INTEGRITY INTEGRITY INTEGRITY

INTEGRITY INTEGRITY INTEGRITY

Antony De Mello began his bestselling book Awareness with the words Awareness, awareness. awareness. With good reason. Most of us are not aware of ourselves, others, our motivations, or the potential consequences of our actions. This is causing us all a lot of problems, for example, on a purely practical level, the economic state of this country and the world as a whole, is based on that very condition – lack of awareness coupled with lack of integrity. Certain individuals in positions of power saw opportunities to increase their wealth and, irresponsible of the consequences, pursued those opportunities, thereby sacrificing the livelihoods of others. These powerful people were assisted in the pursuit of their business interests by governments whose sole concern was self preservation, and by a culture which has become innured to corruption and material self interest.

While there are individuals within government; within corporations and institutions who uphold a high moral code, it became practically impossible for those people to effect change to a system they saw spiralling towards wrecking havoc on the lives of the masses. The web of collusion in croneyism and hubris amongst their colleagues, and the media, effectly silenced their protests and most of them either shut up, resigned their positions or continued pressing warnings against deaf ears. The fat farce rolled on until it smashed up against a wall of it’s own making. Some simply sidled away unscathed by the ensuing fracas, others, remaining in power hide behind a new wall of spin, and most of us will spend the rest of our working lives paying for the latest measures hastily put in place to safeguard the interests of the economic elite.

HONOUR IS A GIFT YOU GIVE YOURSELF

“Honour is a gift you give yourself.” I remember reading this a number of years ago. I don’t remember where, but it struck me as being so true. Sometime later, I heard Ricky Gervais repeat it in an interview, and thought, there goes someone I’d like to meet. Integrity is something we need to foster in ourselves, and, no matter what happens around us, it is up to us to keep checking with ourselves whether our thoughts and actions match what we know to be the best option for us to take. If we can’t look in the mirror and like the person we see, we become diminished in our own eyes and, ultimately, will have no one else to blame. No one can take away our honour but ourselves.

There was an article in The Irish Times recently in which a priest spoke of the culture of The Victim. He maintained that people in the church didn’t speak out about the abuse they witnessed because they were indoctrinated to believe they were powerless to do anything about it – they had become victims. It wasn’t their place to do anything, they didn’t feel they could. This is so sad.

This same attitude applies now as it did then, and not just to the clergy, but to the community as a whole. We all wait for someone else to do something, it’s the classic “Somebody get help!”

Not everyone is a political leader, a mobiliser of change on a grand scale. But we are all capable and indeed supported, to live our best lives for ourselves. By that, I mean to pursue a level of Self interest which supports what will nurture and nourish us on a soul level. When we each commit to honouring our true Self, we make it impossible to dishonour another. This is a challenge we each meet everyday and in almost everyway. The question always is:

DO I LOVE MYSELF ENOUGH?

When I love myself enough I will safeguard that self esteem and won’t risk diminishing it by actions which will damage it. All of us, responding to our souls calling to Love can create an environment of change which will benefit all. In this, if we but realise it, we are totally supported by our souls essence which holds us in infinite love and compassion. Everything which occurs in the external world, the everyday life in which we engage, exists to provide us with opportunities for growth.

Those opportunities often appear as challenges in the form of other people who ‘get up our nose’ or threats to our financial or physical wellbeing. In order to respond to these challenges from a place of awareness and integrity, rather than from a defensive kneejerk standpoint, we need to be in touch with our True Nature or souls essence. There are many ways of doing this. Spending time quietly with ourselves, or walking in nature will help us to gain a fresh perspective on matters. Writing out a list of our deepest values helps to clarify what is truly important to us. Practising Yoga, , Chi Kung and Tai Chi is an excellent way of replenshing our energy and maintaining health on all levels from the physical to the spiritual. Meditation helps us to connect deeply with our Soul Self, that essential root from which we project our energy enabling us to learn over lifetimes in the slower vibration of the material dimension. This is where we will find the support needed to face life challenges from an honourable and authentic perspective. It is from the place of our Soul Self that we realise we have the strength to form our own opinions and follow through on them. It is through strengthening the realisation that we (each and every one of us, without exception) are pure at our core that we are enabled to walk an enlightened, more responsible path in the everyday.

I collected this image a while back and can't remember from where so haven't credited the author - if it is yours please email me your web address, I'll check it out and credit you for your great artwork.