I can’t stop saying it enough.
To me, the highest spiritual practice is integrity.
Because it is easy to talk about spiritual concepts.
It is easy to receive insights and downloads.
It is easy to bliss out in meditation or ceremony.
But it requires true courage and devotion to embody it all.
When I say integrity or embodiment, I mean a relentless commitment to live out truth and love.
To the best of our current ability and moment to moment understanding of what those are.
A commitment to not shy away from our own shadow, and to be willing to look at every single way in which we are not 100% clear and honest.
With ourselves, with others, with God.
A commitment without compromise.
A commitment that will be far reaching in our life’s choices and relationships.
A commitment that will stand out boldly in a world that has lost much of its integrity.
It means to drop all games and to tell the truth at all times, without hidden facts, without alterations, exaggerations, when it is scary and it would be easier to keep quiet, even though we might lose something by doing so.
It means to get out of our own way to do what we know is right, and to leave what isn’t, even when it takes extra effort.
It means to step up with leadership in relationships in which the integrity is being lost, to restore it and bring it back.
It means to have a loving but firm zero-tolerance policy towards a lack of integrity in our self. Our inner circles. And the world at large.
It means to stay humble and never think that we’ve made it in our spiritual journey, so we always stay alert and check in with ourselves and with what our intentions are, moment to moment, in everything we say and do.
It means to get out of our way when we know we can do something to help. To pick glass up from the street to prevent another from stepping on it.
It all might sound like a demanding task.
But what is actually demanding is to live in lies, no matter how subtle.
And what is actually life-giving more than anything else, is to live in truth, no matter how uncompromising.