Often one's personal integrity is seen with high regards. Sure, it's of great value, but to know integrity, let's look first at what it's not.
The moment we see something with high regards, we associate something to be of lower regards in comparison to this. That is how the benchmark of high and low is established. The moment something is measured, there is a moral quotient to it. But integrity is not a moral act or a behavioural standard or a character etiquette.
We say something, we make a commitment, and then we put all efforts to live by that commitment. Sometimes due to circumstantial situations - things beyond our control, we fall out of commitment. Many great people who are known for their integrity have also fallen out of commitment. Therefore, integrity is also not about a committment.
We come with some great cause and noble intent. We want to bring a positive change. But, being in integrity is neither is about being aligned to that intent.
Integrity simply means being whole and complete. The absolute meaning of the word 'integrity' is something that is undivided, unbroken completeness, totality with nothing more required. This meaning often is used in the context of physics or mathematics by the scientific community. But the meaning of the work in the context of life too isn't much different from this.
From the paradigm of integrity, while the world's functioning remains the same, the world operates and occurs very different. Suddenly there is a sense of being whole and complete. Once we achieve that sense, the living experience alters. The values that we possess have not morality to them anymore; they simply are as we see them.
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