Truth
By Nvrgoingbk
I searched among the Mayan ruins.
I traveled there alone.
I hoped to find it among the ghosts
Of worshippers now gone,
And when I came up wanting
I journeyed to a different shore.
I hoped to find it in a grand old mosque
And within the Muslim lore.
It was not there, and so I hurried
To a land not far away.
Now it was the Jewish Sabbath,
So I bowed my head to pray.
I left the temple wondering
Just where the truth could be.
I traveled by air, by foot, by bus…
I sailed an endless sea.
I read the Bagahvad Gita,
The Annalects divine
I learned the proper chanting…
Showed my respects at the Buddhist shrine.
Still, I wandered aimlessly,
Not finding what I sought.
I studied the philosophers
And the highest of human thought.
I gave my heart to Jesus
I made him Savior and Lord.
I was born again, spoke in tongues,
But on Sundays I was bored.
I tried my hand at the Ouija Board
I summoned the spirits of old
I stopped in to see my psychic, my shrink…
Wherever the truth was sold.
I smoked Peote with Geronimo
And entered a spiritual trance.
I lived among his people
And learned their tribal dance.
So many years I hunted
For what eluded me.
I voyaged to lands both near and far,
Studied Yoga and Tai-Chi.
I woke beside a pool of blue,
A lake amid the trees.
I pondered the lessons I had learned,
The things that I had seen.
I laid like that for quite sometime.
The evening came, then morn.
I wearied of this sole expedition now,
My traveling shoes long worn.
“I thirst,” I said, and so I leaned
To serve myself a sip.
I saw within that mirror an image
Raise water to its lips.
And that’s where I found it,
The truth I had tracked and hounded for so long.
“What a fool I’ve been,” I screamed to the sky,
“How could I have been so wrong?”
The truth was never to be found within
Temples made of stone.
Cathedrals, with all their splendor,
Could never be its home.
Finally at peace, I journeyed back;
My friends, they greeted me.
“Did you find what you were looking for?
Pray tell, what did you see?”
“What is the truth, wise-man,” they asked.
“Here is not where it can be found.”
“Then where Master? Can we travel there?
To that place of Holy ground?”
“You must visit the shrines and the mosques,” I said.
“You must consult the wisest seer.
You must dabble in philosophy,
Face your darkest fears”
“You must learn the Koran and the Bible
You must pray to every god
You must bow in every temple
Your tired feet may trod,
And when you’ve come to the very end
Of the answers man has found
You will see an image of yourself and know
It’ is there that truth resounds.
I searched among the Mayan ruins.
I traveled there alone.
I hoped to find it among the ghosts
Of worshippers now gone,
And when I came up wanting
I journeyed to a different shore.
I hoped to find it in a grand old mosque
And within the Muslim lore.
It was not there, and so I hurried
To a land not far away.
Now it was the Jewish Sabbath,
So I bowed my head to pray.
I left the temple wondering
Just where the truth could be.
I traveled by air, by foot, by bus…
I sailed an endless sea.
I read the Bagahvad Gita,
The Annalects divine
I learned the proper chanting…
Showed my respects at the Buddhist shrine.
Still, I wandered aimlessly,
Not finding what I sought.
I studied the philosophers
And the highest of human thought.
I gave my heart to Jesus
I made him Savior and Lord.
I was born again, spoke in tongues,
But on Sundays I was bored.
I tried my hand at the Ouija Board
I summoned the spirits of old
I stopped in to see my psychic, my shrink…
Wherever the truth was sold.
I smoked Peote with Geronimo
And entered a spiritual trance.
I lived among his people
And learned their tribal dance.
So many years I hunted
For what eluded me.
I voyaged to lands both near and far,
Studied Yoga and Tai-Chi.
I woke beside a pool of blue,
A lake amid the trees.
I pondered the lessons I had learned,
The things that I had seen.
I laid like that for quite sometime.
The evening came, then morn.
I wearied of this sole expedition now,
My traveling shoes long worn.
“I thirst,” I said, and so I leaned
To serve myself a sip.
I saw within that mirror an image
Raise water to its lips.
And that’s where I found it,
The truth I had tracked and hounded for so long.
“What a fool I’ve been,” I screamed to the sky,
“How could I have been so wrong?”
The truth was never to be found within
Temples made of stone.
Cathedrals, with all their splendor,
Could never be its home.
Finally at peace, I journeyed back;
My friends, they greeted me.
“Did you find what you were looking for?
Pray tell, what did you see?”
“What is the truth, wise-man,” they asked.
“Here is not where it can be found.”
“Then where Master? Can we travel there?
To that place of Holy ground?”
“You must visit the shrines and the mosques,” I said.
“You must consult the wisest seer.
You must dabble in philosophy,
Face your darkest fears”
“You must learn the Koran and the Bible
You must pray to every god
You must bow in every temple
Your tired feet may trod,
And when you’ve come to the very end
Of the answers man has found
You will see an image of yourself and know
It’ is there that truth resounds.
Comments
But hey, thats just me. :-)
We hope there's someone much wiser and smarter than us, but it''s not always true, if we could listen to ourselves, the answer lies within.
Great Poem!
I hope you didn't really go through all that time and travel though. I learned the same lesson from surfing the internet. ;)
You know what it meant. :o)
Good poem, btw. I might just hang that sucker on my office wall.
The link shows this as a possible explanation for "Truth".
Aurelius Augustine:
"4. Truth is Spiritual
a. Truth is Not a function of Matter.
b. Truth is Not a function of Time.
c. Truth is Not a function of Space.
5. Truth is Superior to the human mind.
6. Truth is God."
http://www.truth-defined.com/1-The%20Nature%20of%20Truth.htm
How does "Aurelius's" non-superior human mind account for Universal "Truth", with a capital "T"? He can't. He eliminates his own ability to know Universal "Truth", by his fifth requirement.
Individual "truth", is what we "experience", therefore, "truth" is the culmination of each individual's past, present and future. To say there is a greater "Truth” is to suggest one is able to have an out of body “experience”, without accepting the event as a legitimate “experience” – that’s delusion.
I liked the poem, it was clever, and focused on the center of truth - the individual's sojourn in life.
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