Power of 'just listening'
Authenticity starts with listening, continues with listening and continues with listening. It never ends! Spiritual life itself starts with listening. Human beings miss life when they miss listenin.
J. Krishnamurthy says, 'Listening is God.' Buddha's first teaching is 'Right listening'. In Vedanta, the first principle is 'shravana' – listening! The second principle is 'manana' – internalizing. The third principle is 'nidhidhyasana' – living it and radiating it.
Sit with authenticity, and listen. Listen. Listening is GOD! Just by listening, you experience God! If you are just listening to the sparrow's sound without giving any meaning to it, it is God. Pure listening is God. Only if you learn pure listening, you will be able to get the right meaning of anything. Listen, listen and listen! You will see miraculous transformations happening in your body and mind.
Learn to sit with nature and simply listen – to the river, to the birds, to the wind. Pure listening, without a need to gain information, can deepen your listening immensely.
Integrity is you fulfilling the word and thought you give to yourself and to others and experiencing a state of Poornatva – completion with yourself and with life.
What is Integrity?
Listen!
Integrity is the first sacred principle of life. Integrity is the principle on which the cosmos runs!
The sun rising every morning without missing a day is integrity. Your heart beating continuously without missing a beat is integrity. By nature, God built you with integrity. Your inherent nature is integrity. That is why, whenever you are not in integrity, you feel so uncomfortable and incomplete.
Undertstand: Integrity is neither honesty nor morality. It is beyond both.
We all know honesty. But with the tattva of integrity, I am taking you a step deeper than honesty. With honesty, you only have to honor the words and commitments that you give to others. With integrity, you have to honor even the words and commitments you give to you!
Honesty is not integrity. Integrity is honesty also. Integrity is neither morality nor ethics. It is beyond both.
Integrity is neither honesty nor morality. It includes both, but it is beyond both.
Your words are your Life
Why is it so important to honor your words?
Whether you realize it or not, your life is built on your words and commitments. The words you give to yourself and others is the structure on which your life-building is built! If your life can be compared to a building, the words you give to yourself and others is like the foundation of this building. It has to be free from dust and rust, which means that it has to be free from unconscious patterns.
The unconscious words you give to yourself and others is the dust and rust on your building. A building built upon a rusty, dusty structure cannot last long! It has to be made of pure, authentic, strong steel. In the same way, your life is built on the words and commitments you give to you and to others. It has to be without any unconsciousness or unawareness.
I tell you, the strength of your life is based on the words you give to you and to others. If your words are conscious, your life will be conscious. If your words are unconscious, your life will be unconscious. When you utter unconscious words in your
relationships or in your business, you will be unaware of what consequences life is going to bring to you. When you are unaware of the consequences of your words, life will always bring shocks to you. If life is continuously bringing shocks to you, understand – you are not living in integrity!
Integrity forms the basis for your life. Integrity is part of your very life energy. It is the energy on which you and the whole cosmos run!
At the end of the day, write down all the words and commitments that you have given to yourself that day. No editing; just write everything that comes to your mind. For example: I am going to meet my mother this weekend, I am going to quit smoking in a month, I will get to work on time tomorrow, etc.
Writing brings to your awareness what you think about yourself and your commitments you make to yourself. Do this exercise for eleven days.
You will realize how your words and commitments shape your life.
Integrity is not just in actions
Integrity is also not about your actions alone!
For example, going to work on time every day, or coming on time to morning satsang – all these are good, of course, but integrity is much more and much deeper than that.
Coming on time is not integrity. That is the side-effect of integrity. Your very thinking should be integrity. I tell you - a person who lives in integrity will always be on time – because punctuality is just a side-effect of integrity!
If you are thinking in integrity, you are in the space of unclutching, continuously freeing yourself from the negative mental patterns that you create and suffer with. Integrity has to be practiced continuously. Your very internalization – your manana - has to be with constant integrity.
Today, throughout the day, continuously try to think with integrity. That means, be very aware of the words you say to yourself and others, and the consequences of your words. Remember: in order to be in integrity, you have to fulfill the commitments you give to yourself and others! You have to live it as if your life depends upon fulfilling those words. It does! Be very clear about this. So think ans speak only in a way that allows you to fulfil the words which you give yourself and those around you. Create the space of integrity within you in that way. Constantly create that ambience, that atmosphere of integrity inside you.
In the previous activity, you had made note of all the commitments you give to yourself. Now, bring awareness to the commitments you HAVE NOT fulfilled. See how you could have kept each commitment, instead of dropping it.
Why non-integrity hurts you
Listen: when you give a commitment to yourself or to others, it becomes the bone-structure of your very life itself. If you continuously break the bones of your life, can you imagine how your life will be? Full of pain, distorted, and perverted!
The words that you give to you are the bone-structure of your inner personality. The words you give to others are the bone-structure of your success in the outer world. If you are constantly breaking the bones of your life, naturally life will be painful!
You function based on the words and commitments you utter to yourself and to others. Am I right? Everything in your life starts with these two things. So the words you give to you and to others is life, literally Life! They are the basis of your actions, inaction and reactions. In order to be successful in your relationship with yourself and with life, you must keep your word. It is your very life!
If, for some reason, you are really sure you can't fulfill your commitment, at least do bone-transplantation! Don't fracture the bone. Do bone transplantation, which means completing the word by declaring that you will not be able to fulfill it. When you do this with yourself and others, it is called completing with that original commitment. By completing, you free yourself and the person to whom you committed, so that they are released to find another way to fulfil the commitment you made to them.
For example, suppose you give your word to someone that you will give them one million dollars within a certain period. Now you must do everything to fulfill it - as if your life depends on it! You have to fulfill that word. If, for some reason, you are very sure that even with all your sincere efforts, you will not able to fulfill that commitment, then at least complete with the person. Let them know that you will not be able to fulfill it: 'I am taking that word back. Please look to some other source for the money.' This is also integrity - your taking the responsibility to communicate about the commitment you gave.
But this second choice should be used only as a last resort, as a 'bone surgery', not as a way of life. Will you do bone surgery on yourself everyday? No! Only rarely would you even consider doing bone surgery. Bone surgery cannot be done every day. In the same way, completing a commitment you gave by taking back the word also cannot be done every day!
Whether with yourself or others, the habit of not keeping your word creates one more negative pattern in you that will erode your confidence in yourself and your reputation in the hearts of others. Only rarely is the bone surgery of completing with the person and not fulfilling allowed.
Fulfill your word, or complete if you can't fulfill your word. These are the only two choices available to you when you want to live in the space of integrity. There is no room to leave anything without fulfilling or completing.
Today, fulfill the words or commitments that you give to others - as if your life depends on it! Don't make excuses for yourself. Just decide to do whatever it takes. You will take a leap to a whole new level of living.