How many truths?


How many truths are there, and is your truth different from my truth?
Is there one religion that has the real truth, one belief system that is correct?
Is there a higher truth, or one truth that is supreme above all others?
I’m sure this could be discussed or even argued for hours. No, this could be argued for centuries!

I have come to see that “truth” is whatever resonates with a person; based on their own mind, experiences, background, culture and influences. The “truth” becomes their personal “truth”. And I rarely see even two people who can sit and discuss a congruent truth without finding divisions between them.
So it begs the question, is there one absolute truth. And I say yes there is.

I can hear the ice cracking beneath my feet as I began to answer this. Trust me, I’m fully aware of how thin it is!
But here’s the way I see this identity of truth. Personally, I have found a teacher whom I have faith in, the Buddha. And faith is not trusting blindly in what he taught, but faith means karma and result. It means to question and examine all things with my own mind. If I bang my head into a brick wall, my head will hurt. If I help someone in need, without expectation or desire, I will experience sympathetic joy (mudita). Reality is truth. But how easily each of us can perceive reality in whatever form we may choose. Then, reality instantly becomes one of delusion and perception.
Remove perception and delusion, and wisdom rises to the top. Wisdom is the nourishment to free ourselves from these chains that bind us to mara (our conditioned and subjective existence).
OK, am I sounding a little too “new age” here? Let me take it down a notch.
I am simply on a path to freedom. Freedom from delusions, attachments, desires, and obstacles. And I have gained enough wisdom to see that the only real obstacle in my path is the self. This mind that creates so many thoughts and story lines that I am coming to find are increasingly irrelevant. Even an attachment to the teachings of the Buddha can be cause for the same dukkha (suffering/dissatisfaction) that arises from any other mental formation.

So did I answer the question of truth clearly? Probably not, because the truth can only be seen once everything else is removed. Remove emotions, stories, concepts and attachments. Remove what you think because of what you hear, see, feel or smell.
The same truth, the one truth, is not only there for all of us but it’s also the same truth for all of us.

May you be well, happy and peaceful.