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The Secret Of Zen

How Do You Define Truth In A Universe Of Contradictions?

Pathless Pilgrim
3 min readApr 28, 2022

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Photo by Joey Kyber on Unsplash

Most of us have a natural aversion to contradiction. It rubs us up the wrong way. It pushes our buttons. We can’t abide it.

We want rules. We seek truth. We love to know exactly what we’re dealing with. We want our understanding of the world — of how things are — to come perfectly packaged and clearly defined.

Unfortunately, that’s not the way the Universe works. It’s one of the reasons we are constantly disappointed.

Human beings have been seeking ‘Truth’ for as long as human beings have existed. Or as long as humans have been, if you prefer.

We’ve been arguing over ‘The Truth’ for as long as we’ve had language, but we’ve still failed to reach a consensus.

Just when you think you have things pinned down, just when you think you’ve finally sussed how things are, life throws a spanner in the works and you’re faced with a glaring contradiction.

Religions are full of contradiction — that’s one of the reasons rationalists hate them — but so is science. Those on the cutting edge of science recognise this. Think quantum physics. Think waves and particles.

My own articles here on Medium reflect some of life’s contradictions, and I make no apology…

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Pathless Pilgrim
Pathless Pilgrim

Written by Pathless Pilgrim

Vegan for almost 40 years with a first-class degree in law. Animal rights, ethics & social justice. Download my FREE eBook at: lllpg.com/Veganism/

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