Levels of Truth Telling
Posted by Mimi Nelson on Thursday, November 18, 2010
from Neale Donald Walsch's Little Book of Life, p 50-51
"When I talk about transparency in relationships, I often think of telling the truth, which is what transparency really is all about. And I've been made aware that there are really five levels of truth telling.
The first level of truth telling is when you tell the truth to yourself about yourself. That was an enormous challenge for me, because I had been lying to myself for many, many years. It's hard to think of a person literally lying to themselves, but it's easy to do, and I did it for a long time.
The second level of truth telling is when you tell the truth to yourself about another. And I lied to myself about those kinds of things, as well, for many, many years. For instance, as an example, for years I told myself that I loved, in a romantic way, a person that I was with. Whenever I thought that I didn't, whenever I allowed myself to even imagine, "You know, maybe I'm not in love with her anymore," a voice inside my head said, "Don't be silly, of course you love her." Because that's what i was supposed to be thinking. That's how it was supposed to be for me. And so, I just lied to myself about that for the longest time, until one day I told the truth to myself about another. Didn't even utter it out loud, just told it to myself, which was a huge hurdle.
Then the third level of truth telling is when I tell the truth about myself to another, much as I'm doing with you right now.
And the fouth level of truth telling is when I tell the truth about another, to that other - my truth, of course, not the truth. The truth, objectively, doesn't exist, but I share my innermost truth about another, with that other.
And the fifth level of truth telling, when you get there, is when you tell the truth to everyone about everything. And if you can take these five steps, you've taken five steps to Heaven, because Heaven is not having to lie anymore."
"When I talk about transparency in relationships, I often think of telling the truth, which is what transparency really is all about. And I've been made aware that there are really five levels of truth telling.
The first level of truth telling is when you tell the truth to yourself about yourself. That was an enormous challenge for me, because I had been lying to myself for many, many years. It's hard to think of a person literally lying to themselves, but it's easy to do, and I did it for a long time.
The second level of truth telling is when you tell the truth to yourself about another. And I lied to myself about those kinds of things, as well, for many, many years. For instance, as an example, for years I told myself that I loved, in a romantic way, a person that I was with. Whenever I thought that I didn't, whenever I allowed myself to even imagine, "You know, maybe I'm not in love with her anymore," a voice inside my head said, "Don't be silly, of course you love her." Because that's what i was supposed to be thinking. That's how it was supposed to be for me. And so, I just lied to myself about that for the longest time, until one day I told the truth to myself about another. Didn't even utter it out loud, just told it to myself, which was a huge hurdle.
Then the third level of truth telling is when I tell the truth about myself to another, much as I'm doing with you right now.
And the fouth level of truth telling is when I tell the truth about another, to that other - my truth, of course, not the truth. The truth, objectively, doesn't exist, but I share my innermost truth about another, with that other.
And the fifth level of truth telling, when you get there, is when you tell the truth to everyone about everything. And if you can take these five steps, you've taken five steps to Heaven, because Heaven is not having to lie anymore."
