"Love and Truth are so united with each other that it is practically impossible to separate them. They are like two faces of the same medal." - Mahatma Gandhi

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"Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other." Carl Gustav Jung

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What is the correlation in between the truth and humility? In between a lie and the ego's inflation, or persona and shadow?

 

Truth and humility belong together, are interdependent, complementary, simple and complicated.

There have been so many discussions about the truth, so many philosophers have described it, including psychologists who have argued that its opposite, lying, would be a necessary evil for social coexistence.

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Small lies from day to day can easily turn into big lies, or we can call them untruths, where small slights, bad will, laziness, and so many other small character flaws find an open way to express themselves.

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I do not mean to advocate defending the truth as a form of aggression and social asperity, because I believe that the truth can be told, yes, softly, in a respectful manner, considering the weakness and debility of others, if they exist.

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I refer to the undeniable truth of the facts, actions, where ideas and emotions are expressed, baring the character and integrity, or not, on our part.

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What is the actual truth? That which we express in public, where we will be judged by our partners, or which we reserve for our most intimate moments, our private partners, certain that we will only be judged by our peers, by those with whom we share the same ideas, desires and emotions.

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I believe it is exactly in these more intimate moments that we expose our true character, when no one is looking or listening, when we feel safe and accepted, where we can say anything with complete freedom, then yes, the truth will be exposed in its magnanimous fullness.

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And humility, how does it relate to all this? Truths are confronted by the mirror of the soul, by the social and personal moral values to which we are submitted .

 

We live in a social historical moment where what we are, say and do is exposed in the media, either because it is so wanted, or because we were caught due to any number of circumstances. That is, all pride and immoderation will also be exposed and there arises the difficult role of humility.

It takes humility to face the criticism to which we are exposed, analyze what is appropriate, separate projections when it is fitting, but mostly, understand that once the mystery is unveiled, there is no return. Secrets do not ever return; revealed truth takes on its own life, enters another's consciousness and hence we cannot control what the other will do with this it.  It is no longer possible to say that this was not said when the word has already been let out, alive, taking its own course. We can never possess the other's interpretation; underestimate the ability of the other to examine the facts and intentions.

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Truth and humility become antagonistic; it is not possible to impose the truth, because truth imposes itself by itself. We can only have the humility to recognize the capacity of the other to uncover and assimilate the truth, withdrawing into humiliation from that to which we are exposed, and reflect on the structural function and transformation of the elaboration of the shame.

 

Solange Bertolotto Schneider

 

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