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The Daily Dharma – December 27, 2021

Photo by Anne Nygard

The Radical Perceptual Shift: Is it True?

In all situations, of course, the all-important question is: “Is it true?” Not: “Is it from my group?” “Does it please me?” “Does it use my vocabulary and my definitions?” Not even, “Is it 100% true” Who cares? the saint would say. “Only the ego cares,” the Buddhist would say; and the ego is not interested in truth or in God, only in control. If it is even 10 percent true, the saint is grateful and happy for that gift.

St. Thomas Aquinas said in the thirteenth century: If it is true, then it is from the Holy Spirit. In the thirteenth century, when Christians demonized Muslims even more than they do today, St. Francis told us friars that if we found a page of the Koran, we should kiss it and place it on the altar. His Christian truth was not fear-based. He could honor God and holiness anywhere it was found, and not just inside of his own symbol system.

Richard Rohr
from The Naked Now; Learning to See as the Mystics See
Chapter: But We Have to Make Judgements, Don’t We?