know. I have no need to believe." Do you believe in the moon? Do you believe in the sun? "I believe there's a moon up there." No, I see there's a moon up there, right?

So religion, a lot of times, is centered on belief versus knowledge. But real spiritual practice has nothing to do with belief.

Now, there is a word, faith. This is just to protect one thing about belief that is important, but it's not really belief in the way I just used it. Faith is the willingness to try. I have faith that if I start a business, it can succeed; therefore, I start a business. I have faith that there is a God. I don't feel I'm connected with God, but I'm going to avail myself of that possibility, right? That's not, "I just believe blindly," which is a sense of false security.

You can see how these are things that people grapple with. Most people don't even think there's such a thing as truth. There are no shades of gray. There's truth. There is or there isn't, and the rest are opinions.

But an opinion is also truth in a way. My opinion is that vanilla is better than chocolate, or chocolate is better than vanilla. Okay, that's an actuality in my predilection system. That's the truth, too. Jacob likes physics. Fact. We're not saying physics is better than math or physics is better than ballet, right? We're just saying that's a fact. Jacob really likes it.

Now, mathematics is pure truth. Mathematics is pure, coherent, consistent logical systems of truth, structures of dimensionality, eternal truths that we discover.

I have this shape called the Goldberg polyhedron, which I'll be covering. Can you see it, everybody? This is the Goldberg polyhedron. It requires exactly 12 pentagons, exactly 12, inside of a sphere to make these hexagons go spherical. Hexagons are flat, but when we insert 12 pentagons, they close in. They can be tiny little pentagons, and they close in and make a sphere.

That is an existential truth that is revealed in mathematics. Twelve. Nobody can deny that. You can see it, and there's an actual equation that governs the reason for that. These points contribute spherical curvature. Each pentagon does one-twelfth of the curvature needed to produce a sphere, and you can see that mathematically.

All right, so we have a little movie time. I'm going to show you a scene from The Matrix. The Matrix is about truth, actually. Where is it? Let's watch a quick scene. Let me share with audio. I'm not sure if you can see it or hear it.

Just real quick. We've got a few minutes. You have to watch this if you haven't seen it yet. I put the link to this in the chat. It's four minutes. We'll just do a couple minutes of it.

Participant1: At last. Welcome, Neo. As you no doubt have guessed, I am Morpheus.

Participant2: It's an honor to meet you.

Participant1: The honor is mine. Please, come. Sit.

I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole?

Participant2: You could say that.

Participant1: I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?

Participant2: No.

Participant1: Why not?

Participant2: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.

Participant1: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't

Truth is what is. Apprehending it requires precision, courage, and a willingness to look clearly at oneself and the world without judgment, opinion, or blind belief.

• There is a spirituality to discipline, punctuality, and precision within a shared weekly rhythm.
• Truth is fundamentally what is. Opinions, likes, and dislikes are not truth.
• Words can allude to truth, but truth cannot always be put into words.
• Looking at oneself truthfully takes courage and does not require judgment or false humility.
• Seeing the truth about a present condition makes it possible to do something about it.
• Precise language, including careful if-then statements, can help express what is true.
• Facts bring consistency and harmony, while opinions, judgments, likes, and dislikes can create discord.
• Real religion is based on truth rather than dogma or comfortable illusion.
• Truth is knowledge. Belief concerns what is not known.
• Faith is the willingness to try or to avail oneself of a possibility.
• Mathematics reveals coherent, consistent structures of truth.

Sit and look at yourself without judgment or pushing anything away. Notice what is true right now, including qualities that may be difficult to see, and remain open to what that truth makes possible.

• Discipline, punctuality, and precision within the shared weekly rhythm.
• Care with language, especially the difference between facts and opinions.
• Moments when likes, dislikes, or judgments are being treated as truth.
• Honest self-observation without judgment or false humility.
• The difference between what is known, what is believed, and what one is willing to try.

• Can I sit and look at myself?
• What is true right now?
• Where might greater precision bring clarity?