Episode Transcript
Are you a person who has been working hard their whole life and trying very hard to make things happen? Maybe the idea of integrity is a very important part of your life that I say I am gonna do something and I do it. And I feel pride in that, and I feel good about that. But what about the idea of purity? How does purity fit in to life in a practical way? That's what we're gonna be talking about today on the Spiritual American. We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare, and this is the Spiritual American. Welcome back everyone. Today is gonna be an interesting discussion on integrity versus purity. And if you grew up like me in as an American or in the Western kind of culture, the idea of purity is not really talked about much. Maybe talked about in terms of pure water or pure food or so and so, but not in terms of pure feelings or pure personality or pure lifestyle, let's say. Where purity may be part of a religious idea or spiritual idea, but not so much integrated into our everyday life, but integrity. Wow, that's a big one. Integrity. Do what you say you're gonna do. I had a really good definition of integrity. I was in a leadership program and they gave us a I thought it was a very good definition. I lived by this for my whole life, and this is what it was since I took the program. Do what you say you're going to do. When you say you're going to do it, that's integrity. And if for some reason you cannot do it, communicate that as soon as possible. So that I lived in that way with that definition in my mind for many, many years. Then when I came into spiritual knowledge, I'm going to add another aspect to that definition. So do what you say you're gonna do when you say you're gonna do it, and if you can't do it for whatever reason, communicate it at the right time, because have you ever wanted to tell somebody something and you find yourself kind of forcing the issue or bringing it up maybe when it's not a natural moment? At least for me, I didn't know what patience was or I don't know. Many of you probably listening can maybe, I hope, sense the kind of upbringing I had and the kind of as a, I don't know, I can use so many labels. A Gen Xer, I grew up in the seventies and eighties and the Northeast and the United States. This is kind of the way patience was not on the agenda. It was about get it done, deal with it. Make something happen. That's not a bad thing, actually. Those are good skills to have that determination and independence is very good to have. So integrity is about basically being able to do things, get things done, and there is a return for that. You maybe will get respect, maybe. Hopefully, if you do what you say you're gonna do, then people can trust you. There's a, there's a kind of an intellectual common sense way of relating to people who do what they say they're gonna do. At least they're reliable, right? So you can rely on somebody, you feel comfortable with them, you feel comfortable making deals with them and so forth. That integrity is a good way to live. Integrity with money, integrity with responsibilities and so forth. But what about purity? What is purity? So, like I said, in the West, the way I grew up, we didn't really think of pure purity much at all in terms of our life. So I'm gonna say that purity means in the, in a subtle sense, in a personality sense, that I am in touch with my natural feelings. That's kind of a tall order actually. We have, in the last episode I was talking about how we have so many social norms that dictate what we're supposed to do in this situation and what we're supposed to do in that situation, and we've been trained to act a certain way regardless of how you feel, and this is why part of my feelings about what's important that I'm sharing is that we all get in touch with our actual feelings, even if they're painful at first, because at least that's authentic. I am actually being responsible for how I feel and not just going with the social norms. Not that you shouldn't, but the feelings are not being addressed. So purity means that I'm in touch with my feelings and that my feelings are now natural, like let's say according to the qualities of the soul. So what are the qualities of the soul? Peace, love, generosity, happiness wisdom and so forth. So just imagine this for a minute. I know maybe it might be difficult, but just imagine yourself in an ordinary situation. Maybe you're talking to a family member or you're at work, and imagine yourself, you're in your body, you're standing in a situation, a room with someone, and you're having a conversation. And in that conversation internally, all you feel is peace, love, happiness, generosity. I'm sure we've had situations where we've, we've had a taste of that. Maybe you feel very content one day, maybe some, something happens and you feel very happy, and in that moment you feel kind of on top of yourself. You feel good, and so you're talking to somebody and you have a smile and you feel cheerful and generous. I would say that would be purity. Where we are reflecting the original nature of the soul. That we all have the same original qualities. Purity is one of those qualities, but what is the definition of purity? Actually, I'm just thinking purity means you are the essence of the thing and nothing else. So in personality wise, purity would mean that I am the essence of my personality as a soul and nothing else. So what is the else? Well, we know what that is, right? Anger, upset, fear, whatever, all the other stuff that we experience and worry, regret, anxiety, depression, all these things that are going on in our mind and in our bodies. But you could call those impurities, and I've talked about that in another episode too, about how you could say that those are the impurities in me. But the pure self is peaceful. The pure self is generous. So integrity versus purity, integrity. I could be doing everything I say I'm gonna do, and this is again, and I've said this before, this is the reason for this podcast. If you are the type of person that is doing the right thing, living your life, playing by the rules, and somehow you're not happy. There's no reason to not be happy. There's no reason to not be peaceful, but still, we don't feel peace. We don't feel happy. There's something going on inside. We're not in touch with it, and so we're also not in touch with our original pure feelings as well. So I guess in essence, what I'm trying to share is that there's a difference between the doing consciousness of integrity, and the being consciousness of purity. Now you hear this would be a do be a being, human being, not a human doing. I'm taking that to maybe another level here. We're discussing that at a deeper level. What does that actually mean to be a human being? Human being means that you're in touch with the original qualities. Does this happen overnight? I meditate for a month, am I gonna automatically be able to feel this way all the time? No. But I will say that little by little, the old way begins to loosen our attachment and our grip on the old ways begin to loosen. So I also talked in another episode about how, sometimes we have trouble feeling happy for others because we're a little jealous. We're attached to our ways of thinking, and when other people are different or have different things, we get uncomfortable, we feel judgmental, we criticize because we're so attached to these different aspects of our doing life. That integrity life. That's not to say we shouldn't be in integrity, by the way, as a matter of fact, if we're not in integrity, that causes another whole level of sorrow, isn't it? Anybody ever been in debt before? Financial debt? That's another whole level of sorrow. So integrity is important, but I'm saying that in that we also can get attached. We need to be in integrity and not be attached. We need to be able to do whatever we need to be able to do in life, but also be in touch with my being side, my peaceful side, my generous side, naturally loving, naturally happy. So let's take a moment and practice this. We'll do a little meditation on this, a little reflection. Sitting quietly, just reflect for a moment, if I was to give myself a percentage of how much I am into the doing aspect of life, what percentage of myself and my energy would I give myself on the doing side of things? And then what percentage am I giving myself toward the being side, the feeling side, the true feeling, the true good wishes, and the true essence of me. Give yourself a moment to give yourself that information. Okay, and now return from the reflection. So we just took a look to see what percentage, and I had a class last evening and I was saying that we're, how much of us is, is thinking about the body and the circumstances and the world and what we have to do and our responsibilities and whatever. How much of our energy is our attention is being spent there. And they were laughing 'cause they know they're like 99.999. I mean, really? So 99.999% of my energy is going over here. And then I say, okay, well now just be quiet. Go sit in meditation and be a being of peace. How is that gonna work? So with this talk, I'm trying to distinguish. So we're looking at this and we're distinguishing out the active aspects of being, of, of our life, the active aspects of our life, which includes integrity, and then the being aspect of our life, which includes in spirituality, the understanding of who I actually am. And my natural qualities and wanting to develop them or not develop, but, but release them, let them shine through me. The other stuff is saying this from experience, right? I am saying this definitely from experience. Sit down and meditate. Nothing's wrong, and the mind's be beep, beep be, be beep, beep, beep, beep. What's going on? Active. Active. Active, active, active. Gotta get this done. Got that responsibility. Gotta do this. Gotta integrity. Integrity. Gotta do, gotta do, gotta do, gotta do. But where are my feelings? Where's my peace? Where's my happiness? Where's my benevolence? Where's my good feelings about myself? Where's my natural feelings about just being alive? Where did that go? So I'm gonna leave it there. I'm gonna leave you with those questions, leave you with that little bit of a percentage, take a look and see what you think, and to understand that meditation, Raja Yoga yoga meditation in particular, is helpful in trying to start balancing that out. If I'm so overloaded on the doing side, it could cause all kinds of mental reactions, isn't it? Like I mentioned before. Sorrow, fear, anxiety, depression. If I'm constantly over here and I don't know who I am over here, so I'll leave it there. Please take a look at the description. You'll see videos for meditation practice. There's online free class, and also the Brahma Kumaris website to see if there's a center near you where you can go in person and see what's going on and get more of this vibration, this conversation, and a connection so you can continue your journey if you're interested. So I will leave it there. Remember, our slogan is Heal, Empower, and Serve. And until next time, take care.
