To all.
I checked with The Internet Encyclopedia of philosophy.Here is what they had to say about the subject:

Truth
Philosophers are interested in a constellation of issues involving the concept of truth. A preliminary issue, although somewhat subsidiary, is to decide what sorts of things can be true. Is truth a property of sentences (which are linguistic entities in some language or other), or is truth a property of propositions (nonlinguistic, abstract and timeless entities)? The principal issue is: What is truth? It is the problem of being clear about what you are saying when you say some claim or other is true. The most important theories of truth are the Correspondence Theory, the Semantic Theory, the Deflationary Theory, the Coherence Theory, and the Pragmatic Theory. They are explained and compared here. Whichever theory of truth is advanced to settle the principal issue, there are a number of additional issues to be addressed:

Loong's comment:As the article above states.What do you consider to be the truth? Truth by itself comes from the mind ,has no real existence by itself.So what is true to you ,might be hogwash to me!This is spirituality at it's finest.Speaking or writing about something that does not really exist ,but only in the mind of the beholder.

I await your comments.

With loving kindness

loong

Dear Loong -

By your own admission, what you feel to be the right answer might not be what we feel to be the right answer. Even if a website says it It is why we should phrase all our posts to be compassionate and supportive, and always be open to the idea that what we post is just one view of many!

We all have our opinions, and that is fine and good. Some people may feel that truth has an existence, and that is fine for them. We want to help them feel open to present their opinions.

Dear Lisa,

You wrote: It is why we should phrase all our posts to be compassionnate and supportive.You keep coming up with that phrase.This is an adult group ,unless ,i am wrong,please advise me accordingly.Second :We want to help them feel open to present their opinions,Is it not what I have asked.
I beleive this section to be one on Spirituality,this is one of the most spiritual subject to speak about.Just reread my post,I do not see signs of non respect for others.If I start athread ,I must give my opinion first,no!

With respect
loong

Dear Loong -

Our forum accepts all members over the age of twelve. It is not an adults-only forum. So it is critical that we always phrase content to be warm, supportive, and encouraging. Yes, I believe strongly in posts being compassionate and supportive.

In internet posting we only see black and white letters; we cannot hear tone or inflection or strength of voice. That is why it can be very useful to start by saying "In my opinion ..." before we make a statement. That way it helps to present the frame of mind that you are presenting one opinion and want to hear other opinions. It can sometimes be that if you present a statement saying "this is the truth, period. Comment on it." that it presents a quite different atmosphere for the readers. It presents the information is a more contentious manner. That then dissuades people from participating.

What I believe is that everyone has their own truth. It is their opinion, their belief, and what they use as reference for living their daily lives. Just like there are many ways to live a good life, there may be many truths that work for people, because each individual is capable of free thinking.

And yes, we do need to be kind and compassionate to allow for all posters to be comfortable to speak their view. That is why we are here, to share and to learn about all things spiritual. Thanks, Lisa!

Dear Debbie,

In a spiritual way can you describe truth.

loong

I believe I have already described it in my last post. Spiritual truth is unique to the individual.

Looong, first a note on tone, per Lisa's comment. I think I know where you are coming from because I have been on many other Buddhist forums, as I think you have too, and there is a long history of vigorous intellectual debate in Buddhism, particularly in some branches of Theravada Buddhism, and Zen. It is considered part of developing Right View/Right Understanding to debate different interpretations of a sutra or commentary. I sometimes feel like that is your tendency, perhaps, to sound like you want to debate something and 'win' the debtate, maybe from those other forums (or perhaps you were a monastic sutra debate champion in a past life:-)

I think there is a place for those kinds of discussions at BellaOnline, but mostly it is a different kind of site. It is more of a friendly, supportive, sharing kind of site. And creating that tone in just print words can be tough, as Lisa said, so using phrases like 'in my opinion, what does everyone else think?' etc. while it may seem obvious it's your opinion, can still be helpful to new people (young or old.) And then probing into other's answers without making them feel like you are trying to win against them, and at times perhaps just agreeing to disagree.

And this brings me to my own answer to your question on truth. I think in our lives, in situations we come across etc., at times there is an truth and at times there is only opinion. But as for Truth with a capital 'T', this is not something that can be expressed, only experienced. It is Source itself, the root of our awareness, the root of our consciousness, the root of enlightenment. Some would call it spirit, but I shy away from that word because of other connotations it has for people. Truth of this type is really the raw essence of our being and mind, and can't be put into words. Finding this Truth for ourselves is what all the great teachers, including Buddha, have tried to help us do. That to me is spirituality. Which doesn't really make all paths valid to me - I don't really believe they are all created equal - but I do believe people come to different teachings at different times, so they all have their place.

And when we try to connect to that capital 'T' Truth in ourselves, what we say and do has a different feeling to it, so that is how it intersects with real life, including in this forum.

Great feedback, Lisa-Buddhism. Thank you.

This is kind of an example of why I stopped going to my two college classes on Western Philosophy. One was an intro to Western Phil and the other was an Intro to Ethics.

Both classes frustrated me greatly. To the point where I wanted to stand up on my chair and shout, It Doesn't Matter!

Truth, the LochNess Monster, Deities/devils, good/evil, to me = blah blah blah.

On the other hand, I LOVED my Intro to Eastern Phil class and stayed in that one. There no one made me pick a stance on Man's Inherent Evil and defend it. I was asked to pretty much just chill and be and open my mind to compassion/acceptance. it felt much more spiritual and not about presenting the best argument.

Sorry about my rant. I just feel like this is back in that intro to ethics class. I don't know if my perspective is useful in this discussion, but i thought maybe it could relate.

Truth, for me, exists in my spiritual beliefs. How do I know there is truth in my beliefs? Because it works for me.

One might ask does wind exist? We cannot see wind, yet we can see the effects of it (ie: trees swaying, papers blowing around, etc). In a similar context, we can see the effect of a truth in body language, facial expression, prayers answered.

When a child is near death and one prays for healing and that child lives that is truth of spiritual belief for the one who prayed. Many years later to see that same child, who is now a healthy adult, then the spiritual belief is not only truth, but proof to the one who stood strong in their belief system.

Jilly.....I appreciate your view, and I do agree that it really does not matter what the different views of spiritual truth are. What matters is what works for the individual.

Everyone else's view, if different, still needs to be respected nonetheless. If beliefs are based on love and respect then there is no right or wrong view here. Every person is a free thinking human being, has their own feelings, and has their own belief system. That person has to go by what works for them, what feels right to them, what seems sensible to them. We all have our own unique energy vibration in life.

Spiritual truth to me is what gives a person their unique identity, and that truth is a gentle comfort and affirmation to one's purpose and path in life.

It is interesting to share different views and to learn about what is important to others, and that is why we have the forum. Thank you all for joing in the discussion.

I like your comparisons, Phyllis. Some of what we observe, feel, and believe seems to be common sense. Some is also based on faith, that when proven to us becomes our truth.

everyone has their own truth

funny thing is that it is really only one truth with different facets

To Lisa Buddhism Editor,

You know I cannot comment your post in this section, this is the spirituality section.If we were in the buddhism section ,i would.

loong

Loong, please feel free to post your response to any comments made on this thread.

To Debbie,
Thank you for your comment.However Buddhism is another world.
I was accused so often to be too aggressive ,that ,I will not
speak of Buddhism in this section of BellaonLine.Also when I started posting afew months ago,was told that before I came here
other buddhists had posted here and were found aggressive.

I will only post Buddhist posts in the Buddhism section.

Again I thank You.

loong

Loong.......there is spiritual truth for everyone, including Buddhists. People of all belief systems are welcome to post their views here. You did start this thread so you are welcome to give your view on truth, as long as it is in a friendly and welcoming manner for all to understand and to learn. Buddhists are gentle and calm people from what I understand of them, so please feel free to continue with this discussion if you would like to.

Dear Debbie,

Yes ,I started this post.Look at what it got me.Insults, finger pointing.Buddhism is such a different world spiritually speaking then all the spirituality path I have walked.

Thank you

loong

To Phyllis,
In your post # 760142 you wrote this:

One might ask does wind exist? We cannot see wind, yet we can see the effects of it (ie: trees swaying, papers blowing around, etc). In a similar context, we can see the effect of a truth in body language, facial expression, prayers answered.

Wind is something that exists,smell the wind feel the wind on your cheek,those are outside of your mind proofs.Truth does not do that ,because it comes from inside your head depending on your beleifs.Your beleifs are different than every human being on the planet ,because no one thinks the same way.
So there are as many truthts as there are humans.Truth is a figment of your consciousness ,nothing else.That is why ,I had quoted that truth did not exist,as one.

With loving kindness
loong

Greetings, Loong.

Yet that is how I see truth. Something that cannot be visibly seen can be, and in many cases is, truth.

You say truth comes from inside the head. In my opinion truth, the kind I posted about, comes from my heart, spiritual knowledge, and the fact that my child lived.

I am not here to debate as to who has the correct answer, I came here to express my opinion on the subject of truth, which you asked us to do. Each one of us has our own truths, our own answer.

Thus, my truth stands as not only my opinion, but my truth.

I can see from the posts that some people feel that there is spiritual truth, and some do not. If what you believe works for you in your life then all is well. Different strokes for different folks. Thank you all for your views on this very interesting topic.

To Debbie,

There is spiritual truth.My original post mentionned the non existence of physical truth.If your spiritual truth is different from let us say Phyllis ,already we have 2 truths. Imagine 7 billion mental truth, all different. So who has the real truth?
No one ,and everyone.so that is why truth does not exist by itself but by the beholder of his truth.

I hope this is clearer.

With Loving Kindness
loong

Yes, Loong. I think that is what we have all been saying. Each one of us has our own truth.

I'd totally agree with that - to each his own truth.

If there is any one subjective truth out there, it's probably mathematics. Which is a realm i find interesting in the abstract, but incomprehensible specifically.

I hear you, Jilly!