It is very difficult to verbalise truth, be it relative or ultimate truth. Our mind is so conditioned into analysing the fragmentation of the different paths. For our mind, it is very difficult to comprehend the indivisible, what is beyond words and thoughts. Words and thoughts are always alternatives. So regarding the question whether the ultimate truth is one or many, I can say: The one one-or-many-question can only be applicable if there is an alternative, when there are several paths. The wholeness cannot be termed as one or two or many. “One, two, many” always come into our thought in the realm of paths and fragmentation. So the pervasive whole, how can we term it “one” ? One is the alternative of many. If I say that the ultimate truth is one, that means there are other things compared to which this can be termed as one. If there is no two, you can’t say, this is one or two or three. One, two, three always comes into the comparative world. Beyond the realm of word and thought, the question of “one or two “is not answerable. We may say: these questions do not apply to the ultimate truth. What His Holiness was talking about is “pluralism in truth.” That means, he is directly referring to the relative truths. Only in the relative truth, in the conventional truth, can we talk about “one or many” and “singular or plural.” I infer that when he talks about several forms of truth, he necessarily refers to conventional truth. I don’t think he is referring to the anekantavada of Jainism. In any case, anekantavada does not claim that the truth can be in a plural form; they rather mean that truth can be seen from many [aneka] angles, and this leads to many different interpretations which one can verbalise. But on the experiential level, even the Jains do not accept that truth is plural. There are so many ways of looking at it. Seen from one angle, the object appears different than from another angle. Similarly the ultimate truth you are approaching from different angles or directions may appear differently. This is meant by anekantavada.

-- 5th Samdhong Rinpoche, Lobsang Tenzin