Truth
and Reality
The DISTINCTION
That
which is True is Real
That which is Real is not necessarily True
Reality is of the measure of your thinking mind whereas Truth is beyond measure.
Here's the test: if it doesn't exist when you are not thinking about it then it is not ultimately true.
One timeless story that is used to illustrate this very important distinction is the 'rope and the snake' as follows:
Consider the case of a man who is terrified of snakes crossing a meadow in dim light; he steps on a rope, thinks that the rope is a snake and he suffers a panic attack.
In this case the man's panic attack is Truth yet the cause of his attack is Reality that is untrue. The Truth is that he stepped on a rope and instead of acting, he reacted by interpreting his present experience through the filter of the past experiences of his thinking mind.
In this light the content of your thinking mind is Truth as your thoughts yet thoughts are symbols that represent things rather than being the things themselves [thoughts are a form of Reality rather than Truth]. This story also shows that although thoughts are not Truth they have the power to govern your behaviour because action comes out of seeing such that seeing is doing and what you believe to be true is a form of seeing [in other words your belief makes whatever you believe true for you, yet it may be Reality and not Truth].
This distinction between Reality and Truth is the true meaning of 'maya' that is often translated as illusion. Another root meaning of 'maya' is 'to measure' as in mentally measuring/describing something - here the meaning is self-evident as something like the mental description of water will never satisfy your thirst [the description is Reality, actually drinking water would be Truth and in the latter case thinking is not required].
Imagine how conflict ridden life situations would be if folks acted primarily from the Reality generated by their thinking mind rather than the Truth of what is. The harsh fact is that this is precisely the case in our world today as our knowledge based societies have entrained us to live in our heads, in a world of concepts and ideas, that manifests as the struggling, suffering and turmoil that is everywhere evident [the good news is that clearly seeing the problem is the means to resolve it as the solution is always in the situation].
Accepting simply means to see things as they are - a dialogue with Jean Klein