What is truth?

I remember playing word association games during the course of my study in psychology. In fact I still play them every now and then! For some inexplicable reason the word 'truth' has been popping up in my head. What ideas, thoughts, or associations come to your mind when you think of the word 'truth'?

I can only speak for myself of course. There are two ideas that come to my mind; one is the word trust, and the other is the story of Pontius Pilate in the Bible. Also the phrase that many of us hear and sometimes even quote."the truth shall set you free".

Looking back in history the word 'truth' is taken from an Old English word 'treowth' which meant faithful. If we like, we can further trace back this word to the word 'faith' itself. Which would mean that truth and faith are synonymous. I'll leave you to make your own conclusions though. On my part I think trust comes to mind because of the simple logic that we can only trust someone who tells us the truth. Which raises a secondary question of how do we know when someone is telling us the truth? After all Hollywood, Bollywood and so many other successful movie industries base their paycheck on people who act- or to put it another way- people who portray non-truths and who do it so convincingly that we pay them for it! Of course I'm putting this very simplistically, since I'll be the first to admit that I like a good movie!

However this is a day and age when trust has become a highly priced commodity- it goes to the highest paying bidder. Or to the person who can market it in the most appealing way. How do we know whom and what to believe? I like the idea that many eastern and even some western religions propose; that truth can only be found by searching within ourselves. We each of us needs to find a truth inside us that we can hold onto- while the world around us is shifting and changing. It could be faith in an unseen source, it could be faith in ourselves and our strengths- it doesn't matter as long as it is something that we can hold onto- our anchor.

The story of Pontius Pilate is the story of a man searching for truth or 'the' truth. Be was faced with the decision of punishing Jesus, and he was caught between the guilt of punishing an innocent man, or just going with the crowd and doing whatever they suggested. A dilemma many of us face- especially those of us who choose to step out of our respective comfort zones. He asked the now famous question." What is truth?" He made his decision on his own idea of truth.

Which is what each of us must also do, or are already doing. Truth to one person may not be the same as truth to the person beside him/her. What does matter is how intensely we believe in what we choose to believe and hold on to.

Esther @ www.soakupinfo.com/Esther