Integrity means steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code under all circumstances. I cultivate integrity by doing the right thing even if no one is watching. The opposite is corruptibility.§
Comparing the actions of one who has integrity to one who is corruptible§ |
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Situation§ |
Integrity§ |
Corruptibility§ |
If you are supposed to be home by 10pm but your parents are away, you…§ |
come home on time because it is the rule and you value your parents’ trust.§ |
listen to your best friend’s appeals and stay out until midnight.§ |
When friends make plans to shoplift a few trinkets at the mall, you…§ |
urge them to reconsider and decline to join their errant outing.§ |
join your friends in the stealing, hoping no one will get caught.§ |
Offered money to share your answers to an important test, you…§ |
are not tempted by the offer and refuse to cheat.§ |
accept the offer and engage in the dishonest scheme.§ |
Gurudeva explained: “I have faith in human integrity, in that unfailing ‘still small voice of the soul’ which each who listens for can hear. We are essentially pure souls temporarily living in a physical body.”§
“When we are unjust and mean, hateful and holding resentments year after year and no one but ourselves knows of our intrigue and corruption, we suffer. As the soul evolves, it eventually feels the great burden of faults and misdeeds and wishes to atone.”§
ASSIGNMENT: During the next two weeks, meditate two times on specific instances during the past year when you have not acted with rectitude, seeking to pinpoint the seed thought that allowed you to compromise your values.§
Date you began this assignment ____________________§
MY THOUGHTS ON THE BENEFITS OF INTEGRITY: §