Dear Shelley

Thank you for your question. It is a short but very deep one and shows that you are closer to Truth than you may think.

First of all, let us explore the word 'your'. In order to understand what 'your truth' is, it will first be necessary to answer a much more fundamental question. That question is: who are you?

This may sound stupid at first glance, but you have yourself indicated that 'your truth' appears to change from one moment to the next. The reason for this is because the 'person' that you think you are also changes from one moment to the next. That person that you refer to as 'I' or 'me' and other people refer to as 'Shelley' is not a fixed person at all. It just consists of the collection of thoughts and beliefs that exist in your mind at any given moment. A very important thing to realise is that the vast majority of thoughts that run through mind are not initiated by you. They are automatic and you have little or no control over their content. If you do not believe me, then try stopping thinking for 30 seconds and see how you get on. Thoughts are automatic and constantly changing and so if you make the mistake of assuming the thoughts in mind are who 'you' are, then who 'you' are will also be constantly changing. Because of this, if you try to use mind to discover 'your truth', you will be unable to do so, because you are trying to discover a truth that belongs to a 'person' that does not really exist, that is never fixed, that is just a constant stream of changing thoughts in mind.

Truth cannot be accessed by mind. Truth is beyond mind. Because language is always a product of mind, 'truth' cannot be spoken. Anything thought or spoken is always just an opinion, a very narrow point of view. A soaring eagle has one point of view. An ant has a very different point of view. You cannot say that one is 'true' and the other is not. Both may be able to observe and gather facts about their environment from their different points of view. These will be valid observations and they will be genuine facts. But they will not be truth. Truth encompasses the whole, which neither point of view is able to take in. The ant cannot see the panoramic landscape that the eagle can. The eagle cannot see the ground-level detail that the ant can.

The second thing which you wrote, 'live your truth' is closer to being attainable, particularly if you remove the 'your' from the middle. With the words 'live truth' you are getting closer to something that cannot really be expressed in words, because Life and Truth are synonymous. You could shorten it further to be left simply with: 'live!'

Now I return to the fundamental question. If you are not your thoughts or a point of view, then who are you? I will not attempt to answer that for you, but leave you to ponder it yourself. Take time out each day to sit quietly alone and ask yourself the question: who am I?

You may think it sounds like an easy question at first. You may start by answering with your name, your age, your profession, a role you hold such as 'mother', your nationality or some principles, beliefs or causes that you hold dear. Don't stop there. There is nothing wrong with any of these things. But do they really describe all that you are? Can all that you are really be described by any labels and definitions?

Keep asking the question: who am I? The more you ask, the closer you will get to Truth. The answer to that question and Truth are one and the same thing, and it will not be 'your truth', it will simply be Truth which is universal and belongs to no single 'person'.

Once Truth is realised, all questioning will cease and you can focus all your energy on living!

Much love to you,

Happy Cow

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