is there a subjective, indisputable truth?
Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering
It has been said untold times that truth is subjective, but maybe this isn’t actually so. Have you ever looked into this for yourself? Not by using your logic or adopting someone else’s philosophy or discovery, but by observing things as they are. What can you observe that is not tainted by a mind full of ideas, facts, and opinions? What is truth except for something that is perceived personally?
is there an irreducible truth?
Now we ask whether there is a truth that is irrefutable and irreducible. It seems that there is. But before we get to this, let’s consider whether truth is objective or subjective. Here’s where the mind begins to struggle, because it has been conditioned, both personally and universally, to believe that only that which is objective (out there and agreed upon by everyone) is real, and everything that is subjective (one’s personal point of view) is not independently trustworthy. Therefore, we tend to pair the word “truth” with a pronoun, such as your truth, my truth, his truth, etc. This leads us to contemplate who it is that perceives reality. So let’s define what we mean by objective and subjective…
the dictionary defines objective as:
1. (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts. Contrasted with subjective.
2. not dependent on the mind for existence; actual.
subjective is defined as:
1. dependent on the mind or on an individual’s perception for its existence.
where does perception come from?
Definitions of the words subjective and objective do not address the fact that perception is always personal — even if it is a part of a collection or group of personal perceptions. In other words, if a million people agree upon a truth, this means that a million people subjectively feel that there is a truth. There is nothing objective about such a conclusion.
A group is a collective of individuals who are all deluded by their beliefs and preconceptions. To make matters more confusing, the mind is involved in both subjective and objective conclusions or concepts. Without the subjective perspective there can be no perception of anything at all. The mind, then, is where we have to look for truth. Observe the mind. This can only be done individually, subjectively.
an analogy through filmmaking
When we watch a movie from the point of view of only one camera we get the sense that we are seeing a character’s reality from her personal, subjective perspective. But when several cameras are used to capture the same action we get the sense that there is an objective perspective as the story unfolds. In other words, we are seeing the action from various points of view to offer us a so-called objective viewpoint.
Now consider that all the footage from the various cameras are organized by the editor to convey one single action sequence. What we watch in the finished version of the movie is not limited to one character’s perspective, yet there is only one unfolding of the action even though each camera is independent and showing us the scene from different vantage points. Despite using one or a hundred cameras, the movie is entirely the subjective product of the director. This is how life works.
We as conscious beings are all expressions of a singular creation and movement called consciousness, and each expression — each person, animal, tree, etc. — senses reality from its own perspective. Each person is a separate camera, by analogy, filming the same scene. The totality of consciousness is the only actual director, though each individual believes he/she is the doer. It is consciousness that holds the subjective truth “within” itself and not outside of itself.
This is may be very difficult to understand, because we have been trained to see it the opposite way — that there is actually a truth that’s objective as agreend upon by more than one person. But if we go deeper than what meets the senses then we find that beneath the facade of the body and egoic self there is only one essence (consciousness), and it is this essence that beholds the truth.
It is only the egoic self that places truth outside of itself, out of its reach, objective and not contained within itself.
the self is the obstacle
The false belief that we as individuals are independent of the singular movement and contents of consciousness prevents us from appreciating and apperceiving reality as a whole — despite the limitations of the physical body. If we could shed this limited viewpoint then our observations would be unobstructed by thoughts. Our experience would be understood as subjective and would yield the truth that is behind the facade of the egoic self and the world of information and distractions. On the other hand, if our experience is colored by the egoic self, which is created by thought and information, the subjective experience does not report reality; and the belief that truth is outside of us, objective, will prevail.
Yes, this is difficult to understand with the mind, because it is the opposite of what we have learned to be true. We have collectively been taught to rely on our senses, personal experiences, ideas of “experts” and authority figures, and thoughts to judge what is in our world “out there.” Science, we have learned, is the arbiter of what is real and true, so we look for truth “out there” where objects and phenomena appear to exist objectively as reported by the senses and conditioned mind. But if we look “in here” to the source of all observation, then we find something that transcends the limitations of an agreed-upon (objective) reality. What we find is the same truth that is subjectively true for us all.
is truth subjective?
Truth is subjective, but not realized by the subjective experience of the egoic self. Instead, it is realized by the subjective experience of consciousness. What, then, is this truth and what makes it beyond reproach?
There is only one truth that cannot be refuted, denied, or argued, except by minds that are colored by thought. This means that absolute truth is beyond thought, memories, information, knowledge, experience, science, religion, and description. It is ineffable, unchangeable, unbounded, indivisible, without beginning nor end, and timeless. It is not knowable by thought, nor can it be measured or quantified by any objective means required to know our world of forms, expressions, and phenomena. The truth is irreducible.
Subjective truth is not the same as a subjective opinion or perspective, both of which are based on thought. Since thought is fleeting and unstable, it can never know truth.
finding truth for yourself without your self
In the science of physics we find the concept of infinite regression. When applied to material things, for instance, we can say that something exists because something gave rise to it, and that something gave rise to what gave rise to it, and so on into infinity. There is no end to the mind’s ability to split any object into smaller and smaller parts or to find an intermediary stage that links parts or particles together back or forth into time. But truth is irreducible, unlike material objects and substances. So what is this truth?
You would have to do your own work to find out what truth is, because it is not to be learned by the logical, illogical, conditioned, calculating, opinionated, religious, scientific, or image-making mind.
When you do this work, which consists of observing your own sense of (egoic) self, eventually the illusory egoic self breaks down and something unalloyed is perceived or realized. This “something” is truth, which is an infinite space or capacity for all that exists. It is not existence itself, but rather that which contains existence and out of which existence arises. It is therefore fundamental and prior to thought, form, expression, and phenomena.
Each living and inanimate entity is at its core this same so-called capacity. All people, things, nature, and phenomena occur within the context of a one and only space. This space is the only truth that exists. Only a clear mind, free of ideas, can detect this.
