Truth holds an honored position in Chivalry-Now. It provides the ground upon which everything else stands.

Nevertheless, we remain haunted by Pilate’s question: what is truth?

A simple answer is this: Truth is what is—whether we recognize it or not. To be more precise is challenging.

Our limited ability and understand complicates the answer. Whatever truth we grasp becomes our rationalization of experience, observation, and reasonable suppositions—especially those which stand the test of time. This, of course, makes everything we know subjective, resulting in diverse understandings and error. This is how truth constantly evades us. We end up owning our misperceptions and adjust our values accordingly.

How could it be otherwise? We are not omniscient. Our capacity for reason tends to be biased on what we think we know already. That means we are incapable of fully grasping truth and making it our own.

Knowing this, we do far better forming a living relationship with truth which allows us to know it better. In Chivalry-Now, we call this the quest to find truth. It can be likened to a courtship—a committed relationship that encourages spiritual growth. This explains the romantic quality of the mythical hero’s quest, which always depicts a process of challenge, growth, and learning. In other words, it is a dynamic well lived. Human nature prods us through these myths to fulfill our rational and spiritual potential.

To engage life as a quest takes focus. It takes a measure of humility as well in order to be openminded and not steered by misperceptions. Even failure contributes to progress in what it teaches or eliminates.

On  the other hand, disinterest and habitual skepticism prevent us from ever starting. As a species distinguished by our ability to reason, we know that reason needs truth to function properly. Disregarding truth results in fabrications based on lies. Nothing good comes from it. Yet some do exactly that for quick profit or political gain. They treat falsehood like a viable alternative, purposely sabotaging human progress with a poison worse than ignorance.

Without purposeful self-direction, most of us thoughtlessly cling to catchy phrases and half-truths that make us feel comfortable. These comes to us in the form of local biases, ideologies, and ego-based illusions—sometimes to the point where we are willing to hurt others to protect them. They shape us. We become them. The quest for truth is disregarded for the comfort of familiar misconceptions and opposing those who seek for more. This leads to resentment, which blocks the openness that truth demands. This is how people lose their way. And they often lose it with no conscious decision. The quest for truth remains something they can adopt later, but after years of neglect, some kind of awakening needs to precede it.

Engaging life as a quest is a natural, everyday means for spiritual growth. It not only determines our course in life, but our authenticity as well. When we disregard truth and base our beliefs and attitudes on falsehoods, we denigrate not just ourselves, but what it means to be human.