The seventh parami or “perfection” of a Buddha, is truthfulness. The perfections are all grounded in truth. Every moment of mindfulness is a moment of truthfulness, of direct knowing. Direct and clear, true understanding is a relief. It is the revelation of how reality is without the constant inner chatter of the mind convincing us that self protection and self absorption are our primary causes and blocking the truth of our interconnectedness with all life.

Simply doing good, or even being a perfect and devoted meditator, cannot fulfill our spiritual potential without the painful honesty required to see clearly what we’re up to. Truthfulness is necessary to see all the ways we impede ourselves, fool ourselves and obscure our view of what it would take to live a more open, harmonious, genuine and connected life.

Truthfulness is contained in, and is the inspiration for determination, loving kindness and equanimity, the eighth, ninth and tenth paramis. Truthfulness inspires determination in practice. And when we see the truth of how things are, our capacity for loving-kindness increases. We see people just the way they are—as humans, like ourselves, struggling to be content and happy, to live with ease—not as friends or enemies about whom we have opinions and judgments. As we become less judgmental and more tolerant, more able to understand that things and people are the way they are as a result of complex and legitimate causes, our capacity for equanimity increases.

Do you see truthfully?