The essence of goodness and truth is unchanging. According to the inner state, what changes is people's perceptions; their depth and shallowness; their warmth and coolness; their naivety and maturity; their comprehension; their experience; their manner of reading. 

Acknowledging ignorance or opining with true knowledge and being objective is not all easy. Everyone sees differently. Everyone perceives according to their own mental vessel. Everyone makes sense of things with their own standards. Everyone evaluates things like they make sense of them. 

People only exit the mental library by getting to know themselves and discovering their own personal motivations. They begin to make judgements and evaluations by taking fallacies into account and that reality can be subjective. As the perception of life and self is transformed, people's perspective on goodness and truth changes as well. Their evaluation capacity evolves in a positive way and growth is achieved. For this reason, true people of wisdom, those who value true knowledge always recognize that they know nothing, and that they are constantly learning new things, and behave accordingly.

A person who is honest when it comes to his own wisdom and sincerity knows that nothing (people, phenomena, events) is as it seems. And he states his opinions with this awareness. He always heeds the meaningful words of famous French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944) when he says, "Behind every visible thing lies something more profound. All things are but a road, a door, a window to something other than themselves." 

Here, awareness and loyalty go a long way. In order to avoid misunderstandings and discover the truth, objective evaluations must be made beyond fixed opinions and stereotypes. The holistic perspective necessitates this. When this perspective is sincere, the truth is seen for what it is and it becomes easier to discover the service deriving from the spirit of selflessness. 

Nevertheless, underdeveloped people have more blind spots as well as conceit. Because of hallucinatory guesses and delusions, they make inadequate or lacking evaluations. This is because they evaluate according to their narrow doors and limited perception. When they are unable to read people/phenomena/events, they use arbitrary biases. In other words, because their thoughts are swamped with negativity prejudice and confirmation bias, the full visibility and comprehension of any selfless spirit/service is directly proportional to the person's inner perceptions/attitudes/capacities. It should not be forgotten that every evaluation made with lack of knowledge/perception/comprehension/experience and with negative conditioning leads to subjective interpretations and errors. For this reason, the spirit of selflessness is often times misjudged due to lacking readings. Because a person who has a sincere/consistent morality/spirit which others do not, has a different insight and motive. According to others, he has changed in heart, spirit, and mind. It is not easy to understand that person with his sincere intent as he is. This relative situation which is dependent on the transformation of the negativity prejudice and confirmation bias as well as conscious mental activities that challenge and displease the self/ego requires time and patience. 

When a person is unable to undergo the necessary mental/spiritual renewal he continues to behave according to the desires of the self/ego. Whether he likes it or not, he makes evaluations and judgements by receiving outputs from his existing mental program. When he starts doing things that challenge the self/ego and keeps going with repetition and patience, the subconscious learns and accepts the new, records it and gives outputs accordingly. After all, people say if you keep saying something long enough, it will come to pass. Similarly, a spiritual/intellectual renewal will have begun inside the person.

Though the shielding walls that benefit humans may sometimes be necessary, what really matters is opening the curtain of ego that covers the heart's eye. What matters is building bridges of understanding/intimacy instead of walls. Because there is a road that leads from person to person, soul to soul, and thought to thought. That road must be open, free from obstacles like negative prejudices. Because every prejudice and confirmation bias is a well. It is difficult to see the truth in all its glory while inside this well. This is why Confucius (551-479 B.C.) said, "Those who live at the bottom of a well only see as much of the sky as is visible from its opening."

Though it takes time for wrong perceptions/judgements to change and transform, the truth has a harsh tendency to come to light. The attitudes of personal evaluation and judgements are so numerous that even if we go wrong in one of our perceptions/judgements, if we do not rush things, a different correct judgement might one day come our way. If a person keeps misunderstanding and misjudging with biases while in an environment of multiple perceptions/attitudes regarding knowledge, understanding, and awareness, that person has surely cut himself off from the truth. 

As it has been said, "Even if you silence the truth and bury it underground, it will surely resurrect, come to life, and grow."

Malfono Yusuf Beğtaş

President of the Syriac Association of Language, Culture and Literature