"That's a Fact, Jack".....

"That's a Fact, Jack" was always delivered as the God's truth in any argument taken on in Iowa. That begs the question, “Are Fact and Truth the same thing,” and the brief answer is, "No, they aren't," So how do we tell them apart? And what are their differences? A popular advertisement on television showed the differences in clear detail. A woman is walking down a street, with a purse and a bag of groceries. As she starts to enter the cross-walk, a man runs up and grabs her arm and purse. The scene stops and you are left with the question of "What just happened?" Is it a mugging, an abusive spouse? All manner of guesses course through the mind, until you see a speeding truck barreling down the street, and the man has pulled the woman out of its dangerous path. The facts of him accosting her blur into the truth, that he was trying to save her from harm, even if his action looked violent in itself.

A fact is something that's indisputable and based on empirical research and quantifiable measures. Facts go beyond theories. They are proven through calculations and experience, or they are something that has occurred in the past. Judges and the police deal with this all the time. They want the facts, nothing but the facts, in Jack Webb scenarios. The facts of our example show a man grabbing a woman, a woman being startled and pulled backwards on a busy street. These things definitely occurred in the near past. The judge, or finder of fact, draws out the evidence submitted by various witnesses and determines the facts of the case.

It is very rare for two or more people to agree that a certain thing happened exactly the same way, or for exactly the same reason. A person seeing the woman being grabbed may focus on that action and not see the truck speeding past. That lends itself to the mugging conclusion, while another person sees a Good Samaritan saving the lady from accident or death. Truth is entirely different from facts, because it may include facts and also can contain beliefs.

Ontology refers to what kind of things exist in the social world and assumptions about the form and nature of that social reality. We deal with our sense testimony in Translation and Releasing The Hidden Splendour, to engage with the truth about sense testimony and memories. We see that truth is objective and open to disputation and debate. The argument in Translation offers us time to do that debating with our perceptions. Translation grapples with our opinions as sense testimony and compares them to the truth: a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality. Truth carries the quality of being true, so truth is that which is true, that which is in accordance with reality or facts. Truth is objective to make true propositions about real things, and is also congruent with our experience, when we see the experience through the lens of the truth unfolding.

Ontological truth holds that a belief is true if there exists an appropriate entity — a fact — to which it corresponds. If there is no such entity, the belief is false. Truth must hold the property of being in accord with fact or reality. Logical truth is a statement that is not only true, but one that is true under all interpretations of its logical components. Hence the First Step of Translation stands up under this requirement. It also holds up under the criteria of Absolute Truth. This is something that is true at all times and in all places; it is true no matter what the circumstances. The syllogism of Translation is a fact that can't be changed.

When I work with Translation and Releasing the Hidden Splendour, I am looking at my subjective beliefs, my own personal perspective, feelings and opinions. Everything I know is based on my own senses testimony and perceptions. Everything I know is based on my personally held beliefs, facts and truths, and it is all subjective. This is why Thane always encouraged us to translate the smallest grain of sand and the biggest things we could imagine. We need to systematically put our personal beliefs up against truth, do the emotional battle of finding what is real about our thought, and discard the parts that are not real and truth. Truth helps us identify the facts and hone our beliefs to be shaped by the keen blade of truth in action. I need to find the Truth about every one of my perceptions and beliefs. Truth holds both fact and belief. For it to be true the facts and beliefs must be in accordance with truth. Truth is what makes the spiritual and fundamental reality where we exist . We must learn to do our Translations and Releasing our Hidden Splendour as a journey to finding reality, the truth about our life.