I am getting into doing The Work again, after not having done it for a while, and see again how the truth sets me free.
When I find what is genuinely more true for me than an initial belief, it gives a sense of liberation and freedom. My personality may not like what comes up, as in the most recent inquiry, but just being honest about it is a huge relief.
And there is a simple story why:
When I attach to a story, rigidly holding onto a certain perspective and identity to the exclusion of other ones, I am at war with what is already more true for me. It takes a great deal of effort to do this.
I need to monitor what is going on, making sure I am shooting down whatever the initial story does not include, and anything that may show that it has only a limited truth. I need to fuel it by repeating it to myself, and creating supporting stories. I need to act as if it is true. I need to filter my whole experience of the world through it.
So when I finally give up, and look in a more honest way at what is already more true for me, all of this can fall away or at least – for the time being – be fueled less.
There are innumerable dishonesties in our lives. All the little beliefs and stories we attach to that are not aligned with life as it shows up for us.
And then there is the major one: that there is a separate I here, an I with an Other. In our immediate awareness, here now, there is just the field of awakeness and form, inherently free from an I with an Other. Yet right away, this is covered up by an attachment to a story of a separate I, which filters it all making it appear true.
Like any other belief, it is a belief that needs constant maintenance. It requires a great deal of energy.
What is truth?
I used to not be comfortable with the word truth, because I knew there was no absolute truth expressible in words. But inquiry has helped me with this.
In the context of The Work, I am now comfortable using the word truth, as an equivalent of relative truth. A truth filtered through stories. And a truth closer to what is really true for me, in my own immediate experience.
The truth revealed through The Work is that I cannot be sure any story is absolutely true. It is what happens to me when I believe that thought. It is who I am without it. And it is the grain of truth in each of the turnarounds of the initial statement, which reveals the initial story to also only have a limited truth to it.