As much as we would prefer it to be different, our first level of truth needs to be entirely selfish. For our psychological wellbeing it has to be. Our healthy sense of self begins with our own personal experience. However flawed, we must hold our personal experience in the highest regard, for it is the foundation of our conscious relationship with ourselves and the outside world. If we do not see ourselves clearly, we will struggle to see others and the world around us with clarity. To know the world as it truly is, we need to know ourselves as we truly are. The first level of truth is about knowing ourselves, meeting our needs and feeling safe. Compassionately and without judgement, in the loving, uncensored sanctuary of our mind, we can evaluate the subtle truths of our experiences from a singular, personal perspective. When people say, ‘Happiness is an inside job’, or ‘You must love yourself before you can love anyone else’, they are talking about the first level of truth. As we evolve with it, our truth becomes subtle and refined, but to start with, the initial stages have to be unsparingly honest. For only through our abiding respect for the truth of our experiences can we grow into a more gracious understanding of truth. In honouring our personal perspective we develop a deep appreciation of ourselves, that refines our awareness of our external environment too. Through our profound faithfulness and compassionate recognition of our life experiences, the memories, thoughts, and feelings we have about them, we awaken a visceral experience of truth that draws us towards the second level of truth, which is a desire to become altruistic.
When we are happily living in our first level of truth, we cannot help but blossom into the second level of truth. Our psychological environment of honest, healthy selfishness feels drawn towards this same level of consciousness in others. We are attracted to sincerity and no longer feel threatened by the viewpoints of others. We desire to see the world through other people’s eyes, respecting their perspective and valuing their point of view almost equal to our own. We develop great empathy and compassion in the second level of truth. And when we get good at it, hearing another’s experience can resonate so deeply within us, we can learn from their perspective almost as though it were our own. Developing this skill allows us to evolve more rapidly, now we can grow through other’s experience as well as our own. Our judgment begins to lean towards what is most beneficial for everyone, as the wellbeing of others becomes intrinsically linked to our own. In the second level of truth we become mature, responsible for our thoughts and feelings, and empathetic and compassionate towards the experiences of others. Through our desire to become altruistic the transition from the first level of truth to the second level of truth is fluid and a pleasure, as our profound experience of truth becomes our threshold to wisdom and harmony.
The third level of truth is home to epiphany’s, blinding flashes of the obvious, synchronicity and profound realizations in dreams and meditation. For creatives this is the source of divine inspiration. Mental arguments subside as we develop a sense of knowing that guides our values without needing to intellectualize. In the third level of truth we are able to read each other’s energetic fields profoundly, and we judge qualities of character intuitively. Sensing subtle energetic oscillations we might call a sixth sense, we come to appreciate insightful resonances that offer an understanding of other’s intentions through nonverbal and non-physical communication. Our intellectual and intuitive intelligences work harmoniously together, creating a far greater intelligence than either could accomplish alone. We find it easy to relate to every point of view, and from this place we seem to realise knowledge spontaneously, as though a gift is being received from a perspective beyond your own. This level of truth can feel supernatural, but mostly we are beginning to access our higher spiritual intelligence, our most elevated perspective, and we sometimes find it hard to recognise ourselves in it. In the third level of truth many come to develop a confidence in the influence of Angels. As in the East, the insights of ancestors are gladly welcomed to guide and help us. Native American traditions honour the wisdom offered by the natural world, and in many South America countries it is considered perfectly normal to communicate with loved ones who have passed over. All these aspects are elements of the third level of truth, an expanded understanding of consciousness that can feel otherworldly, but is actually quite commonplace in our temporal world.
The three levels of truth are hardwired within us. We are living in them all. The more we embrace the first level of truth, the more profound and insightful our experience of the second and third levels of truth will be, and the more joyful, harmonious and enlightened our lives will become.
