Embracing Truth and
Awakening the Mystical

 

Truth is Bitter Medicine, and we're not really that sick.......Are we?

Illusion is comforting. Truth is raw. We live with Illusion because the alternative involves embracing unpleasant Truths. These Truths are only unpleasant because they shed light on deceptive half true and untrue stories that we tell ourselves and choose to believe because of how comfortable they make us feel. When we embrace the truth, we see clearly how we have fooled ourselves and this hurts. It is important for us to be ready and willing to forgive ourselves completely, for if we can not forgive ourselves then the Truth can devastate us, plunge us into guilt, and back into illusion once again. We humans are masters of self-deception, and after shaking off one illusion, we can all too easily grab hold of a new one.

Once we embrace the truth and fully forgive ourselves then the Medicine of truth loses its bitterness and our psychic health becomes greatly improved as does our capacity for Love, Joy, Peace, and Spiritual Awareness. 

There are two broad categories of illusion that we humans use to comfort ourselves and protect us from unpleasant truths. The first category is the shared mythologies that are embraced by groups of people such as national mythologies and to a certain extent, some religious mythologies. These group mythologies clothe us in feelings of righteousness and tell us how wonderful we are. If we allow Truth to strip away these illusions, we not only loose the feeling of how wonderful and righteous we are, but we also lose some of what connects us to other people who are embracing these illusions.

The second category of our illusions contains those illusions that we come to believe about ourselves. They are our personal illusions which tell us what wonderful people we are and hide from us our faults and failings. These are the most difficult illusions to uncover as they can differ from person to person. 

The Illusion of Our Myths

A teacher named Rich Lundstrom described society's myths in this way:

  Peoples are supported by myth. Myth fleshes out people's dreams of what they are; It sets up a teleology that at once renders their nations' actions inevitable and justifiable; it intermingles and confuses history with destiny; it assures that the gods will recognize, or better, create a nation's righteousness. It is the source of a nation's strength, so much so that Napoleon, no mean judge of power, would prefer control of a nation's mythology to command of its armies. It ratifies, it canonizes, it apotheosizes. 
The problem is not that myth is always lethal. Indeed, its principle function seems to be that it brings man into contact with the profound mystery of the universe on terms that are at once acceptable and delightful.... 

The problem is that myth can become lethal. Perhaps it must, sooner or later...

....It's not that we must suppress historical truth to preserve the myth the way some societies we call "closed" do. We need not burn books, even though we sometimes do. The crucial realities, both historical and current, are quite available. We just ignore them. Probably we can't stand to confront them. To do so would not make us psychotic; it would simply reveal our psychosis. For even an incipient comprehension of the vast gulf between our myth and the reality would make our schizophrenia acute.

Our myths are like addictive drugs. The feelings of security and righteousness that they give us become ingrained in our understanding of ourselves. Removal of these illusions is a very painful process that leaves us feeling insecure, defiled, and outcast. It's no wonder we cling so tightly to our illusions.

It can be tempting, once we have freed ourselves from the illusions of our myths to want to blame and condemn those who promulgate, perpetuate, and maintain belief in these myths as well as those who are still wrapped up in these mythologies, but this would be a mistake. Our capacity to forgive others is inseparably linked to our capacity to forgive ourselves, and being able to forgive ourselves is crucially important for anyone seeking to make the mystical / evolutionary journey.

Remember:
There are no enemies anywhere, only expatriate friends!

To learn more about the national myths and illusions please read the papers and letters by Rich Lundstrom. While these deal primarily with issues related to the United States, Christianity, and the specifically the Catholic Church, the Truths that they reveal about our human nature are no less applicable to every other nation and religion.

The Illusions Within Each of Us

The things that we want to believe about ourselves generally have about as much truth to them as the myths that societies like to believe about themselves. Each of us carries around a shadow that we hide from ourselves. This shadow side of us has far greater control of our actions than we care to believe or acknowledge. We often act, and then afterwards figure out the motivation and justification for our actions, all the while unaware that our actions had little to do with the justifications and motivations that we came up with later.

It is easy to see the workings of the shadow in other people, especially those we are not fond of. Having this same insight into the workings of our own shadows is extremely difficult and frightening. We must be prepared to see the side of ourselves that is hateful, greedy, arrogant, selfish, petty, perverse, evil, etc. We must not only see this side, but we must be prepared to forgive, accept, and even embrace the shadow side that we uncover. Acceptance and forgiveness are the keys to gaining awareness, self knowledge, self control, spiritual growth, and spiritual awakening, and embracing the shadow does not empower it, rather it empowers us by  harnessing the shadow and allowing the shadow energies to be expressed in beneficial or at least neutral ways.

For another way of understanding our shadow side, read 

Read some papers and letters by Rich Lundstrom

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