This all started with a random thought (a judgment) about another I mentioned in a previous post, The Opposite of Lying.  “She’s lying about that and it’s affecting her life and she doesn’t even realize it.” Drat. If I thought that, it must also be somehow/mostly/completely about me. How do I do lie?  What is The Truth?

In the wonderful way attention works, I read this passage yesterday. Although the author was laying the foundation for concepts, it’s applicable.

“When something is held to be true or real, existing outside of our imagined, we hold it in a different category than something that’s known to be just a concept. So does that mean that what we define as true is something we believe exists outside of our imagination? In doing so each of us frequently perceives an idea as if it were a self-evident truth.

On the other hand, if you realize that these attributes are conceptual in nature, immediately you will experience the possibility that you can change them or get free of them altogether.” Peter Ralston, The Book of Not Knowing

ah-ha! A lie requires believing an idea to be true.

Where am I lying? My being is true. Only thoughts or ideas I have are possible to be lies. Saying them is the manifestation of my thoughts about myself or thoughts about another through myself. (I’m already solid on “there is no other.”)

Where am I lying? Lies to my self rely on an idea of should-self. I should be making more money. I should have a new car. I am better than her. I am not like him. I am right. You’re doing it wrong, etc…

“You cheated on me.” “No, he doesn’t mean anything. I love you.” Are both of these lies?

How about the deflector method? “You broke my favorite cup.” “Technically, the cup, when acted upon by gravity, broke itself when it encountered a denser object – the floor. It was the Earth’s fault.” This is angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin semantics.

A lie requires believing an idea to be true.

This is not a syllogism, though. All ideas are not lies. Ideas and concepts are just that – something in my mind, my imagination.  But. . . lies exist only in the imagination, therefore truth lives only there, too.

Where am I lying? I have a lot of answers now and a clear idea about the beliefs that need rooting out and why I reflected the judgment on to another.