Insights into Truth by Bro. David Steindl-Rast O.S.B.

In your moments of truth, is it ever correct to say that you have the truth? Wouldn't you rather say in those moments that the truth has you?

Not infrequently I get letters from young people who, through Yoga, have somehow discovered Jesus. Now they are full of questions on the relationship between Yoga and the Christian message.

These questions range from the most general to the most specific, and many of them are really well put and worth considering. Some are of such general interest that I thought of tackling them here.

Here is one of the basic problems stated by various people in their own words:

"What I am trying to come to terms with is my life in the Integral Yoga Institute and my re-discovered surge towards Jesus. I am trying to integrate the two approaches so that each is enriched by the other – yet I keep coming up against the thought that I may have to make a choice."

"For the past year and a half I have been involved with Yoga. A year ago I was given a mantra by my Guru, Swami Satchidananda. I have experienced feelings of peace in my newly-found integral world of the Spirit. However I have had strong doubts recently concerning the path that I am taking. Two months ago I began dating a steadfast Christian man. We both shared the same light, but found ourselves having heated disagreements regarding philosophy. He does not recognize other paths and sees Jesus as the only way."

"It is my understanding that being a Christian demands the hearty and absolute acknowledgement that there is no other way but Jesus – this I cannot accept, Brother David, not yet. Jesus is my personal approach to God, but how unloving it would be for me to impose my path on my brothers and sisters who feel the need to seek God in another way."

The problem is well-stated by these voices. To answer is not easy, for to do justice to the many aspects of the basic problem would require a book. Here our task can only be to find the central question on which all others hinge.

The key question is not one concerning objective facts "out there", but a deeply personal question addressed to the heart of each one of us. The question is: What is your attitude towards truth? When you think of truth, is your foremost desire to "grasp" it? Are you convinced that the truth is something one can "have", "possess", hold firmly in one's hand, as it were? If the answer is more or less "yes" – that's where your problems come from.

Try to look at it with fresh eyes. Remember your own deepest experiences. In your moments of truth, is it ever correct to say that you have the truth? Does that truly reflect your experience? Wouldn't you rather say in those moments that the truth has you? You stand under it when you truly understand. But it is not "standing", strictly speaking; it is a dynamic movement. St. Paul speaks of "doing the truth in love" (Eph. 4:5). That's a far cry from "grasping". Truth is something we discover by carrying it out. It is not a list of statements, but a direction of life.

GRASPING THE TRUTH

What we grasp of truth is necessarily always partial and limited. No matter how huge your hands and how firm your grip, you can only hold so much. The right inner attitude towards truth is not expressed by the grasping hand only, but by the open hand, capable of receiving what E. E. Cummings calls "illimitable" reality. The key word in the previous sentence is "only". If we leave this out, the statement becomes exclusive and, thus, untrue. Truth is always inclusive.

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