Truth is found in ones living response to the heart.
This world is filled with people who will tell you what they perceive to be the truth. Be it religion, science, or new age teachings, they are swift to claim that they are right, and all others in the world are wrong. People choose to follow Christianity, Islam, atheism, materialism, Buddhism... it does not matter which. They have set their course on following the truth as it exists in this world.
Yet of course, not all of them can be correct. Not all of them can be true. And thus on the very face of it, even without knowing Truth for ourselves, we can see what a fallen, confused world we live in.
And then, people suppose that truth may be found through some sort of sharing. Organizations are founded for the uniting of all the world's religions. The Dalai Lama speaks to the physicists and the physicians, seeking common ground. Conferences are held to bridge the gaps and remove the obstacles between faiths and teachings. And yet, if only one teaching can be true, then most of these efforts are bridging gaps between one un-truth and another, one piece of falsehood and another. Two wrongs don't make a right.
This dark world, then, is filled with un-truth, falsehood, and lies.
When someone is sincerely seeking truth for themselves, they are thus challenged with the issue of how to determine the Truth from the truth — that which is Real as opposed to that which is an illusion. How can they tell what is True?
We often say, in answer, that the heart will tell us. That we inwardly know what is True. That we are guided to the Truth from within. And this is so. But what is really happening? We might suppose that this ego is learning the truth — that our individual nature is coming into contact with it. But this is not the case. For the ego is part of this fallen world, and knows nothing more than the lies and falsehoods of this dark realm.
For example, we might imagine that we have an element of Truth, that "God is Love." But what do we know of this Love? All we have are the words "God" and "is" and "Love" that are understood by a mind trapped in illusion, and which are assumed to have some meaning — but in fact they do not. For the words are a part of this world of illusion, and thus the words are illusion. And one's mental understanding of the words are a part of the illusory world of the mind, and thus all concepts about God are a part of the illusion. And illusion cannot be Truth.
Thus no ego can know Truth. It is not in the nature of egos to know the Truth. Nor is it possible for egos to experience it, and thus we can rest back and not expect our egos to be filled with truth... or be perfect, loving, or divine in any way. That's not the nature of egos. Our self, our personality, is a part of this fallen universe. So be it.
Nevertheless, we do have a sense, however dimly inside of us, of the Truth that God is Love. For that divine Spark within us is Truth itself, is Love, and is the God within. When that divinity within the heart expresses itself, then we contact a whole new realm of being — a whole new world of existence. The divine universe becomes, in however small a way, a part of our experience.
When the heart speaks to us of Truth, it is because the divine universe is opening up before us.
Thus we swing between two worlds. We know our fallen ego, our limited self, is a poor, pitiful thing living in a dark and evil world. The more we look at it, and the more we perceive its nature, the more we can see our failures, our faults, and our limitations — and in seeing them we also can see the faults and limitations of the world-prison around us. At the same time, there is an increasing contact with a realm in which darkness cannot exist, where perfection is the norm, where Truth is the foundation of Life, and where Love rules all.
Now in our swinging back and forth between one universe and another, it is easy to get confused. The ego can imagine that the Truth and perfection of the divine universe is its own, and become swollen with pride. The ego can likewise see the fundamental and permanent imperfection of its own nature and become cast into despair. Both are emotional responses to the Truth of one's own situation. In either case, a dispassionate response to life is needed, and a clear understanding that the ego is not to be perfected. The self is here to be surrendered to God, and not to become filled with Truth or Love. The ego is to be transcended by the divine Life of Being, and no matter how fallen or limited the ego may be, what do those limitations matter when the ego is gone? After all, in the realm of Truth, the ego does not exist, never did exist, and never will exist. What is there, then, to be filled with knowledge? What is there, then, to be limited and fallen? What is there, then, to be filled with Love?
This divine world, this ever-perfect universe, is in such stark contrast to the fallen one that confusion is easy. And the self takes advantage of this every minute to maintain its own, illusory existence. We know that surrender of self to God is the path to Love, Truth and Reality. And the self, of course, continuously refuses to surrender. It is in the nature of a fallen, limited self to do so. Billions of people today succeed in blocking out Truth by refusing to surrender. Therefore they are left with fallen, limited truth — the lies and fragments, the distortions and confusions of a fallen, illusory universe. They cling to this or that truth, for the limited truth that they hold on to perpetuates their self, their ego, and their sense of worth and value in the world. How, then, can they expect to know God, to know Truth, and to know Love?
If one little trickle of Love comes from the divine universe, then we are lit up the whole day. All irritation, fear, stress, and sadness is washed away. We were meant to live in joy and peace, but the world distracts us.
If one little flash of Wisdom comes from the divine universe, then we can speak with power. We can see right through the distorted concepts and falsehoods of this world. And if we then threw away all our books, even the books of the Masters, we would not feel the loss one moment.
Therefore Truth is found in ones living response to the heart, to the divine Spirit. Truth is beyond words and concepts, beyond this fallen realm. Truth isn't a "thing" that is to be known; Truth is a Life that is to be experienced. It is not the words which try to capture and describe the experience, but the experience itself that is the Truth — the experience of God, of Love, of Bliss, and of Grace.
To earnestly seek Truth is the path itself. That seeking leads us to understand the absolute necessity of surrender to God, to that divine Spark within us, for Truth resides only in the heart and not anywhere in this illusory world. That surrendering to God leads us to understand the absolute need to follow the divine Will in all aspects of our lives. And following the divine Will inevitably takes us from this cold and heartless realm to an everlasting kingdom of Peace, Joy, Love, and Bliss.