The coin of the realm

If I were asked to name the one attribute that counted more than any other on the journey to awakening, I’d unhesitatingly answer, “Integrity.”

I define integrity as the quality of being consistent in mind, word and action. When a person is acting in integrity, they live by a set of principles. When speaking, those principles are reflected in their words. When acting, those principles are reflected in how they behave. The words and actions mirror each other, because they both reflect those principles. For all you D&D fans, this is the Lawful alignments. (There are philosophical tomes written about integrity, so I want to narrow the scope here.)

When a person is consistent in their words and actions, they can be counted upon to act in accordance to their words. This is invaluable when forming relationships. When any kind of relationship is made – a friendship, business partnership, a love affair, a family – integrity allows each party to know that the other will follow through with what they say they will do.

If you believe in reincarnation, integrity becomes even more important. You can’t take it with you, after all. The riches we amass, the buildings we create, they stay on Earth. There’s no guarantee that next time we’ll be able to enjoy what we created. For all we know, we may end up being the janitor in the multimillion-dollar corporate headquarters we created as CEO last time.

The only way we can perpetuate what we create is if we have the support of multiple people working together across multiple generations. And the only way to create that kind of network is by having a reputation for following through. That takes integrity. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but when time is infinite or meaningless (depending on your perspective), nobody is fooled after enough times.

Without integrity, a soul finds itself surrounded by other souls who also do not follow through. And nothing gets done. With integrity, a soul can make dreams real.

Integrity is the coin of the realm.

But what if you’re used to living in a culture that doesn’t value integrity? That’s next week’s topic.