Edward’s Diary Entry 31 – Virtue 11: Truthfulness

Someone said “Water makes external cleanliness. Truthfulness is the detergent of the heart.” But truth seems to be far beyond our petty selves. It is something high and mighty. Truth is satya or satyam (Sanskrit: "unchangeable; that which has no distortion; that which is beyond distinctions of time, space, and person; that which pervades the universe in all its constancy") from the root sat (truth), being in accordance with one's words, thoughts and deeds. Is it any wonder that I chose the head of Socrates to represent this virtue? He was always purported to tell the truth, even if it meant drinking the hemlock in consequence. But did he really tell the truth? Didn’t he in fact ask a lot of questions and when everything was totally clear up to a certain point for the logical or rational mind, he relegated to myth and legend and similes to attempt to represent the truth in words? A petty mental truth is really just a human thought, and that’s not much, as we can prove by the fact that another thought can come to contradict it, and always does. Our computer language of 0 and 1 is simply transferred from our own logical thinking processes: yes-no, no-yes. And even our strongest thoughts are then swayed by others, by new opinions, by emotions and feelings and of course, so easily by our so-called “instincts”… So as a start, “truth” for Edward is simply sticking to the Life Plan and applying it in thought, word and deed. It’s as simple and concise as that, or let's say, as “sat”.