So, what we’re saying is that the capacity to trust can be there in some people without the presence of truth. On the other hand, some people cannot trust unless there is truth. However, when there is real truth and there is also the capacity to trust, then the trust is stronger. The first person will tend to get hurt more often; the second, less often. Neither is better than the other. So ultimately trust is connected to compassion and truth—the green of compassion and the gold of truth. There are many connections between trust and compassion and truth. Compassion can lead to truth. Truth can lead to trust. Truth can also lead to compassion towards yourself and others. Your conditioning may make it easier to experience one quality while blocking another, so that as Essence unfolds, truth may come before or after compassion and trust.

Little by little, we become aware of our life with all of its conflicts and barriers without totally believing that this is all there is. The more we’re able to pay attention and disidentify, the more we’ll be able to see the real truth that is there like veins of gold in piles of rocks. The truth is the gold in the ore. Developing this capacity to pay attention and to disidentify at the same time ultimately leads us to experience our essence. “In the world but not of it” not only describes the person who is free; it describes Essence itself. That’s the deeper aspect. What is this world that we’re “in but not of”? The world is a multitude of things, but the world as we perceive it is primarily made up of mental thoughts and images, emotions, and sensations. Everything that you know about the world and yourself depends on thoughts, images, emotions, and sensations. What else do you know? Ultimately, the world as you perceive it comes down to your sensations of the world, your emotions about it, and the mental images and thoughts you have. For instance, a tree is a tree, but what is it for you? A certain image in your mind, a feeling about it, sensations you feel when you touch it. If you’re sitting in a chair, what is the chair in your direct experience? A sensation under your butt, right? An image in your mind, an idea that causes you to sit this way instead of another. That is the world. Now, Essence is “in the world but not of it.” It’s not sensations, emotions, or mental events. Yet it is “in the world.” It is like the gold in the rock. It is not the rock; it’s in the rock. Essence is in the sensations, emotions, and mental events, but it’s not any of them. Precious stones are in the earth, but they are not the earth itself. They are something else. So is Essence in you. It’s not your flesh, not your emotions, not your thoughts. But it is embedded there. Essence is in you like the gold in the rock, like precious stones in the earth.

To be oneself clearly includes having your own feelings and expressing yourself, but even these are just processes and activities. They may be what is visible, but the central experience, what is germane, is not the expression but the actual experience of Being. To be oneself means to be. It’s true that we need to be free from the personality, just as most traditions say, but it is true because the ego personality is a fraud. The issue is not that personality is bad, but that it is not real, not true. The personality that you usually believe in is not the real you; it’s just an imitation. It’s an attempt to be you, but the attempt fails. When did you believe you could be a person? Where did you get that idea? If you are a false person, there must be a real person possible, just as there is imitation gold because there is such a thing as real gold. You can’t have a false something if the original which it imitates doesn’t exist. Why are people always interested in being original, being themselves, doing their own thing, having their own life, wanting to be autonomous? Can it be that all this drive is simply an illusion, or does it point to something real? If to have a personal life is bad, if pleasure is to be abandoned, if wanting your own home or car means you’re selfish, if sharing love with someone is unenlightened, then human life is ridiculous. There must be some hidden truth in all the strivings of mankind.

So, do you have an answer to the question, “What does it mean that the truth will set you free?” A half hour ago it seemed we had a complete understanding. Now you see that that understanding was not complete. You see that when you know the truth, it will set you free, but not as a result. When you know the truth, that is the freedom. You are the truth. You are the truth that transcends all the facts. Seeking the truth will set this truth free. The truth is the essence of your heart. It is the real metal of your heart, the gold of the alchemists. And it’s the truth that doesn’t depend on any statement. When you experience yourself as truth, there is no statement that is true. You just are truth. “I am the truth.” When you are asked, “Who are you?” you reply, “I am the truth.” That’s why some of the Sufis call God “Al Haq.” Haq is the Arabic word that means truth. One of the names of God—which means one of the aspects of Essence—is Truth. I think understanding it that way will help us to orient ourselves more toward the truth.

So Truth is a Golden presence, a solid, definite, shiny metallic gold. It has an aliveness, a consciousness, an awareness in it, because it is an element of consciousness. The presence of Truth feels real, dense, compact, warm, and quite smooth. It has a sense of preciousness that makes it feel very close to our heart, as if it were the depth of the heart itself. Because there is such a thing as a Truth aspect, it is possible to investigate in depth and in detail what truth is, in terms of dimensions, levels, situations, whatever. Truth becomes something that can be explored specifically and precisely. And understanding will deepen only if we move to deeper and deeper dimensions of truth.

Truth is one of the aspects of Essence, which expresses its property of essential Truth as the very existence of Truth, rather than as truth related to some object or idea. This aspect reveals that Truth is ultimately a presence, a self-existing quality of Being, and not only a quality which qualifies something else. Truth is then experienced as a dense and substantial presence, solid and real. It is a presence that has luster, warmth, intimacy, and realness. It is a solidity that is not corrupted by lies and falsehood, but can expose all lies and falsehood. Although it is dense and solid like gold, Truth possesses heart qualities like warmth and intimacy. There is a sense of purity to it, a sense of incorruptability, a sense of being the real thing. It functions, in part, to give the self the capacity to discern truth and separate it from falsehood, a capacity needed not only for spiritual development but for survival. The way it provides the self with this capacity is the way pure solid gold provides the jeweler with a way of discriminating it from its imitations and alloys. This capacity is needed because lies and falsehood usually function to take the place of truth, presenting themselves as truth.