I need nothing but the truth.
1. I sought many things and found despair alone.
²Now do I seek but one, for in that one is all I need, and only what I need.
³All that I sought before I needed not, and did not even want.
⁴I did not recognize my only need.
⁵But now I see that I need only truth.I
⁶In that all needs are satisfied, all cravings end, all hopes are finally fulfilled, and dreams are gone.
⁷Now have I everything that I could need.
⁸Now have I everything that I could want.
⁹And now at last I find myself at peace.
2. And for that peace,
our Father,
we give You thanks.
²What we denied ourselves
You have restored,
and only that is what we really want.
I How could it ever have occurred to me that there is something apart from the truth? What kind of thought could I have lost myself in to believe such a thing?
Truth is what is, what exists eternally. What else could there be outside of it? I can deny it, yes, but I can no longer find any convincing reason to keep doing so.
Truth is splendid: a boundless light that encompasses everything, fills everything, is everywhere. It is the light that illumines my mind and the light that constitutes me, for I myself am the truth. Yet, if I wish, I can close my mind to that light and pretend it is not there. Then I imagine a world of shifting shadows, of contrasts that never stabilize, and I lose myself within it. But is that truly what I desire?
I have denied the light in my mind, and I have also denied that I denied it. That double concealment has led me to believe that I am a victim—alone, separate, lost in a world I myself invented and that now frightens me. And yet, I still find no valid reason to sustain this madness. Perhaps the mere desire to see whether I could separate myself from truth was enough to bring forth such delirium.
From that denial arose time and space, and the sense of “myself” within them, set against “the other.” And all of that changes endlessly, and I change with it. In denying the light, I also denied knowledge, and thus I no longer know who I am, what I am doing, or where I am. I likewise denied love, and in its place appeared fear.
Father, I begin to realize that this absurd game has gone on long enough.
Father, take me out of here.