On Seeking Truth and Contentment

I am a philosopher. For whatever reason, I was born with a question on the tip of my tongue that I still have yet been able to truly and completely formulate and express verbally. But boy howdy how I try. Nary a day goes by that I do not ponder some element of this existence. And no matter how much my knowledge, experience and my resultant thinking progresses, I am never satiated. I now believe that it is a primary purpose of my existence and a big part of that spiritual house that I am building.

"Among mortals who attain happiness, such a man is rare." ~ The Wisdom of Laotse

Right now my philosophical self has me very conscious of finding contentment on my Path and seeking my True definition of contentment. For me, contentment equates very much to happiness. Attaining it has become a key part of my spiritual practice. Through this practice, I have begun to notice the aspects of my life that do not foster contentment. Things that I am beginning to realize I can change without having to significantly change much other than my way of viewing life and my way of thinking about and processing the certain circumstances in this life that I cannot actually change. The most important and impactful question that arises as I seek this goal of contentment is "what is truly important to me?" What is true contentment?

Before I can answer this question though, my philosophical mind wants me to explore truth. I've actually been struggling a bit with this lately as I have been vicariously and somewhat directly experiencing what I perceive to be a lack of truth. I've been struggling to rationalize it for myself and for the person experiencing it directly. The difficulty in this is that I cannot know another's truth.

What does it mean to be true in this life? To be true to yourself? To be true to others? To act in a truthful way? I don't believe that there is one way of answering these questions and therefore of knowing truth fully or at least universally. Much of what we face in life is subjective and much is defined by our society and cultural practices. If you look back at history for example, you find periods where brutal acts were considered acceptable and endorsed because society at large supported these practices. Today we might find those acts abhorrent. That may not be the best example here but the point is that the definition of truth can change based on ones perspective or on outside stimulus.

Furthermore, it has become very clear to me that the ego can play a huge part in how one views truth at any given moment in time. When we let the ego loose, it can often reshape what we truly feel.

So what is truth? The only thing I can come up with is that it's all about the feeling and the process of seeking. If it feels genuinely good (which only each of us can truly know), I think it must be true. And regarding seeking, you know the old saying - "The journey is more important than the destination." I think finding truth is about the seeking and not the actual finding. As I seek truth and try to also determine "what is truly important to me?," a definition and clarity begins to formulate around that goal of contentment. It seems that the more often I practice this ritual, the more I begin to understand what it is that brings contentment to my life - what is truly important to me - but more importantly, the more I begin to understand and truly feel what truth is to me.