Jack Kornfield: Without Integrity and Conscience We Lose Our Freedom

Conscience recognizes the truth; it knows when we are acting with integrity and when we are not. Conscience is an aspect of the One Who Knows, our deepest innate  knowing. Conscience understands that we are all in this together, and that when we harm another, we harm ourselves.

Without integrity and conscience we lose our freedom. As social commentator Michael Ventura writes, "The people you have to lie to, own you. The things you have to lie about, own you. When your children see you owned, then they are not your children anymore, they are the children of what owns you. If money owns you, they are the children of money.  If your need for pretense and illusion owns you, they are the children of pretense and illusion. If your fear of loneliness owns you, they are the children of the fear of loneliness. If your fear of the truth owns you, they are the children of the fear of truth."

In caring for ourselves and others, integrity is essential. 
 

- Jack Kornfield, from "The Wise Heart"

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He said, "How do you benefit from this life?"
I said, "By keeping true to myself." 

 
~Rumi

from Rumi Quotes