Friday, January 13, 2006

The Spiral Ascent to the Truth

Once we have come to terms with the truth, we come full circle and are restored to wholeness. We must expect though that the cycle takes place once again. The journey from lies to truth is a never-ending journey for there is much our minds need to know about being. And each ontological truth discovered prods us to continue to uncover more lies so that we can discover more truths. This process is like an ascent to the top of a mountain along a spiral path. Every step we take brings us further round and up the mountain. Thus, the roundabout road reveals new horizons for we get to see the valley not from one side of the mountain alone but from all sides. Each step too takes us a degree higher thus stretching the reach of our vision.

One wonders then what waits for us at the top of the mountain. Why go through the grueling experience of being called into question by the Other? On hindsight, after having taken each step, we realize that the act reveals a truth about that which actually exists and relates to us. And each step further along the path brings us closer to the Truth of Being – the gathering of all the truths of beings to be known.

In this exposition of the journey from lies to truth, we have encountered many Others who, in their own way, put into question our attitudes and beliefs about lies and truth. We have met David and his grandfather Tevyalike, the catcher in the rye named Holden, the prisoner in the Platonic cave, and the family of the dead salesman Willy. Our openness to the truth of their being as revealed in their own attitudes and beliefs about man and his world has afforded us the opportunity to learn a few lessons invaluable to our ascent towards the Truth of Being. What then are these lessons?

First, it is important for us to maintain an attitude of openness to being. In his rounds with his grandfather Tevyalike in search of junk – tattered rags, used clothes, and empty bottles – David stumbles on nuggets of wisdom, invaluable lessons in life. So too with us, despite the despair we go through when faced with questions put forth by the Other, we must maintain an attitude of openness to the truth we may uncover about them. Clarke reminds us that

… all created beings conceal deep within them a certain inexhaustible depth of intelligibility that exceeds the grasp of our concepts. Hence, they always remain for us in this life somehow touched with mystery, as known-unknown.[1]


We must therefore never get tired of uncovering the truth of being that wants to be known. We should always aim at uncovering whatever there is to know in the mystery of being with the end of allowing what is known to get the bigger share of the pie.

One wonders what would have happened to Willy had he been more open to the truth of Biff’s being. Biff had attempted many times to reveal this to Willy. Sadly, Willy was too adamant that he knew Biff more than Biff knew himself. Thus, Biff’s inability to meet his expectations leads to his further frustration with his elusive dream. Rather than abandon his construct and be open to Biff’s self-revelation, Willy chose to search for reasons that will fit Biff into his mold of a successful person. We must remember that we cannot make being conform with our minds.

Second, whatever truth we uncover is meant to be shared with our fellow prisoners in darkness. At the end of the Allegory of the Cave, the prisoner realizes that it may not be worth it to go back to the cave and tell his story to his fellow prisoners. He thinks that the prisoners, in making out the shadows on the wall, will always outdo him thus losing their respect. Even if he has the truth on his side, his fellow prisoners will simply mock him for he no longer has the capacity to recognize the shadows for to them, this is the only thing that is real. When enlightened by the truth, one can no longer live in a lie. Does this mean that he should be content with staying outside the cave, basking in the glory of the Truth?

We must remember that it is the Other who vests us with our freedom. It is in the Hegelian dialectic between the self and the non-self that one discovers his freedom. And with this freedom comes a responsibility. We become responsible to the one who gives us our freedom. In his essay entitled Existentialism and Human Emotion, Sartre says that man is condemned to be free. He is condemned because he is not his creator and yet, he is free to determine who he will be for, to Sartre, existence precedes essence. Sartrean anguish reminds us that in our exercise of our freedom, the person we fashion ourselves to be will be the definition of man we present to the rest of humanity. Hence, whenever, we exercise our freedom, we must remember that the man we define should be true to his being. And we ought to share these truths with the rest of humanity.

Linda also teaches us this lesson. She knew that Willy was good with his hands. However, she was too afraid to let Willy know what she knew Willy to be for this may devastate him. Had she verbalized this truth of self that Willy was blind to, she could have shattered his dream of being number one and at the same time save him from this lie. We are always invited to go back to the cave and share the truth of being that we have uncovered with those who remain in the dark. We must remember though that we can only offer the truth but never impose them on others. After all, our fathers might have had good intentions in sharing with us their lies. The plot thickens when these lies are imposed and nurtured against the will of the Other. In our exercise of our responsibility for the Other, we must learn to respect the Other’s alterity and freedom.

Finally, we should always remember that the more we get to know Being, the more confident we should be of the fact that she takes care of her own. Being reveals her secrets when we are ready to face them. In Plato’s allegory, the prisoner, although forced to face the blinding light of the fire and the sun, always has a choice to look away from it. He may first choose to look at the shadows once more, and then move to the reflections on the pond, or at the heavenly bodies at night. Once he has grown accustomed to the light, the time will come that he will be able to face the sun and realize it to be the thing that illumines all being. And so it is with the truth. Our fathers will necessarily have to lie to us about the truth of being because the movement from darkness to light must be gradual in order to avoid permanent blindness. This however does not mean that we will never be blinded by the truth. In fact, we have to suffer temporary blindness when we face the light before we can know what is real. One of the movements towards the truth is suffering temporary blindness by its glare that we would always want to cover our eyes. However, Being will not force her truth on us. She patently waits on us while we look at shadows and reflections until the time comes when we are ready to face her truth. We may lose our bearings when faced with the truth; however, once we come to terms with it, our vision is restored.

Holden also teaches us this lesson when he shares with us his experience of watching his younger sister Phoebe in a carousel.

All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the old ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.[2]


Here we see Holden surrendering to the fact that, as much as he would want to save the innocent from corruption, there is nothing that he could do to go against the nature of Being. Being will take care of the young and ensure their smooth entry into the world of adults just like it does take care of the fish and the ducks in the pond in winter. We just have to learn to trust in the wisdom and intelligibility of Being.

The journey towards the Truth of Being is asymptotic, that is, we can only approach it but never arrive at it. The confluence of the truths we have uncovered leads us closer to the Truth. However, our finitude and facticity tells us that we are bound by space and time. Hence, we can only dream to uncover all the truths of beings that exist because our very existence is limited; thus, our encounter with Being will be limited in scope by the parameters set by space and time.

However, we still continue the journey for two reasons. First, we have that insatiable drive to know whatever there is to be known. We have great faith in the ability of our minds to know and in the ability of being to allow itself to be known. Each step we take along the winding path up the mountain confirms this.

Second, we continue our trek because we hope that at the end of the road lays not only the Truth of Being but the Absolute Truth of Being – the mind that has conceived all Being. Our finitude tells us that we will never get to meet this Absolute Truth of Being at least in our lifetime. For how can this be when we cannot even reach the Truth of Being. But the aching desire to know the Absolute Truth of Being will not give us rest. Perhaps this was what Augustine meant when he wrote, “our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”



[1] Clarke, 296.

[2] J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991), 211.

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