When you think about the people you know who have integrity,
do you count yourself among them? What does it mean to be a person of
integrity? Well, first and foremost, integrity is about truth. And truth is the
greatest force we have for personal and planetary well-being.
No bomb, no hatred, and no prejudice can match the strength
of truth. In troubled and uncertain times, truth is our most powerful friend.
When we stand for truth, we are confident, whole and energised.
Throughout history, every great philosopher and leader has
tried to teach us the same lesson - the principle that integrity, or wholeness,
is the natural order of things. In spite of the fact that we live in separate
bodies, houses, and nations, our essential nature is one of unity.
Any separation we think we see is an illusion that we have
mistakenly learned to believe in. As long as we feel separate and isolated, we
will behave in ways that result in damage to others and ourselves. Most
religious and scientific scholars agree that our entire universe is one huge
system - integrated and whole.
To behave accordingly, then, is to have integrity - to stand
up for the truth of our inter-connectedness and our need to care for each other
if we are to survive. You see, when we have integrity, we align ourselves with
the force of the entire universe. And when we live with integrity, we become
very powerful indeed.
