Buddhist Tales | The Parable of Truth and Falsehood
“You have only yourself to blame,” said Falsehood to Truth. “Come with me. You’ll see better days, dress in fine clothes like mine and eat plenty; only you must not say anything.”
Hello and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and today I would like to share “The Parable of Truth and Falsehood”, but with a twist, so enjoy the story and at the end I will give you a different understanding of the meaning, maybe even an interpretation you have not considered before.
The Parable of Truth and Falsehood a Buddhist Tale.
Once Truth and Falsehood met at a crossroads and after they greeted each other, Falsehood asked Truth how the world went with him. “How goes it with me?” said Truth. “Each year worse than the last.”
“I can see the plight you are in,” said Falsehood, glancing at Truth’s ragged clothes, “Why, even your breath stinks.” “Not a bite has passed my lips these three days,” said Truth. “Wherever I go, I get troubles, not only for myself, but for the few who love me still. It’s no way to live.”
“You have only yourself to blame,” said Falsehood to him. “Come with me. You’ll see better days, dress in fine clothes like mine and eat plenty; only you must not say anything.”
Truth consented, just that once, to go and eat with Falsehood because he was so hungry he could hardly keep upright. They set out together and came to a great city, went into the best hotel, which was full of people, and sat and ate of the best. When many hours had gone by and most of the people had gone, Falsehood rapped with his fist on the table and the hotel keeper, himself, came up to see to their wants, for Falsehood looked like a great nobleman. He asked what they desired.
“How much longer am I to wait for the change from the sovereign I gave the boy who sets the table?” said Falsehood. The host called the boy, who said that he had no sovereign.
Then Falsehood grew angry and began to shout, saying he would never have believed that such a hotel would rob the people who went in there to eat, but he would bear it in mind another time and he threw a sovereign at the hotel keeper. “There,” he said, “bring me the change.”
Fearing that his hotel would get a bad name, the hotel keeper would not take the sovereign, but gave change from the reputed sovereign of the argument and boxed the ears of the boy who could not remember taking the coin.
The boy began to cry and protest that he had not had the sovereign, but as no one believed him, he sighed deeply and said, “Alas, where are you, unhappy Truth? Are you no more?”
“No, I’m here,” said Truth through clenched teeth, “but I had not eaten for three days and now I may not speak. You must find the right of it by yourself, my tongue is tied.”
When they went outside, Falsehood burst out laughing and said to Truth, “You see how I contrive things?”
“Better I should die of hunger,” said Truth, “Than do the things you do.”
And they parted ways forever.
So now the twist I promised, almost everyone misunderstands this parable about Truth and Falsehood. I mean surely the answer is straight forward. Choose truth, don’t be false it’s that simple, right?
But what if I say that we miss the point because of our social conditioning, and that this parable is actually about the deceptive nature of Truth and Falsehood. Choose good or bad, right or wrong. But you must choose, and this is the point we miss at first glance, the parable is asking us to choose duality, to choose our preferences and to make a cultural judgment.
But this is exactly what we do already, we do this every day. We have preferences and it is this preference awareness that keeps us trapped within our dualistic reality, our dissatisfaction or what Buddhist call dukkha.
Choose neither of the two is a Daoist saying, meaning that there is only one person to change, only one person we need to impress. Truth did not understand that Truth was no better than Falsehood, and Truth fell into this subjective trap because Truth stopped trying to impress itself and instead looked at Falsehood with envy.
Truth made a social judgment, truth was drawn into taking a social stance and thus fell into the Falsehood of duality. To free ourselves from this dualistic trap we need only to look at ourselves, and it is not Falsehood that we need to challenge.
Suffering is a consequence of our preferences, now I know it is not possible to ignore the dualistic nature of reality, as awareness of these preferences or patterns gives order to our lives and the world around us. It gives us meaning and purpose, but this dualistic awareness also consumes us by compelling us to look without rather than within.
Ironically this parable is ultimately an illusion, a subjective trap, in much the same way the Zen kōan “What Sound Does One Hand Make” is a paradox. This parable is in fact a tool used to cut into and then break through the egos social barriers, a way to breakup our preconceived notions of moral superiority.
So in a nutshell this is not about Truth realizing right moral behavior, if you looked at Truth and saw goodness then you missed the point of the parable.
To quote Jesus in the Christian bible “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”. Yet this is what we do everyday, we cast stones at our perceived aversions and in doing this our preferences become empty doings that trap us within this dualistic mindset.
Now I am not saying that we should reject our conscience or that we could even if we wanted to, but what I am saying is that socially constructed moral judgements are all-consuming to the point that they affect how the mind perceives reality. Our preference awareness is compelled to see only the moral predilections that it has a preference for, and it is this subjective socially constructed moral judgement that creates and forcibly applies an objective belief structure on the mind, thus creating your ideology, your reality.
And this is the important differentiation that being mindful can teach us; the art is not to reject our conscience or even our preferences or to be unattached from the things that give us pleasure or even to reject the objective world. But to see that “culture” is a subjective pattern which we apply objectively to a cultural matrix, and it is this unnoticed replacement of conscience with social morality that absorbs the self into a web of relevant but often trivial moral narration.
But there is also a twist to this plot, and here is the question we really need to ask, because the Parable of Truth and Falsehood Is an old story told in different cultures, in a variety of ways and this tale can even be traced to the Ancient Egyptians from the 19th Dynasty. In which it was called The Blinding of Truth by Falsehood", and narrates the dispute that occurs between Maat (Truth), his unnamed son, and Gereg (Falsehood).
The version of the tale I just narrated is the Buddhist version, but what is of more interest is why does each culture focus so much effort into expounding the value of social morality?
Because the nature of Truth and Falsehood is self-evident, so why reinforce this idea, since our conscience or you could say the higher-self guides most people in this direction anyway, so why use religion or the equivalent social authorities to push a self-evident concept?
My thinking is that these self-evident parables are propaganda tools, a tool used as a form of social control; a way to distract or consume the ego mind with social values. Most people are born with a higher sense of right action, it’s a natural instinct, but either your partner, the church or the government steals control of this conscience, they then redirect and control the conscience with a transplanted narrative, a way for someone else to control your reaction to their narrative.
Your attention is of value to the world of people, your awareness is the true currency, and by giving your attention to their narrative, by making a social judgement you are drawn into their story, their narrative and thus away for your higher-self, you are diverted from your own conscience.
This judgement or this judgement, but you must judge, and you must waste your energy fighting over someone else’s narrative. This idea of judgement is dualistic, it is fear based and it is what feeds the matrix, it is what locks you into a cultural narrative.
“LOOK ONLY TO THE TRUE-SELF AND ALL WILL BE REALIZED”, IS THE TRUE LESSON OF THE PARABLE.
So that’s The Parable of Truth and Falsehood, and I also want to make it clear that I am not saying that it is irrelevant whether your behavior is good or bad, ruthless or kind, honest or dishonest. And this is not an excuse to go and run amuck socially, I am only saying the world is the world, and you only need to be true to yourself and your own conscience, follow your conscience and not what a self-appointed authority claims is right action.
I’ve enjoyed sharing this parable with you and my understanding of its true meaning, and I encourage you to explore and learn about yourself and to continue your journey, and If you have the time then let me know in the comments about your understanding of the spiritual path or how your journey has changed your life.
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Here’s to you and your fulfilment and growth into every tomorrow to come.
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Related posts:
Impeccability of Stalking Awareness | What Is Ego and Understanding the Over-Evolved Ego | Where Do Our Thoughts Come From | Zhuangz’s Butterfly Dream is a Red Pill Metaphor | What is Rational Thinking: Rational Side of Awareness | The Truth About Spiritual Enlightenment: Truths, Distortions, Fakes
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