Living Truth

"Knowing the truth is fairly useless; feeling it is profound; living it makes all the difference."

-- David Deida

When reading the above quote, a little voice in my head says , "Sure, I 'know' that." And that, right there, is the challenge -- so much of the truth sounds so hackneyed, run-of-the-mill, and rudimentary. I call it "bumper sticker wisdom," i.e., phrases that are so short you could fit them on a bumper sticker, but so profound that if you took them to heart and lived them you would radically transform your life.

I'll admit, I love knowing the truth. I love that rush that comes from reading a sentence, or a paragraph, that rings true and seems to apply not just to me, but to all of us -- all people, all times, all places. That's what these daily quotations are -- fragments of the truth collected over the years like so many shiny stones in my pocket. And yet, I also am aware that I feel so much less than what I know, and live even less of what I feel. The embodiment of truth is a demanding process and definitely not for spiritual dilettantes or sissies!

And so, just for today, choose one shard of truth and meditate on it until you feel it. And then go out in the world and live it. And, if you're like me, you may discover, at the end of the day, that the percentage of time you actually lived the truth was woefully small. And so, you may want to try living it again tomorrow and the next day and the next. And it may dawn on you that the entire spiritual path is simply the process of attempting to embody and live the truth a little more each day.