Seek truth not validation

I have come to the realization that many in todays world are seeking validation rather than truth and that brings us to where we are currently. Many among the truth movement have capitulate to the current paradigm split and forgotten what they were seeking in the first place. Now we are at a point where everyone seeks to validate their point rather than to find out what is actually true.

val·i·da·tion ˌvaləˈdāSH(ə)n/Submit
recognition or affirmation that a person or their feelings or opinions are valid or worthwhile.

You seek to affirm your feelings or opinions.

truth
tro͞oTH/Submit
that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.

Now here is where we run into trouble. What is true and what is not true? This may be a highly debatable topic however, seeking the truth will lead you to the answer, seeking validation will only lead you to fall deeper into the pits of illusion.

Today's video sheds some light on how to tell if you are seeking truth or validation. Sometimes life gets challenging and in our struggle we believe that we are searching for truth, but we are actually fooling ourselves and seeking validation, not truth. When we seek for truth we have an open mind, and it can be anything and come at anytime. However, sometimes we are seeking validation to a preconceived thought, feeling, or belief. We filter everything out that does not match what we are looking for, and we can walk right past truth during this process. Take a deeper look at what you are seeking, and discover if you are searching for truth or validation in your work and personal life. Our mind usually seeks validation, and our heart seeks the truth. Know the difference and this could save you a lot of heartache and frustration in your journey.

I am going to leave this short video on how to tell the difference for those of you caught in the myriad of lies and insecurities.

I seek only truth, even if it's only validating my truth.

My truth is all i know is that I don't know nothing.

a reply to: toysforadults

I think that most people believe the "truth" they are told as children and rarely adventure outside of it. However, it seems that in today's age those that seek the truth hold a slightly larger percentage. As the saying goes, a mind is like a parachute, it works best when open. However, a mind that is too open is just a sieve. It is something I routinely struggle with.

I a reply to: toysforadults

O.K., I get it.

a reply to: toysforadults
It may be that the need for validation comes from not really being able to arrive at the truth in the first place. For those who seek truth, the need to find it is great. I think is due to wanting be be aligned with truth. When a person thinks they have found the truth they need to believe it. To believe the truth one must reject that which is not of the truth, hence all the things that the truth does not explain fully.

In pursuing the truth, what we can only find , rather than the truth, is that which approximates the truth as approached from what ever perspective one is in pursuit. This is verisimilitude.

Seeking to align with truth demands becoming one with the truth. Those who choose this path then build their own self perceptions based upon their unity with that truth. That is the need to constantly validate that truth because should that truth be invalidated, it invalidates the believer as well.
I think it better to seek verisimilitude and in so doing rather than building oneself on the truth, one can be who tthey already are which needs no validation.

That is I think.

a reply to: toysforadults

Excellent topic, thank you.

Many people equate belief with truth.

I don't consider belief to truth in the sense that 'truth' needs to be verifible by others and many beliefs are not.

Truth to a believer is subjective. And I don't deny that from a personal point of view there may be abundant 'proof' for anyone to hold to a particular true. And perhaps their are others that have a subjective experience that causes them to believe the same idea is truth as well. The problem is that belief cannot be reproduced by an objective outsider without the same or similar 'cultural conditioning'.

Truth must be verifiable by others universally even spiritual truths.

Spiritual Truths are universal and can be reproduced in any culture if one 'follows the formula' and that formula may be a religious one but one that is culturally relevant to the seeker. However religious truths are not universal across time and culture - they constructed in a time and place to 'quide' the seeker but must live and change with the times or face becoming dogma.

The same is true for physical scientific truth. It must be reproducible by those with the training and tools to do so.

Again, nice topic (and video).

www.ted.com...

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

When a person thinks they have found the truth they need to believe it.

Here is the crux of the issue potentially. Here you have highlight one of the main issues, the issue of thinking you know.

My response to this would to be to stop thinking that you know and start seeking.

And to the rest of what you are saying do you think that there is no ultimate truth of reality?

a reply to: toysforadults

Most valuable advice for this site.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: TerryMcGuire

When a person thinks they have found the truth they need to believe it.

Here is the crux of the issue potentially. Here you have highlight one of the main issues, the issue of thinking you know.

My response to this would to be to stop thinking that you know and start seeking.

Yes. Yet to start seeking what? Truth? And what does finding the truth offer other than something to believe. That belief that one has found the truth is the fallacy because all we can really know is an approximation of the truth. Believing the truth in this light is a fallacy. It becomes a prison of the mind not allowing the freedom to consider other degrees of verisimilitude in that truth itself can only be considered an absolute. And that absolute must be constantly validated.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Maybe you seek the self, who am I and what/ where do I come from?

Honestly, it's refreshing when I realize a truth that I had discounted before simply because I was looking to validate my own "truth"

a reply to: denybedoomed

Poignant.

a reply to: toysforadults

People forget that sometimes being wrong can be very enlightening. They see it as a threat to their own perception of what they view as reality . . .

Maybe, I could be wrong.

a reply to: denybedoomed

Yes it is but the ego is massive, that's why I believe this search for truth is so important.

a reply to: toysforadults

And hallucinogens. . . for me at least . . .

Shed some layers, knowimsayin?

a reply to: denybedoomed

ollllll Terence Mckenna.

I believe the true path is through isolation though.

a reply to: toysforadults

Could very well be, friend. Lemme know when you get there.

I'll race ya!

originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: toysforadults

I think that most people believe the "truth" they are told as children and rarely adventure outside of it.

And that's why religion still exists, because adults indoctrinate kids with the same beliefs they were indoctrinated with as kids and the circle continues...

a reply to: toysforadults

I don’t agree with the evil ego explanation, which is popular these days.
Seeking truth only for yourself is pretty self centered if you regard it from the point of view of someone who has a high social conscience. In cultures which are higher on the “shame” side of the guilt/shame spectrum, this is being egotistical. It opens the door to self delusion as well. You can believe all sorts of things that feel “true” to you inside, but what is the worth of that when there is NO trace of outside proof that anyone else can observe?
You have your personal truth… you may believe you are a genius, that unicorns are real, that the world is made of marshmallows. These truths may make you feel great. But at some point they shall give way to some friction with others because your truths don’t interact or fit together. This becomes a destructive force for the collective.
People who value the whole more than the individual will often seek to validate their perceptions with others. They are intensely aware that subjective truth has a very limited practical use. It is the objective truths (that which the majority around you holds as true) which will be beneficial to relationships, cooperation and group creativity.
The group also searches innovation and expansion, but in a moderate way. Changes outside the box which happen too quickly or drastically cause tears in the group, as not everyone can keep up with the jumps. So yes, they tend to start with preconceived bases and move forth from there. Taking the already established views of the collective and seeking to move forward just a small bit, step by step, giving everyone the time and ability to move together.
I have a part of me that is very individualistic and has spent a large portion of my life exploring personal truth…. Yet living in a more social shame culture, I gained this other pair of eyes that I am also able to switch too and look through. Through those lenses this emphasis upon personal truth seeking is the evil ego action which doesn’t care about anyone else!

There’s a me in between that laughs at all this evil ego talk from both sides; the big bad wolf in the forest that takes on the form of whatever we’re rejecting in the moment.