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The Sharp Edge of Truth

A Chapel Talk

By Allyce Cay-Bothmann

        It is said that truth is a two-edged sword; moreover, it also can have a piercing point.  Why is truth defined in this manner?  We are told to embrace truth, and we spend our days dealing with what we can manage of this mighty cosmic force.  We are admonished to tell the truth, and the truth will make us free.  With a dangerous instrument or weapon, we realize it must be handled judiciously.  The Japanese have great reverence for the swords of the Samurai, as some were made by the great masters of concentration and kee, which  means raising the consciousness to a higher level, where the true Ego Self cooperates in the effort.  The markedly superior sword maker, Musaushi, created such masterworks that they are national treasures, and some may only be viewed once every fifty or more years. 

        Throughout history the sword has been a powerful weapon as well as a symbol of authority.  Of course, there are many kinds of swords from the Turk’s crescent, the relatively short, two-foot blade of the Romans, to the unwieldy cross-handled defensive weapon of the Crusaders.  Then, of course, there was the slender rapier.  Not many swords had two sharp sides.  A statue of Victory has a two-edged sword with an ornate cross as a handle welded into the hilt.  Could it be that Victory demands truth from the journeying soul, a responsibility for both receiving truth as well as dispensing it?

        Only the Grand Creator of the Universe of Universes knows the whole truth, because he IS truth.  We lowly mortals are able to grasp truth at best in a limited degree.  Until each person develops the ability to reason logically, and until he can think abstractly to a certain extent, he will be bound by unconscious misperceptions, and his life will be restricted accordingly.  There is no use trying to bring one of lower comprehension to a higher level unless such an individual is taught and works through experience to a higher level of improvement or understanding.  This is the cause for so much trouble in our mortal lives.  Where the emotions are not understood and well controlled, truth is tossed about but rarely grasped.

        Truth is a chameleon thing to mortals, because we confuse belief with the actual.  Pragmatically, we have to live by whatever truth we can perceive at the moment, accompanied by some depth of understanding of raw fact or factual information.  This is a good indication of why there is so much disagreement on basic religious and political principles.  If communication is without depth and does not go beyond the generalities into what is commonly thought of as mystical, there cannot be a grasp of the grandeur of cosmic truth.  Earlier in the practices and rites of barbaric beliefs, the ceremonies were indicative of the extent of truth embraced at that particular time and place.  Until children of the spirit can work with the concept of The Great Spirit and with consciousness of the Omnipresence; symbols, parables, myths and inspiring stories are the effective education.  Eventually the ego graduates to abstract truth.

        Many fine religions see a human-like or anthropomorphic personage as their god.  There are many wonderfully advanced beings in the likenesses of the human form, but The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception most lucidly diagrams and spells out as simply as possible the whole, vast picture of the Truth of Life.  One can study philosophy and religions for a lifetime and discover there has been little contradiction as to the expansiveness and general detail of life and the mortal’s place and reason for being. 

        Each person attains to what is an expanse and level of truth, whereby the mind and the underlying emotions operate.  The limits preceding actuality wrap one in darkness until the piercing light of little truths and revelations push back the formerly unperceived reality.  It requires a keen desire to know and a willingness and ability to rise above all prejudices—a meekness, an established attitude of humility toward our state and destiny.  In other words, one has to love knowledge of life and the cosmos as well as crave ever-deeper understandings. 

        Yet, even this is not enough for us.  We must also be completely dedicated to live as nearly as possible to the example of the Christ.  We, as philosophers, have come to the realization that this takes many lives and consummate experience.  Therefore, we are willing to  persevere through every trial to absolute mastery of this mortal level preparatory to the higher stages of widening consciousness that await us beyond.  The love that we accrue through helping others and bettering our world makes it endurable to keep on keeping on.  Love eases pain.  Love dulls the sharp edges of the truth of each new lesson. 

        It is inspiring to learn about the lives of various people and how they dealt with their problems.  For example: the life of the great Cato who fought the rise and rule of Julius Caesar.  Cato was the chief exponent of stoicism in Rome.  He was a patriot of the Republic, but corruption had riddled much of the government’s effectiveness, as happens in our America today.  In contrast, one of his associates, Philippi, was an epicure devoting his life to the enjoyments of sumptuous living, especially gourmet foods and wine.  Zeno, the ancient Greek founder of the stoic philosophy, tried to develop in his disciples a mastery of the emotions and lower nature.  The Romans were advanced in their technology, their architecture and their military prowess.  Nevertheless, they were terribly cruel and the more empowered men used women—their daughters and wives for political advancement, divorcing and trading them around, and it was only by special law or odd circumstance that even the aristocratic women had any control of their monies or estates.  Caesar was destined to be a great conqueror, in order to spread civilization (such as it was around the European tribes and countries of the Mediterranean 2000 years ago).  Caesar felt that he could remedy Rome’s ills, and in a large part, he did so by gaining more and more power until he was given the dictatorship.  It is not often recorded in the classroom history books that Cato also had abilities of leadership, adding self-discipline and endurance to the superior qualities of Caesar himself.  Cato lead an army that had been stranded on the coast of North Africa, fourteen hundred miles through parched desert and infested wilderness with amazing ingenuity, positivity, and logic, until all but three survived and were able to get back to Rome.  Later, when Caesar’s legions won the Battle of Mundos, Cato thought he would have to compromise his truths and committed suicide.

        Each of these world leaders was highly advanced in comparison to other prominent men of this period of history, but where altruism is not imbued with the more complex workings of truth, conflict ensues.  The world as a unit is gradually evolving toward the inculcation of finer and brighter truth, and our teachings give us the plan and the way individually and collectively.  We are learning how to improve in virtue and use this cosmic power in every moment of our lives. 

        There are truths that you know but which you are not supposed to bring to light.  What of the adopted child who at some age wants to find his biological parents?  It is well known that this is not a good plan.  To my knowledge in several instances, this has proved disastrous.  Some know these truths, but secrets suppress truth for good or ill.  Also we must watch that we do not say negative or untrue things.  We can get into slander, which is bearing false witness and is a criminal act.  We have to guard our tongues—be most discriminating in relationships.  At times it’s hard to know when to try to help and when it is best to mind our own business.

        It takes time and research to discover the truth of world Happenings.  In Word War II, Britain captured a complicated coding machine, called the “Enigma,” from a sunken German ship.  This was such a top secret that when the Germans were beginning to be suspicious, the British knew that they had to reverse their decoded information and the city of Dresden was bombed to rubble. 

        As we can see, truth is or can be dangerous on any level if it is not treated with wisdom.  In world religions and philosophies we can observe nuances and the kaleidoscopic views of the unseen worlds.  Some of us have visited realms or locales of the unseen.  Our experiences are inimitable, but with information from our teachers and others, with careful analysis and proper study there are few discrepancies.  The main trouble with most people today is that unless we are trained clairvoyants, and few of us are, the lower levels of the unseen worlds closest to earth may be open to those prying or accidentally exposed to them.  Yet, for good reason, students of the Rosicrucian philosophy are advised not to meddle in these lower areas of psychism and lower spirits.  As we study and serve, we will come, through our own guides to the truths we need at every juncture of our journey.  Often these cautions go unheeded, but we will later be shown, in our afterlife, of their import. 

        As we learn about the missions of our Lord’s Apostles, when they had converted someone to Christ’s gospel, shortly after baptism the convert was confirmed by the laying on of hands.  Baptism, as you know, is the cleansing of the soul from former wrong-doing, but the confirmation is for the reception of the Holy Ghost and the recognition of truth.  To have access to this great gift is one thing, but to obtain it is quite another.  Mounting experiences through many lives develop the spirit toward wisdom, although young people born in this age of soul may appear ahead of their elders.  Because of this, mendacious areas await the pilgrim: anti-truth or misrepresentation, twisted truth, obfuscated information, putting a spin on news, deleting parts of whatever is told, exaggeration, quotes out of context, prevarication, out right lies—all of these that veil or obliterate the often blinding light of truth—that circumscribes error or ignorance.  Such represent our challenges in pioneering our way through the wilderness to the holy temple of truth.  Wisdom depends upon truth, and our truths are part of the design of the Grand Logos at the center of all Life.

        In the poet’s “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” the young John Keats tells of a little group on its way to some general happening—frozen in time, where there will be no change—the man will always stay in love and his sweetheart will ever remain fair.  He goes on to say the urn is a statement of great insight: “Truth is beauty; beauty truth.  That is all you know on earth, and all you need to know.”

        The most sensitive Keats died in Italy at the age of twenty-four.  One could ponder his thought for a long time.  To some it hints at the perfection and projection of a universal grasp of the cosmos itself.  When we finally come to an understanding of the genius of truth anywhere, it amounts to beauty, as the Creator is beauty, love, wisdom and activity, eventuated as close to our perception as we are able to see it and use its inspiration in thought and action. 

        In his books to us, Max Heindel writes of his various experiences as an initiate of an advanced order.  He guide a little girl through some of the fairy kingdom; he was enlightened as was Paul the Apostle in the higher realms above the earth; he was taught and visited by the Great Master Saint Germain and he is the founder of the former and present Fellowship.  There are no different restrictions on us servers today than were on those who have gone before us.  All we have to do is follow these beautiful teachings.  We know of the value of truth and the use of its power with prayer, discretion, enterprising humility and willingness to ever adapt to truth’s light—realizing that its power is a double-edged cut, whether it opens a new vista of Life’s beauty or slices against selfishness as ot points to ever greater possibilities for unity, harmonization and nobility.  May each of us ever renew our valor and bravely strive to be a shining incarnation of God’s own Truth.

Allyce Cay-Bothmann