Which Untruth To Love?

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Hand-drawn art by Rupali Bhuva
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Having trodden the path for cycles uncountable,
Having crossed the ocean of mind from end to end,
Through all veils, its fountainhead have I finally seen.
To you, honest truth-seeker treading just behind me,
I offer this imperfect vision:

Only untruths can be experienced;
Hence, only untruths exist.
Truth does not belong to existence
For it is that which gives voice to existence,
As a trumpet to music.

Experiences are self-tricks of self-reference:
They arise from nothing and are made of nothing.
If you dig deep within yourself,
You shall always find the layer of self-deception
Upon which each one of your convictions ultimately rests.

One's reality sprouts from the first layer of self-deception
That escapes one's field of critical awareness.
The deeper this field, the more subtle the self-deception.
Those with little critical awareness thus live more colorful lives:
Their fiction is richer.

The honest search for truth annihilates its own subject
Slowly, recursively, from within.
Having peeled away every layer of self-deception within me,
I have found myself to be without a core:
Nothing is left.

Only nothing is true.
No external references exist, no outside arbiters.
We are self-created fictions, as is our cosmos.
The quest for truth is also the path to self-annihilation
And thus to liberation.

Rejoice, for your pains, fears, frustrations and regrets
Are all untrue.
There is nothing to fear, nothing to strive for, nothing to regret.
You have no soul; that's just self-deception.
And you won't die; that's just self-deception.

But beware!
As a dream symbolically portrays the inner state of the dreamer,
As a novel insinuates the inner life of the author,
As a lie betrays the anxieties of the liar,
So the fiction you call reality reveals something of truth.

Thus pay attention to life,
For truth expresses itself only through its own fictions.
To discern truth in fiction: here is the cosmic conundrum!
To engage wholeheartedly without being taken in: here is nature's challenge!
To find meaning in nothingness: here is the epic demand!

Partake in reality as an actor in a theater:
With attention, dedication, and an open heart.
But never believe yourself to be your character;
For characters spend their lives chasing their own shadows,
Whereas actors embody the meaning of existence.

May this small vision serve you as warning, and also encouragement.
The prize at the end of the path is handsome:
Freedom to make the deliberate, guiltless choice
Of which untruth to love.
Exercise this choice wisely, for it is the art of life.

Seed Questions for Reflection

How do you relate to the notion that the cosmic conundrum is to discern truth in fiction? Can you share a personal story of a time when you peeled back a layer of what you thought was fiction about yourself or your life, only to discover something true underneath? What helps you "partake in reality as an actor in a theater," exercising your freedom in making the guiltless choice of which untruth to love?

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Add Your Reflection

8 Past Reflections
CS
Nov 10, 2026
In Stephen Vincent Benét's short story, "By the Waters of Babylon," one of the characters says, "Truth is a hard deer to hunt." I agree.
GL
Nov 6, 2026
This IS this. One of the best lines from the movie, The Deer Hunter.
JP
Nov 6, 2026
As I was growing up, I used to hear wise words like Satyameva jayate, nanrutam: Truth indeed wins, not lies. How to find the truth and partake in reality in the world we live isn't easy. Truth liberates us from bondage, not lies. Telling a lie may work for a while but eventually truth wins. My father used to tell us in Sanskrit 'Satyameva jayate '. Truth indeed wins, not lies. I believe in telling the truth and following the truth. However, it is not always easy for me to tell the truth especially when I encounter a situation when telling the truth may cause pain to the people close to me. It's a dillema. If I tell the truth it causes pain to the person I love and care for and if I do not tell the truth I feel bad about it. Before I tell the truth I let the person know that what I will say my hurt you. And my affection and regard for him is not going to go away. In fact, our relatioship will be enriched and enhanced by being truthful with each other. And it is not a one way stre... View full comment
I felt discouraged initially in reading Lao Tzu's message that we live in self-deception and can only experience untruths because truth does not belong to this human existence. He then says the honest search arrives at finding the core which is "nothing." I see "nothing" as no thing, as pure Being which is real and true. To see "something of truth" is a challenge, and for me Lao Tzu's saying that is possible is encouraging. I used to think and see very different than I do now. More than twenty years ago I started paying attention to people influenced by vedantic thinking apparently in a deeper and more open way, and I think that is when I began peeling back layers of fiction and seeing some truth. I like the reference to being an actor. For me, a real actor knows the difference between the character he plays and real self. When I am a real actor, I partake in society as a character in a play, I play my part well, I know that I'm not the character, and when the play is done and ... View full comment
JP
Jagdish P Dave Nov 6, 2026
Well said. Love it.
AM
Nov 5, 2026
Which untruth to love? I find myself listening for the story that allows compassion to be my first response. Something of this came to me as a young child, through an opening to cosmic awareness that I have continued to explore in my healing practices. It accompanied me into the work I chose, even when members of my family asked, “You want to work with those people?” Somehow, my whole being wanted to move closer. To greet another person, to listen, to discover what might become possible between us. Looking back, I hear the fiction in “those people”—the distance those words create, the assumption that some lives belong beyond the circle of our care. My own stories have needed loosening, too. Again and again, the people I encountered opened something in me that my ideas alone could never have reached. Now, in my eighth decade, I am landing and locating in love in the watershed of the Hudson River Valley. The waters help me feel my place within a living world. Voices ar... View full comment
AJ
AJ Nov 8, 2026
Just beautiful … from beginning to end! Keep encountering people! Who and what you encounter surely matter! (To you and to them)
Thank you for this reflection!
AJ
Nov 5, 2026
Ah, my teacher. I think he speaks with my voice. I think I speak with his. How beautiful is this dream.