God, Jesus is The Truth. To be far from Him means to be far from The Truth. That means being in falsehood.
John 15:4-5
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Hidding the truth
An untroubled mind,No longer seeking to considerWhat is right and what is wrong,A mind beyond judgements,Watches and understands.
—The Dhammapada
The Abhaya Sutra categorizes what a buddha does not say:
Words known to be unfactual, un-true, unbeneficial, unendearing, and disagreeable to others.Words known to be factual and true, yet unbeneficial, unendearing, and disagreeable to others.Words known to be factual, true, and beneficial, yet unendearing and disagreeable to others, because it is not yet the proper time to say them.Words known to be unfactual, untrue, and unbeneficial, yet endearing and agreeable to others.Words known to be factual and true but unbeneficial, yet endearing and agreeable to others.
Self deception
Sometimes people think that their commitment to always speak true words forced them to change the way they occasionally deceive. It would be impossible to deceive thoughtlessly and instinctually. They
need to be aware they are deceiving the other person. They would have to put some real thought into it.
The practice of deceiving with true words is like swimming while anchored to the shore. They needed to maintain a relationship with the truth, to maintain a respect for it, even while deceiving. Putting this self-conscious effort into deception while keeping one hand on the truth they think it would protect them from fatal threats to Buddhist practice: self-deception, casual deception of others, and lack of awareness and shame about the deception they practice.
The Theravada Version
In the Pali canon in the Sutta of Shorter (Instructions) to Malunkya (Pali: Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta, within the The Collection of Middle-Length Discourses (Pali: Majjhima Nikaya).
Majjhima Nikaya 63 and 72 in the Pali Canon contain a list of ten unanswered questions about certain views (ditthi):
The universe is eternal
The universe is not eternal
The universe is finite
The universe is infinite
After death, a Buddha continues to exist
After death, a Buddha does not continue to exist
After death, a Buddha both continues to exist and not to exist
After death, a Buddha neither continues to exist or not to exist
The body and the “self” are the same entity
The body and the “self” are totally separate and different entities.
Reality
the term ariya-sacca refers to the Buddha’s “Four Noble Truths,” elucidated in his first discourse as follows (where sacca is translated as “reality”.
middle discourses 58
With Prince Abhaya
“In the same way, prince, the Realized One does not utter speech that he knows to be untrue, false, and harmful, and which is disliked by others. The Realized One does not utter speech that he knows to be true and substantive, but which is harmful and disliked by others. The Realized One knows the right time to speak so as to explain what he knows to be true, substantive, and beneficial, but which is disliked by others. The Realized One does not utter speech that he knows to be untrue, false, and harmful, but which is liked by others. The Realized One does not utter speech that he knows to be true and substantive, but which is harmful, even if it is liked by others. The Realized One knows the right time to speak so as to explain what he knows to be true, substantive, and beneficial, and which is liked by others. Why is that? Because the Realized One has compassion for sentient beings.”
To lie- to say or write something that is not true in order to deceive someone especially for personal gain. Using this definition which focuses on saying an untrue statement for one’s personal gain as to swindle, defraud, cheat, etc. , No, the Buddha did not lie