Last month, as I read the autobiography of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I rediscovered the secret power of truth telling as a potent force for good, diversity and inclusion in the world today.

Like a determined detective, I followed the intellectual thread on the import of truth telling from Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King to Mahatma Gandhi, to Walden Pond and Henry David Thoreau, to my Dad and my career’s work on the development of Kindhearted Power. I love the beauty of brilliant ideas linked and improved with passion and courage.

What I found strengthened my faith in the resilience and brilliance of truth as a gift to heal and guide humankind. Allow me the privilege of sharing just a bit of what I discovered.

In 1959 Dr. King, his wife Coretta, and Dr. Lawrence Dunbar Reddick traveled to India as the guest of Prime Minister Nehru to study the legacy of Gandhi’s non-violent approach to the country’s liberation from the colonialism of the British Empire which began in 1608, when the British landed in Surat. Dr. King was convinced that progress in the civil rights movement could be gained if he better understood the methods employed by Gandhi to liberate the Indian people. King saw stark similarities between the Hindu caste system and white supremacy in the US. During his travels Dr. King learned of Gandhi’s guiding principal, Satyagraha.

  Satyagraha translates into “Truth Force” and represents the purest soul force against injustice, cruelty and oppression. Those who practice Satyagraha appeal to the heart of their opponent by responding with strength and innocence. They bear the suffering and violence with regal dignity and love. They possess the knowledge that love conquers all, especially by opening the hearts of their oppressors with a better example, steeped in the truth, that all human beings are equal in the eyes of the divine. What he also uncovered was that Gandhi, the Hindu lawyer who inspired the Baptist Minister from Alabama, was himself inspired by Henry David Thoreau—the 18^th century American Unitarian Naturalist. Great minds sometimes think alike.

Henry David Thoreau, the author of Walden Pond, was an avid naturalist and Harvard alumnus. During his time at the University, he enlivened a liberal Christian sect named Transcendentalism. This 19^th century philosophy sprang from the rational, reason and intellectual viewpoint of Unitarianism, a religious movement especially popular at Harvard University. The Unitarian doctrine affirms the inherent worth and dignity of each person emphasizing equity, justice and compassion in all human interactions. This philosophy must have been quite attractive to Gandhi in combination with Thoreau’s reflection of the transcendental commitment to a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Another version of the “truth force” confirmed. As a matter of fact, the fourth Unitarian principal spells it out plainly:

“We have left open the question of what truth and meaning are, acknowledging that mindful people will, in every age, discover new insights.”

(Rev. Paige Getty, UU Congregation of Columbia, Maryland (read more from Paige in The Seven Principles in Word and Worship, ed. Ellen Brandenburg)
 
 

The doctrine affirms that the truth can change as the wisdom garnered through each age of human development is harnessed for the greatest good. Once the earth was perceived as flat and now it is understood to be round.

Thus far having successfully followed the intellectual thread on the power of truth telling from Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King to his inspiration Mahatma Gandhi to his inspiration, Henry David Thoreau. I clearly saw that although each came to it from a different angle and spiritual practice, their message to Self and others was identical.

There are powerful, unseen forces aligned with truth telling. This fact has also been confirmed by Dr. David Hawkins in his pivotal work examining the use of Power versus Force and the hidden determinants of human behavior.

Truth resonates with a type of presence that supports and generates amazing outcomes. Buckminster Fuller refers to the amplified energies produced as synergy, which brings me back to the best gift of all from my time spent with truth telling. The road which led me from Dr. King to Mahatma Gandhi to Mr. Thoreau then turned to my own father, who walked with Dr. King back in 1963 planting the seeds of my work in the development of kindhearted or non-violent power. I now realize that Dad’s pride in his connection to the work of Dr. King was infused with the best from the rest of the gents and had provided a solid platform for my life’s work with VAST.
 
These Original Thinkers, and their champions, exalted the same set of enlightened ideas, consciousness and lovingkindness while addressing the most pressing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion issues we face today. How did a Baptist Minister, Hindu Lawyer, and Transcendentalist Scientist and my own Dad come to share and see that truth telling is a beloved force of nature, aiding in the growth of the human soul and shared experience?
 
 

They each perceived truth about the shared elements of the human condition as a unifying factor that can transcend our artificial, superficial distinctions. They each knew that truth telling was what brings us together, as a nobler and dignified human species.

As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe so gracefully stated:

“First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth”.
 
 

All else falls short for the dedicated truth-teller.

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