Fact of the matter is that it’s one of those few things in life that is black and white.  It’s either the truth or its not.  If it’s not, it’s not truth-full and so the part where it’s not the truth, is the lie.

A white lie is often told to protect someone’s feelings – like when your wife just spent $250 at the beauty parlor and had her hair cut and the goofball ruined it and she comes home proudly, but looking like somebody else, you say, “Hey honey, you look real cute.”

Fibs are harmless lies that really don’t matter like telling your neighbor that you didn’t come to their party because you weren’t feeling well when you really went out to a movie instead.  Fibs and white lies both fall under the same confusing category.  The term “white lie” is pretty laughable when you think about it.  Does the word “white’ make it OK?  Is the lie more pure because it’s white?  Is it cleaner?  Pretty confusing.

And then there’s exaggeration – a fault that I’ve been accused of probably too often.  I like to say when accused, “Well, I’m in show business.  Think of it as promotion – making the success or the adventure or the story just a tad more interesting or dramatic or even a bit more heroic.  But truthfully, I’ve learned to see that they’re all just a bunch of lies and that, essentially, if we slow down and think things out and live higher and more noble lives from moment to moment, we do not have to lie.  Lying is just really a bad habit.

And then there are the inveterate liars…  These are the people that have a disease – a dis-ease with the truth.  They lie so often that they lose consciousness of the truth and lose the ability to discern between the two.  Their lying becomes so habitual that they lose their connection with the reality of the truth and lie so often that they begin to believe their own lies  — in essence, they lie so much that they even lie to themselves about lying.  A vicious circle.

In my life I’ve suspected several and absolutely identified two.

One was a man who I worked with for many years.  He was a fine musician and we had a great partnership in music, a great musical simpatico between us and a terrific collaboration that always resulted in powerful production.  I loved him like a brother and we were joined at the hip.  But I began to watch him lie and not know what to do about it.

Confronting a liar is very difficult.  It’s easier to confront a thief or a murderer.  With a thief, you point out the stolen money in his hand and if you catch him red-handed, you’ve got the material proof.  With a murderer you’ve got the body or the gun or the fingerprints.  But with a liar, it’s all a bit nebulous, and usually a liar can and will back up his original lie with another ten to do anything he can do to wiggle out.

Even the experts say that confronting a liar is a near impossible thing.   It’s very hard to make it stick and ruins the relationship and destroys the moment.

With my male friend, his lies became so obvious to me after a while that I would be embarrassed by his effrontery – so much so that I could not even protest the most obvious of lies.  I would stand and listen to him unravel his whoppers and be so flabbergasted that he would actually think that I was dumb enough to believe him, that I could not say anything in retort.  To challenge him would be so difficult that I would just say nothing and walk away shaking my head.

Of course, the more he “got away with it”, the more he did it.  It grew to such proportions that it absolutely destroyed our relationship.  I lost my trust in his center.  I never knew when he was lying or truthful because he didn’t know either.  To him, it was all the truth and to me, they were all lies.

In the end, I stepped away from this friendship and never worked with him again.  I’m not sure he ever really understood.  I think he was very hurt by my pull-back, but I could have never confronted him with the enormity of my doubt and the absolute reality of what I knew to be true.  I’ve realized that I got trapped in his consciousness and, by not nailing him, actually took part in his avoidance of the truth.  In the end he made a liar out of me.

It was an extremely difficult situation and, to this day, I don’t know how I could have fixed it – and so I walked away from the entire mess and never went back.

The second habitual liar that I’ve encountered was a woman that I employed.  She was extremely bright and could have been hugely effective in her job, but she too was such an inveterate liar that she even believed her own BS.  At first she would lie about the things she had accomplished, the promises she had made and the hopes that she offered me.  When none of these came to any reality, she would always have ten more in the ready.  As the lies began to pile up, she couldn’t remember her own lies and would change her stories and when I would question her change of story she would get angry and lie her way out of the confusion.

Because not everything was a lie – there were actually occasional truths mixed in – it took a longer time to see and be able to identify the patterns, but within months, I had seen enough and heard enough.

No one wants a lie to be a lie.  Lies are told to right a wrong, not wrong a right.  Lies are told to make something OK or better or even wondrous.  And so we too want them to be true, but after a while, when we finally see and understand the patterns of lying and suspect, and then know that we’re being lied to, we simply stand demoralized and wait for the next lie to appear.  When it appears, we see it immediately.

With this lady (she was no lady), as much as I wanted her to be successful, as much as I needed her to be successful, ultimately she was hollow.  There was no real substance to her.  It was all false fabrication.  I kept wishing it weren’t, hoping that some of the promises made would come true, but ultimately she was simply ineffective because she was so distant from the truth.

Even when I would confront her with the hollowness of her words and the failures of her so-called efforts, she would weave such a tale of falsehood to get out of the trap that she had gotten herself into that there was nothing I could do except relieve her of her duties and ultimately her job.

The saddest thing about the whole mess was that she was so caught up in her lying that she absolutely believed herself.  That was what was so wondrous to me.  She would say things that we all knew were wild fabrications of the imagination and absolutely believe them.  She was so used to lying that she instantly bought her own lies lock, stock and barrel.

I know only one way of healing such a condition.  To pray about it.  Stepping away from the person , as I did in both cases, let’s be clear, was not a healing solution.  It rid me of the problem to a great extent, but it did not heal the error.  A habitual liar has a mighty problem to deal with and it’s tougher, in a way, than a cancer.  A cancer you can see, you can feel.  It becomes something you have to deal with.  It confronts you.

Lying, on the other hand, is something that when confronted, the habitual liar simply lies their way around and lies their way past.  Ultimately this is a problem for a power greater than I.

Perhaps if I were a sharper judge of character and could nip it in the bud in the beginning that would help.  But we don’t want to start new relationships that way – looking for the untruths.

Perhaps if I were more centered myself and closer on a more consistent level to the absolute truth moment to moment this would help.  Sounds like I got something here…

Identify more with the truth.  Live the truth more fully.  Attract the truth.  Raise the bar.  Set a higher standard of truth around you.  Purify the atmosphere.  Demand honesty both from within and without.

Dictionary definition of lying: To pretend with intent to deceive.

Pretty damning…

Physician, heal thyself.

NOTE: You have just read Peter Link’s 400th Blog Post.  Cause for some form of quiet celebration among readers… )

Even More Inspiration

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• Through An Open Door

In my last posting, “The Allness Of God”, I quoted David Bohm, author of The Undivided Universe, as saying, “The inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fundamental reality.”
Also “Einstein said, “The illusion that we are separate is an optical delusion of our senses.” Irwin Schroedinger, the quantum physicist who developed the wave equation in quantum physics says, “If we could just measure the sum total of the minds in the universe there would be just one.”

Mary Baker Eddy says in her Scientific Statement Of Being, “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.”

The question I ask is, “If quantum physics is a study of this material world and Jesus, Buddha and those millions of others are speaking about the spiritual world, is there an interconnectivity between the two?  Or are these really two separate issues?

If matter is unreal, another crashing discovery of quantum physics, if there is, in fact, nothing there, if all that we experience through our five physical senses is an illusion, then who cares what these physicists find.  They’re simply trying to figure out the principles of nothing.

And yet something tells me to pay attention to all this. This interconnectivity that quantum physics explores is not made of matter. Perhaps all there is is the interconnectivity. Perhaps the interconnectivity itself is God linking all true substance, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

I know, we’re getting’ a little heady here, but how else do we get this straight? I’m just trying to line up all these different thoughts in my mind and see what it all amounts to.

If God is all in all, doesn’t that mean that all there is is God? Duh. If we are all one, does that stand us separate and outside of allness? Hardly. If spiritual man is a reflection of God (Remember Man was made in His image and likeness – Genesis) and God is all there is, then where does that put us?

And yet here I seem to sit, with my blue robe on in front of my computer living this illusion as hard as I can. And yet here I sit, thinking and wondering, breathing life by the nano second, heart pounding with life, brain teeming with life – the duality of life on Planet Earth and my life as a spiritual being.

I shall not be confused by this. I shall just let it be for one more day.  Perhaps today some light will crack through. Perhaps today another pin will drop into place.

Did I get it straight, or straighter? I think not. In no way, dear reader, am I trying to get you to think like me. Please build your own concepts of God and man. It’s hard enough to figure it out for myself. If you can shed some light on my thinking, I’m all for it. If I can reciprocate, great, but this is an independent journey for each of us.  There are far better minds at work than mine.

I do know this: The last hour spent in this noble contemplation has lifted me into the day. Essentially, I have had my morning prayers. The focus on the absolute has sharpened my mental atmosphere. I’m ready to start another day.

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Several years ago I had a disastrous experience with MCI Telecommunications (my telephone company). Through a billing fault of theirs, my phone was turned off (the absolute truth).

It then took me over 60 calls and countless hours of wasted time to get the service restored and by the time I had restored the service, I was so frustrated by the experience, I changed the telephone service to a new company out of spite. Somehow, even that was not enough to ameliorate my frustration. So I made the ultimate gesture to MCI – I wrote a song about it.

THE TRUTH BE TOLD
Music and Lyrics by Peter Link

IF YOU WRITE
NO ONE READS IT
IF YOU CALL
THERE IS NO ONE LISTENING
IF YOU GO
THERE IS NO ONE THERE TO SEE

SOMETHING IS HAP’NIN’ TO THE WORLD
SOMETHING BEYOND CONTROL
ITS A WONDER THAT ANYTHING WORKS AT ALL
AN’ IT’S TIME THAT THE TRUTH BE TOLD

I DON’T KNOW WHY IT’S GONE THIS WAY
I’VE DONE ALL A MAN CAN DO
I SCREAM AND I CRY I PLEAD I PRAY
BUT NOTHIN’ I SAY GETS THROUGH

CAUSE THEY ALL LEAVE ME HOLDIN’
ON THE LINE
AN’ THE HOURS THEY SLIP ON BY
AN’ THE NUMBER THEY’RE DOIN’ ON MY MIND
IS TEARIN’ ME UP INSIDE

IF YOU ASK
NO ONE ANSWERS
IF YOU WAIT
IT’S A WASTE OF YOUR TIME
IF YOU BEG
THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO

I DON’T KNOW WHY IT’S GONE THIS WAY
I’VE DONE ALL A MAN CAN DO
I SCREAM AND I CRY I PLEAD I PRAY
BUT NOTHIN’ I SAY GETS THROUGH

CAUSE THEY ALL LEAVE ME HOLDIN’
ON THE LINE
AN’ THE HOURS THEY SLIP ON BY
AN’ THE NUMBER THEY’RE DOIN’ ON MY MIND
IS TEARIN’ ME UP INSIDE

AN’ MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SIT AND STARE
AS THE WORLD KEEPS THEM ALL ON HOLD
IT’S A HOPELESSNESS MORE THAN WE CAN BEAR
AN’ IT’S TIME THAT THE TRUTH BE TOLD

CAUSE I TRIED AN’ I TRIED AN’ I TRIED
AN’ I TRIED TO EXPLAIN
THOUGH I TRIED AN’ I TRIED AN’ I TRIED
IT WAS ALL IN VAIN

CAUSE NOBODY CARES IF I’M ALIVE
AS LONG AS THE GOODS ARE SOLD
IT’S ALL ‘BOUT THE BUCKS AN’ THAT’S NO JIVE
AN’ IT’S TIME THAT THE TRUTH BE TOLD

THEN AT LAST
WHEN THEY FINALLY ANSWER
THEY DON’T KNOW
WHAT THE HELL THEY’RE DOIN’
BUT THEY’LL GET HELP
SO THEY PUT ME BACK ON HOLD

SOMETHING IS HAP’NIN’ TO THE WORLD
SOMETHING BEYOND CONTROL
ITS A WONDER THAT ANYTHING WORKS AT ALL
AN’ IT’S TIME THAT THE TRUTH BE TOLD

AN’ MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SIT AND STARE
AS THE WORLD KEEPS THEM ALL ON HOLD
IT’S A HOPELESSNESS MORE THAN WE CAN BEAR
AN’ IT’S TIME THAT THE TRUTH BE TOLD
IT’S TIME THAT THE TRUTH BE TOLD
YES IT’S TIME THAT THE TRUTH BE TOLD!!!

What does this all have to do with Inspirational music? A lot, actually. First of all, at Watchfire Music, we promise to never let the above happen. At the moment our staff is small and we’re all overworked, but we follow the old dictum, “The customer is always right” – even if they are wrong.

We’re gonna be there on the telephone when you call being our cheeriest selves. We know that the best way to get more customers is through your recommendation, so you must be happy enough with your experience at Watchfire Music to recommend us. In fact, you must be so excited about your experience with us that you want to write us about your experience (many of you do) and tell other people about us.

We’re gonna get back to you within 24 hours and the great percentage of the time we’re gonna actually pick up the phone and say, “Hello” and stop what we’re doing to speak with you on your first call. That’s a promise.

If you’re happy, we’ll be successful. It’s really as simple as that! Write, call, communicate! Give it a try.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For more information about Watchfire Music and their artists,
please visit us at Watchfire Music.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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I think about truth a lot. It’s fast becoming my life’s greatest interest – far out-pacing money, music and the Yankees. Daily dealings with all the various concepts of the word “Inspirational” seem to focus my life more and more on the spiritual, and I know that’s a good thing. So I’m not resisting it; in fact, I’m opening up to it. And it’s certainly opening up to me.

We’re in a spiritual age. Looking back through history, these ages come in cycles. This is the next one. Go into any bookstore. Books for seekers abound. Christian music is the one genre of music that has actually grown during this terribly trying time in the music industry. Oprah announces discussions with Eckhart Tolle on line and millions show up to partake. Never before has content for seekers been more available.

I study my own religion, but I read voraciously Wayne Dyer, Yogananda, Ram Dass, Spalding’s Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East, Joseph Smith’s Book Of Mormon, The Gospel According to Jesus, Tolle’s A New Earth and on and on. I like to say, “I’m getting’ it any way I can.” Truth, that is.

One thing strikes me along this road. Why is it that so many people think they have a corner on truth? How preposterous to think that the Christians are right and everybody else is wrong – that the Sunnites are better than the Sheites. There’s gotta be truth to every religion – otherwise, why would people be drawn to it in the first place

I suggest it’s not religion that separates us, but language. “The words are different, so the philosophy’s gotta be different” is the mistake we humans make. And we Christians are some of the worst offenders. How arrogant to think that only Jesus got it right. Jesus did get it right, but he wasn’t alone. Confucius, Lao Tsu, Marianne Williamson, Mohammed, Billy Graham, Buddha, Mother Teresa, Mr. Tolle, Mary Baker Eddy – they all got it right on one level or another.

In Spalding’s Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East which I happen to be reading now, the great Masters recognize Jesus as “the greatest teacher”, “a true prophet”. He is revered, studied and taught right along with their own prophets and gurus.

Why are we so exclusive?

Ultimately, fear and ignorance. Fear of being wrong. And so we wall ourselves off in single-minded blindness to the truths available everywhere. This fear creates in us an ignorance of the great teachings of thousands of deep thinkers that have come before us and are right now among us. A great human mistake. No one has a corner on truth.

God makes truth available to all mankind in all languages. We’re all reaching for the same thing. All religions have found it on some level or another just as all religions have also confused it on one level or another. It’s a human thang.

The book I’m now reading says it very well. “Those associated with the churches must realize that the church but typifies the one thing, the Christ Consciousness in all mankind. If they realize this, where can the diversity lie but in the concept of man’s mortal mind?

See what this diversity has led to, the greatest wars, the intense hate engendered between nations and families and even individuals, and all because one church organization or another has thought that its creed or doctrine was better than that of another. Yet all in reality are the same for they all lead to the same place… The church organizations and those associated with them are coming closer each day and the time will come when they will be united as one. When all are as one, there will be no need of organization.”

“Yet the fault does not lie wholly with the church organizations. Few people have awakened to the realization of what life really holds for them. We find the greater majority drifting through life, dissatisfied, dazed, crushed, or uncertain. Each must learn to lay hold on life and begin to express from his own life center, with purposeful, definite action, the gifts that God has given him. Each must unfold his own life.”

Certainly one reason that the individual turns to a religion is for a meeting of the minds. Then, often, that religion separates itself from the rest of the world in its exclusivity. This is one place where we humans get lost instead of getting found. This is where the seeker gets complacent thinking that he has found the truth, when, in fact, he has only found a corner of it. The whole world of truth lies before us. Stay on the road. We’ll never find it by lingering on the corner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For more information about Watchfire Music and their artists,
please visit us at Watchfire Music.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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