The ABCs: I is for (Radical) Integrity
Wholeness equals Holiness
In many spiritual traditions, there is a practice in which a selected scriptural passage becomes the theme for the week. At Radical Spirituality, we do the same thing, but in a radical way.
Each Sunday, I offer The ABC’s of Radical Spirituality, a single, simple word distilled from the common principles of all the world’s faith and wisdom teachings that serves as the exploration for the week. They are the roots of Radical Spirituality. And because I am that person, the words are in alphabetical order.
It’s a simple practice to get to the roots of what matters on our spiritual path. The best part is that you will get out of it what you put into it. If you just keep the word on a sticky-note on your computer, it will still work it’s magic. But to dig deeper, delve in, dive in, and see what you find.
I is for (Radical) Integrity
To drop into being means to recognize your interconnectedness with all life, and with being itself. Your very nature is being part of larger and larger spheres of wholeness. - Jon Kabat-Zinn
Most of us would define Integrity as honesty, sincerity, ethical behavior and apparent authenticity, or speaking the truth, dealing honestly, not harming others, and walking your talk. These things are critical parts of our spiritual cultivation, but they aren’t the whole of Integrity.
Integrity comes from the Latin root, integer, which means “entire” or “whole.” When we view it this way, to be in Integrity means to have all the parts of ourselves integrated. If we are lying, cheating, behaving unethically or otherwise being dishonest or insincere, there is some part of us that isn’t integrated or whole.
Integrity is also related to the wholeness of whatever we call sacred. Every tradition talks about the inherent unity of the Divine. God is One, there is only one Consciousness integral to everything, or there is nothing that is not God. That means us, too. Therefore, Integrity really means to be integrated within ourselves and with the Divine, or to recognize our integration with the Whole of everything.
Honesty, sincerity, moral rightness, and authenticity arise when we are true and integrated with ourselves and know ourselves as integrated with the Whole. We are only able to lie, cheat, steal or behave unethically if we believe ourselves separate from others.
So, Radical Integrity means Wholeness, and Wholeness equals Holiness. At its deepest level, then, Integrity is when we know our W(Holiness), and behave from that place.
This week, we turn our attention to Integrity: Where are we out of alignment with ourselves and with the Divine Whole?
Deeper Roots
All traditions have teachings about Integrity, whether they come in the form of commandments or precepts about not lying or cheating, or through stories and parables about honesty and sincerity.
But if we look at the deeper roots of those teachings, we see they are talking about Integrity as cultivating or aligning with our True Self, our Divine Nature, or the Wholeness that is Holiness. And it’s an inside job. We can’t dictate Integrity from the outside; it comes from Self-knowledge.
All traditions teach that we have two selves: Our false self and our real self. Sometimes, they are referred to as our egoic self and our True Self, or our “self” with a small “s” and our “Self” with a capital “S.” The True, real, capital “S” Self is our deepest nature, the one we ultimately come to know as indivisible from God, Buddha-mind, Ultimate Reality, or the Dao. That’s the sacred source of our Integrity: our ultimate Wholeness. That’s Self-Knowledge.
But most of us spend our time in the small “s,” egoic, false, un-integrated self, or “I”-dentities, that we have to promote, protect or defend, so we sometimes lie, cheat, steal, or behave unethically or inauthentically to do so. Less visibly, we all put on masks, wanting to appear at times as other than who we are, and thus behave in ways that aren’t in integrity with our own truth and are forms of lying to ourselves and others. Some of us have deep traumas and parts of ourselves we have denied, repressed or rejected that prevent us from being fully integrated, and which unconsciously may make us behave in less than truthful or authentic ways.
Our small selves keep us cut off from our True Selves, or our integration with the Whole. When we are in our small selves, we see and believe ourselves to be separate from others and the world around us. That’s why we can behave without Integrity; it’s not us we are hurting if we lie, cheat, steal, etc. But, if we know our True Selves, we no longer see ourselves as separate, and are much less likely to do those things that are out of Integrity and harm others or ourselves.
In Hebrew, the word tikkun means to repair. Tikkun Olam, a term that comes from the Jewish mystical Kabbalah, means to repair the world by raising the shattered sparks of Divinity in everything to their root of Wholeness. In Buddhism, we seek to merge our fractured mind with the undifferentiated, formless, Buddha-Mind. In Daoism, returning to the Dao is restoring ourselves to Wholeness, integral to all that is. In Christianity and Islam, we seek to join or become one with the mind/will of Allah/God. When we ask, “What would Jesus do?” we are trying to align ourselves with his Divine Nature, our Divine Nature, and behave as he would.
In other words, Wholeness and Holiness are synonymous and give rise to Integrity. God/The Dao/Source/The One doesn’t lie, cheat or steal. It doesn’t say one thing and do another. It doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t. It can’t. It’s Whole. Neither will we, if we are in our True Selves.
Reflection Questions
What does Integrity mean to me?
Where am I in Integrity? Where am I out of Integrity?
What prevents me from being in Integrity?
How can I be in greater Integrity?
Suggested Practice
In the 1997 film, “Liar, Liar,” comedian Jim Carrey plays a pathological liar/lawyer character whose life is crumbling because of his dishonesty. By some twist, he is forced to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It’s a funny film because it shows how hard it is to do, but also how necessary. Through radical honesty, he pulls the broken pieces of himself and his life back together.
For this week, explore what would happen if, like the movie, you were completely, radically honest with yourself and others.
We need to see and agree that what we seek already lives within us, and we within it. Now we know our one great task: watch for whatever promises us freedom, and then quietly, consciously refuse to see ourselves through the eyes of what we know is incomplete. Then we live wholeness itself, instead of spending our lives looking for it. — Guy Finley
Wholeheartedly agree!
🙏🏽🙏🏽yes Lauryn!🌹