Dr. Jay Forrest

Imagine with me for a moment. You’re in a grocery store, and there are rude people all around you. The store is busy and hectic, and you just want to get out. Suddenly, someone pushes you from behind. You’re angry and frustrated. You are about to turn around and confront that jerk.

But when you turn around, you see a blind man who accidentally bumped into you. Instantly, your anger and frustration go away, and you feel sympathy. What changed?

The event is the same—you were pushed. But your interpretation of the event has changed, and that change in judgment has changed your emotional state. You think differently, so now you feel differently.

It was Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher, who said, “It’s not things that upset us, but our judgments about things.” It is not people who upset us, but our judgments about them. The push didn’t upset the shopper; the interpretation that it was intentional did. Once the interpretation changed, the feeling changed.

You have probably heard the motto, “If it feels good, do it.” That is some of the worst advice possible. It is the source of much that goes wrong in the world. We have ability to reason for a purpose, and that is to use it. Think before you act.

I suggest turning the motto on its head: if it feels good, don’t do it. It likely means you want to do it, not that it is right to do it. Wanting something does not make it right, and it does not make it wise.

All our decisions should be filtered through reason. We should consider the consequences of our actions. We should weigh the effects of what we do and say, both for ourselves and for others. If we are going to be good, we have to place the interests of others alongside our own.

We also have to be honest about our feelings. If our feelings are in the driver’s seat, our lives will be in shambles. Feelings are good indicators of what is going on beneath the surface, but they are poor drivers. We should make decisions based on reason and evidence, not emotion and impulse.

To gain wisdom, you must first know what it is. Unfortunately, this is harder than it seems, as there is no universal agreement.

Wisdom is not knowledge, which is the acquisition of facts and information. It is not experience, the practical application of knowledge in real-world situations. It is not understanding, the ability to comprehend and interpret information. And it is not prudence, the right use of knowledge. Rather, wisdom is the proper perspective of reality.

Wisdom arises from the skillful integration of knowledge, experience, and understanding. A proper perspective is God’s perspective; the closer we come to it, the wiser we are.

Worldly wisdom is a distorted perspective of reality, shaped by selfishness, personal bias, misinformation, and misinterpreted experience. Prejudice is prejudgment, and to prejudge is to misjudge.

I can give you answers, but not wisdom. Wisdom comes through a long process of integrating true knowledge with real experience into a proper perspective of reality—God’s perspective.

These reflections offer answers to problems you may not have fully struggled with. Still, I offer them in the hope that, if not now, they may be appreciated later. As the saying goes, “It takes more wisdom to receive advice than to give it.”

We must also note that truth can be incomplete, partial, and limited. A simple statement can only point to a very limited aspect of reality. You need a group of claims to fill things out. That is why, when I use the term truth, I am usually referring to a group of claims. This group of claims represents my view of Christianity.

A belief is a claim that is accepted as true, which then becomes a rule of action. A btrueelief system is the acceptance of a group of these claims. Religions are beliefs system. We find belief systems in every culture, every group, and every individual. It is these belief systems, whether conscious or not, that direct our thoughts, feelings, and actions. They control our businesses, our churches, our governments, our families, and our lives.

Truth, in this context, is the correspondence between a belief system and reality. The belief system that best corresponds to reality is Christianity. And the best version of Christianity is the one I will share with you here. It is not the only version. It may not ultimately be the correct one. I only claim it is the best version I have found.

A claim is a statement that is either true or false. If the statement is neither true nor false, it is not a claim. Truth is the description of the quality of a claim. A claim is true when the statement being made matches the way things actually are.

Truth refers to a claim or group of claims in which the statements of the claim correspond to reality. In other words, the statement really does express the reality of the matter. If someone makes the claim that I am a man, and I really am a man, then the claim is true. It is true because it matches or corresponds to the way things really are. Truth is the name of a claim that matches reality.

Truth is the correspondence between a claim and reality. All other attempted definitions must assume this one. All other definitions claim that their definition corresponds to reality, and therefore is true. Which means that all other definitions are false. You can’t assume the truth of one definition to prove another.

The essence of truth is the correspondence between a claim and reality. But the evidence that there is this correspondence includes the coherence of the system of claims and whether they are pragmatically verifiable. In other words, other definitions of truth are evidence of truth and not truth itself.

The whole of Buddhism can be summarized in the Four Noble Truths. The first noble truth is the unsatisfactoriness of existence. Rebirth, old age, sickness, and death are unsatisfactory. We are not happy about being associated with the things and people we do not like, or being separated from those we do like. And we do not like failing to get what we want. Suffering is bound up with the attachments of the mind-body process.

The second noble truth is that there is an origin of this unsatisfactoriness: it is attachment that leads to future rebirth, entangled with delight and desire, taking pleasure in this thing and then that. That is, attachment to sensual pleasures, attachment to continued life, and attachment to wealth.

The third noble truth is that there is an ending of this unsatisfactoriness: it is the fading away and cessation of that very same attachment, with nothing left over; giving it up, letting it go, becoming free from it, and doing away with it.

The fourth noble truth is that there is a way that leads to the ending of this unsatisfactoriness: it is the Buddhist Eightfold Path. That path consists of eight aspects: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right employment, right mental discipline, right mindfulness, and right meditation.