Thursday, September 27, 2012

The truth can hurt...

... and yet it's the truth which also offers us opportunities to experience profound relief and healing. And despite how much we avoid encounters with the truth for fear of hurt, we also know that it will indeed set us free.  In my life so far, I've discovered that becoming conscious of whatever is most honest is always ultimately beautiful.  Maybe this is what Spinoza means when he says that suffering ceases to be suffering as soon as you get a clear and precise picture of it.  Or perhaps it's as Jean Genets suggests: "acts must be carried through to their completion.  Whatever their point of departure, the end will be beautiful.  It is because an action has not been completed that it is vile". However, Rumi remembers to say something important that the other two forgot: "There's [so much] courage involved if you want to become part of the Truth.  There's a broken open place in a Lover".

I think it's worth remembering that the word courage comes from latin and originally meant something like, "to speak one's mind by telling all one's heart".  Lately, I've been trying to live from within the very center of my own open heart.  Rumi is right about needing courage for this journey.  I can only hope that Jean Genets continues to be right as well.

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