Truthfulness: The foundation

I’ve been participating in a course for the past few weeks entitled “Reflections on the Life of the Spirit.” It originated at the Ruhi Institute in Columbia and has grown to be used by communities around the world. It explores the life of the spirit—the essence of being human. The first part of the course focuses on issues related to character development, and this is where we are now.

The section that we just completed was on truthfulness. One of the statements that raised a lot of discussion in our group was “Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues.” It’s a bold statement. It implies that in the same way that a building cannot be strong without a firm foundation, one’s character cannot be sound without truthfulness. After all, the essence of our character is the combination of virtues we possess—virtues like enthusiasm, kindness, humility, generosity and courage. To say that “truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues” implies that we cannot truly possess the other virtues without truthfulness—that they are subject to erosion or collapse without the foundation: truthfulness.

In our discussion we realized that we all take it for granted that we need to be truthful. No one really believes that lying is a good thing. But it seems that we believe that it’s a necessary part of life. Most of the structures of our society are based upon the prevalence of this belief that lying is necessary, and sort of okay. Our entire judicial system is really trying to answer the questions “Is the defendant lying or being truthful?” Any request for identification presumes that if you were asked, “What’s your name?” you would lie. Time-clocks presume that if simply asked, “What time did you arrive at work?” you won’t tell the truth.

Distorting the truth is considered a sport—we “bend” the truth, or “stretch” the truth, or “spin” the truth, all the while somehow convincing ourselves that we’re not really lying. And it’s all these little teensy weensy itsy bitsy lies that erode the sense of security and trust within a community. We somehow want to believe that having someone else clock in for us when we’re running late is not simply just a lie.

Of course there is always some fairly good reason to distort the truth (lie). The need to stay out of trouble and to prevent embarrassment top the list of reasons. In our discussion we realized that by thinking of truthfulness as the foundation of all the other virtues and as the foundation of our character gives us reason to be more conscientious about eliminating those little “harmless” lies.

The first thing that I noticed about being dedicated to truthfulness is that I have to live differently. If I’m going to have to be truthful about this action, and I won’t be able to use a lie to get out of trouble or avoid embarrassment, then I might have to do things differently.

The next statement in the section was even more motivating, probably because for some of us, fear is still the number one motivator. “Without truthfulness, progress and success, in all the worlds of God, are impossible for any soul.” Whoa. That’s a pretty strong statement. No truthfulness, no progress. No truthfulness, no success. Not here, not hereafter. Impossible for any soul.

As we discussed these ideas in our group, I think that we each found new reason to embrace truthfulness as a way of life, recognizing that it is the foundational virtue upon which character is built and that without it, progress and success are impossible.

How might your day be different if you were conscious throughout the day that truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues and that without it, any type of progress and success are impossible?

* * *

David Khorram, MD is a board certified ophthalmologist, and director of Marianas Eye Institute. Questions and comments are welcome. Call 235-9090 or email eye@vzpacifica.net. Copyright © 2005 David Khorram.