The following article is transcribed from a tape recording made of Li Chang Su in 1973. In this extract Chang is responding to a question that my brother asked about truth. I have lightly paraphrased Chang’s words here and there to make them more suited to written form, and hopefully have lost none of the meaning from his answer. C.E.J.
Question: Could you give us the definition of truth that you gave us some time ago, which we were unable to record. You put it so well, that we wish we’d been able to get it down on paper.
Answer: I cannot say that I will use the same words, you understand. But, let me start by saying that truth itself is on the inside. When I say it is on the inside I mean it is part of the characteristics of the individual, truth having moulded those characteristics over the years. It is something that can neither be moulded overnight, nor can it be uprooted overnight. It becomes stronger with practice, commencing by tossing out the little fabrications one is likely to take in, and real truthfulness being spoken.
Take note, that a person might speak truth to their enemies because they are hated, and truth hurts, but speak falsehood to their friends because of not wanting them to take hurt. A peculiar factor, that enmity brings forth truthfulness but friendship does not, because one hides behind appeasement and the wall that is put up because of holding on to friendship.
One believes, and when one believes conditions that come from the outside, such as words written in a book, these impel oneself to believe in a particular kind of way. One adopts that belief to oneself, and by so doing creates within the self only a type of truth, meaning truth to them but not truth to other people. And because of this, untruth resides.
When truth is positively a part of oneself then one glows beneath it, so to speak. It is like a tree that bears fruit – fruit that is given to others to aid their body and their mind. Untruth, however, is like a tree on whose branches the fruit has dried, which gives other people nothing; which they could even spit out, when they come to the realisation they have not received truth but falsehood instead. And in this wise, either with truth or with untruth is the character of oneself shaped.
Truth grows from a tiny seed, as it were, and one begins to see it and feel it enlarging with oneself. And that is because, as truthfulness grows then are fears discarded. Fears cannot at any time stay where truth is maintained. Anyone who holds truthfulness in the character, and is not swayed one way or the other against it, is a friend to everyone, whether acceptable as a friend or not. The very fact that truthfulness is shown all the time, that one can be trusted, and trust itself makes friendship.
When one is entirely open and hiding nothing whatsoever, then there is truth in that person. But when there is even the tiniest thing being hidden within the subconscious that other people are not supposed to know is there, then the whole of that individual’s life is a lie. For hidden underneath is untruth, and as that begins to be fostered and to grow of itself, then other little deceits are added to it. For they must be added to it to cover it up, so that other people do not at any time find out what is hidden there.
Because of this, fear grows, affecting the character and causing much confusion within the self. One who is always in a state of confusion is only so because of hidden factors that are continually covered over; the confused thought is like a blanket, a fog through which all the rest is seen.
And so in this wise, when one begins to speak truth, it could cause fear to rise. But when one truly begins to build up the foundation of a character where truth itself is honoured and used all the time, then support of others is most definite in its provision. It is something, even in your earth world, that one who holds truth constantly, speaking truthfully to other people and being relied upon because of it, then to them will truth be spoken. But one who does not speak truth, although they might appear to be truthful, in little ways their friends do not speak truth to them. Have you noticed this? And as friends do not give full truth, neither do spirits give full truth. Only as truth manifests from oneself do spirits give truth to that one.
So that, shall we say, a medium, a healer, a speaker, a teacher, anyone in the public eye whose life does not give off truth, cannot be trusted to speak the truth. They may give fifty percent of it, but rarely are they truthful all the time. Such people cannot help fabricating the truth, which explains many things including why the Bible is as it is. Some of those whose writings are in the Bible did not see truthfully because of not having truth of themselves. They could see only in and through what they were. And because of this, full tuition has been lost, and because it is lost, people have suffered and continue to suffer.
Everything in life has great reliance upon truth. People look for it in books, they look for it from others, not only in what they say but in the way they speak, their demeanour, even in how they look. But they cannot always know what is true until the effects are seen. The effects of untruth bring unhappiness and pain, but when the effects come of truth they are a total blessing altogether.
Truth will never bring undue suffering, but untruth causes suffering all the time. If one expects to read a book and to recognise truth, they can only see it according to the maintenance of truth within themselves. According to what they are so can they witness in other people the truthfulness that comes from them. And so, all of this boils down to what?
Response from one of the students in the class: Inner development?
Chang continues: Inner development, yes; and being entirely natural. For anyone who forces anything will add untruth to truth. But anyone who is entirely natural will not add falsehood to truth. They will of a natural intent speak what they feel. And that is truth – it is not on the outside and can never be seen as on the outside. For one can never prove the word of another to be truthful until the effects are seen. In fact, nothing can be proved as truthful until it is put into operation, and what comes from it is observed.
So, one can tell another how to seek truth with themselves, and how to find it, yet not force them to maintain it. But what comes from the self one knows as truthful or not, according to the feelings of oneself. And that is the only truth upon which one can rely. Indeed so, indeed so.
Li Chang Su is a teacher from the spirit world who spoke to students in the earth plane through the mediumship of Gladys Franklin. He was and is known for his wisdom and his warmth of character.