Truth and Character Development: A Journey of Discovery

September?has been the month of truthfulness, which includes the character strengths of Fairness, Honesty, Honour, Integrity, Justice, Nobility, Righteousness, and Sincerity.

Truth is a timely topic in a 'post-truth' era. This may be a heavy post, but as of all the character strengths, Truth is currently the most underutilized, and today we're going to discuss some of the dynamics of why this may be.

What are we referring to when we talk about the decline in truth?

Is it that the truth group is the least acknowledged group on the ShareTree platform? Is it that people's worldviews are increasingly divergent, meaning political polarization is now threatening the stability of many of the world's major democracies - with America being the most visible example? Does it have anything to do with the rise in mental illness across the world's developed nations? Is it that the government's COVID response in Victoria has divided families and caused a whole new slew of relationship breakdowns across the state? How do we make sense of all of these factors and their relationship to the truth? I'll run with this last example to hopefully unpack and arrive at a good understanding of what we mean when we talk about truth at ShareTree.

Part of the difficulty we are having with truth at the moment is its very definition, with different ideas, models, and standards for a 'truth claim' (something that someone claims to be true) to be made.

Merriam-Webster's definition doesn't help us out much. In addition to circular references ('an idea that is true'), it seems to have three divergent threads.?

Truth is 'real things, events, and facts.'

On the one hand, truth refers to 'real things, events, and facts' - we take this to mean a definition of truth as something that is inter-subjectively verifiable i.e. that if I see it, you can also see it and it is something that exists in the physical world; e.g. the bird is blue. These are things that a camera would record.?

Truth is a benevolent presence.

On the other hand, there are references to 'transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality' as well as the word GOD - hardly something that people can easily agree on or verify for themselves by reference to an external reality.

Truth is a matter of sincerity.

And then there's also mention of sincerity - irrespective of whether what a person is sincere about is true.

So what even is truth?

The definitions of numbers 1 & and 2 mostly seem to refer to what we would call objective reality. Definition #3 refers to someone's individual sense of the truth, while definitions #1a(3) & and #4 refer to explicitly spiritual concepts.

Let's run with this, and assume that there are three loose frames for the truth, at least for developed Anglo nations.?

1. Objective Truth ('Facts')

What most people understand to be true is inter-subjectively verifiable: if you see it, I can also see it. This normally means phenomena in the material world - for example, the fact that Australia had no recorded COVID transmissions on November 1st, 2020. People love to throw statistics around to engage with this kind of truth e.g.?the delta strain of covid is five times more likely to result in death than the average flu virus;?vaccine-related deaths have increased 4000% from 2020 to 2021.?

The good thing about objective truth

The good thing about this take on the truth is that the claim of universality is easy to verify; we can 'check the records' if they exist. We have come to rely on objective or empirical truth as the most reliable, which has done amazing things for us. It has been the main driver of the Enlightenment and scientific revolution, allowing us to raise living standards and wealth globally through innovation using the scientific method.?

The problem with objective truth

However, it has come at a cost. With the rise in objective truth as the main source of truth, there has been a concurrent decline in transcendent truth i.e. religion across the modern world. And what religion did give us (and what objective truth cannot) is?a good story. Religion (transcendent truth) provides a framework for how we should live in the world as humans. Whether or not you agree with the particular tenets of religion as good ways to live, we need a good story as humans to live well and make decisions. And in the absence of that, we are increasingly relying on facts (objective truths) to cobble together stories that may or may not be good for us - as the?QAnon phenomenon?so well illustrates.?

2. Subjective Truth ('Personal Truths')

If you're on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, you may have come across the phrase 'my truth'. This phrase is growing in popularity and is used to describe what a person's experience, opinion, or beliefs are. People often use it to communicate the strength of personal conviction, and of the four definitions above is closest to number 3: sincerity in action, character, and utterance.?

The good thing about subjective truth

What is good about this way of engaging with 'truth' is that it makes room for the subjective felt experience that someone is having - a necessary step as we all get better at talking about our feelings and developing self-awareness (if we're doing it well). It is true that people feel things, need things, think things, and imagine things and this is all important information if we want to get an understanding of what is 'true', at least for that person.?

To recall an earlier example; it is true that a lot of people were angry about the restrictions over COVID-19 because of the infringement on personal freedoms and the ability to generate an income in certain industries. It is also true that a lot of people felt safer and well looked after because of the reduced risk of catching COVID-19 in those times. It is also true that many people (especially young people) were experiencing heightened levels of anxiety and depression due to a lack of connection and stimulation over the lockdown.?

The problem with personal truths

The problem with 'Personal Truths' is that they can take a concept (truth) that has always claimed universality, whether material or spiritual, and make it purely personal while still claiming to be an incontestable truth. We can easily weaponize our experience by turning it into a negative story about others. This is how people get alienated from each other by treating our ideas, opinions, or judgments about others as 'true'. During the lockdown, for one side, there was a lunatic fringe that was endangering the safety of others as well as the rule of law by refusing to wear masks and protesting the lockdowns. On the other side, there was appalling compliance with an abrogation of civil liberties that had no proportion to the actual risk presented. Both of these 'truths' are actually opinions that should be held lightly lest they kill our curiosity and ability to connect with one another in understanding.

Ideally, our personal experiences connect rather than alienate us from one another. Knowing how to distinguish unhelpful stories or judgments from the legitimate feelings and needs that someone is aware of is one of the main skills we develop in our?mental health first responders course.?

3. Transcendent?Truths ('Ethics', 'Religion' or 'Good Story')?

Transcendent truths provide instructions or principles for living. Part of the reason that we are in a global meaning crisis right now is we no longer have a coherent framework of ethical decision-making; a topic covered thoroughly and excellently by?John Vervaeke's free youtube course 'Awakening from the Meaning Crisis'?(disclaimer: it's 50hrs long! But well worth it). It's the reason meditation is so hot right now. And why other wisdom traditions like Buddhism, Daoism, and stoicism are undergoing a resurgence in the West. But we do not have an easy way of talking about this kind of truth.?

However, at their core, transcendent truths contain axioms (usually communicated through stories) that provide a necessary framework for how to live well in the world. This is what we are really searching for, and are so thirsty for, in our culture; good stories that make sense of both outer and inner experiences to tell us how we should act.?

The problem with transcendent truths

Unfortunately, it's difficult to talk about transcendent truths in our culture without sounding somewhat untrustworthy. Religion has a bad rap in our culture precisely because the truths it contains don't jive with our objective/materialistic understanding of what truth ultimately is - not to mention the history of suppression, abuse, and control that comes with the major religions.

Ultimately, we need to build truth into our character

At ShareTree, we believe that character is at the core of our pursuit of truth, and building character through practice is one of the main mechanisms that we can use to live meaningful lives - to touch truth and by living it - become wise.

By focusing on cultivating character, we can escape the trap that materialistic culture can lay for us - that focuses on having rather than becoming. For example,?many in Melbourne sought?security by?having?restrictions imposed on movement, while others?sought freedom by?having?an 'evil government' to fight against. Both sides sought to have a righteous cause to be a part of, and in doing so missed the important transcendent truth of who they were becoming.

What we really need is to?become?the kind of people we want to be;?becoming?secure by accepting the reality of risk and death as part of living,?becoming?free by realizing that our sphere of influence is contained in our immediate environment and relationships. In both cases in the latter example, we can stay aligned to our core values when making decisions and not be buffeted by the winds of circumstance or perceived crisis.

This is the crisis of meaning that we're in; the need for a good story to make sense of our outer and inner experiences so that we can make choices aligned with a good life. Our dilemma is that we have an overreliance on facts and personal experience to try to make a good story - and we're not doing a good enough job to even understand one another. We are in dire need of a common language for transcendent truths - one that people can connect to regardless of their religiosity or cultural background.?

Normally, I tie these posts off with a bit of hope or a how-to. The reality is there is nothing so trite or straightforward that will work in this instance. Finding a way as a culture to talk about self-transcendence and to have a meaningful framework to do this is one of the many great challenges of our age.?

Indigenous knowledge systems as a compass for finding truth

We may, however, refer to some indigenous knowledge systems for guidance.?Tyson Yunkaporta's recent gripping interview on the Emerald podcast?explores a variety of lenses that we can use to arrive at a sense of the truth:?

Story Mind: the ways we engage with, compare, and make sense of stories.?

Pattern Mind: how we understand whole systems and how they interact with others; not just inputs and outputs but also pattern interrupters and black swan events?

Kinship Mind: inter-relatedness of information; how things not only connect together but from what/whose lineage - imbibed with the meaning of the relationships that allow the knowledge to be transferred.?

Ancestor Mind: what we have come to associate with 'flow states'; deep mediation, focus, and engagement that can be brought about through ritual, dance, song, and other psycho-technologies?

Dreaming Mind: related to Corbine's concept of 'the imaginal'; the 'leap of faith' that we have to make in order to live according to new understandings of the world, often manifesting in art, new habits, or rituals.?

This system requires each lens to keep the others in check. For example, the idea that the Victorian government was veering into a dictatorship could be seen as a story mind interacting with the pattern mind to see something that wasn't really there - it didn't have a kinship mind to ground the reality of a codified democracy; important contextual information. Similarly, the rigid belief that 100% of the population should be vaccinated and non-conformists should be punished could be seen as an over-reliance on the kinship mind (going with what the authorities say) without the balance of story and pattern mind to warn against going down an authoritarian path.?

Yunkaporta makes it very clear that we can't just copy/paste this into our own culture - that we need to authentically discover the different checks and balances that help us arrive at contextualized?truth.?

Here's hoping that we do.

Written by Rhys Jaconley

A Volunteer's Perspective: Insights into Growth, Leadership, Culture, and Mental Health

Hello again! I'm Genevieve and I volunteer here at Sharetree. In this edition, let's explore the timeless virtue of truthfulness and how it shapes our relationships, both personally and professionally.?

Life has a way of teaching us important lessons, and it often seems the universe presents us with similar hurdles in different contexts over and over again until we comprehend its significance fully. These recurring challenges can manifest in many facets of our lives, spanning from our relationships, to our personal development, and within the workplace.?

This vicious cycle will persist until we realize that the only way to break free from this cycle is to openly confront the full truth in any given situation. Being truthful to ourselves requires a deep level of introspection. It involves asking tough questions that unpack our understanding of how our behaviors, attitudes, and reactions contribute to the recurring patterns in our lives.?

In the realm of leadership, the most accomplished and esteemed leaders regard truthfulness as a fundamental principle of their leadership style. They actively work towards cultivating trust and transparency within their teams that foster a culture of openness and integrity. An environment where employees conceal the truth can otherwise advance through the office environment in the form of internal gossip and employee disengagement.?

Leaders who possess this high level of self-awareness and remain committed to truthfulness in their pursuit of the greater good for their organization wield a profound influence. In this way, embracing the power of truthfulness not only liberates us from the relentless cycle of life lessons but also imparts our personal and professional lives with a sense of purpose, authenticity, and growth.?

Written by Genevieve Mei Jern Chen

Upcoming Community Workshop

We cover many personal, interpersonal, and organizational well-being elements in our Mental Health First Responder's Community Workshop?on the 11th of October.

https://events.humanitix.com/mental-health-first-responders-intro-training-session-1-of-2-itn670ey