Reflections on Buddhist Contributions to Social Justice [Main Post with PDF]
Becoming Social Architects: Together, I + U HALT Injustice [3 of 10]
Cultivating Understanding [5 of 10]
Becoming Social Architects: Together, I + U HALT Injustice [3 of 10]
Cultivating Understanding [5 of 10]
1. Cultivating Integrity
Cultivating the capacity for integrity means that we want to live in congruity[1] and embrace our wholeness.[2]
Congruity means to live in harmony such that one’s thoughts, speech, and actions align. This does not mean that one holds rigidly to any particular ideology at any cost, for example, when a person who opposes war on the grounds of pacifism protests using hate-filled language and acting with violence, s/he may be holding firmly to the ideology for ‘no war’, but the actions no longer align with the stated beliefs. Thus, to aspire to live in congruity, one brings a determination to live in harmony with the truth of oneself, not holding to fixed views, rather open to what is happening in the present moment. Congruity demands of us that if we want to condemn another’s conduct that we have the capacity to be honest about our conduct. This leads to the second aspect of integrity - the complement to congruity, which is a thirst to live in wholeness.
Cultivating the capacity to live in wholeness invites us to tell the whole story of who we are –who we say we are, who we are that we don’t admit, and who we are that we don’t see[3] - the dark side of the light chaser[4], or ‘shadow’ work[5]. To cultivate the capacity to live in wholeness means that we practice deepening our awareness of who we are in all aspects of our life and that we cultivate the capacity to see the things that we may fear and resist seeing in ourselves; wholeness demands ruthless honesty and transparency. If we espouse that we ‘stand’ for a particular idea, we have the capacity to honestly reflect on our consistency to live with that idea.
Congruity and wholeness are mutually informing, complementary feedback loops, as we become more aware of our wholeness, we put more effort into strengthening our congruity and as we focus on living in congruity and attend diligently to our thoughts, speech, and actions, we deepen our view of ourselves – expanding our wholeness.
[1] With gratitude for the congruity concept to the inspiring, passionate, creative September Williams, MD. bioethicist, physician, filmmaker of “When We Are Asked:”
[2] See. Kate Ettinger, Reclaiming Wholeness: Passive Participation in Conflict under section War, Reconciliation, Healing.
[3] Imago Theory; including Getting the Love You Want, Harville Hendrix
[4] The Dark Side of the Light Chaser, Debbie Ford.
[5] The Four Fold Way, Angeles Arrien.
Cultivating the capacity for integrity means that we want to live in congruity[1] and embrace our wholeness.[2]
Congruity means to live in harmony such that one’s thoughts, speech, and actions align. This does not mean that one holds rigidly to any particular ideology at any cost, for example, when a person who opposes war on the grounds of pacifism protests using hate-filled language and acting with violence, s/he may be holding firmly to the ideology for ‘no war’, but the actions no longer align with the stated beliefs. Thus, to aspire to live in congruity, one brings a determination to live in harmony with the truth of oneself, not holding to fixed views, rather open to what is happening in the present moment. Congruity demands of us that if we want to condemn another’s conduct that we have the capacity to be honest about our conduct. This leads to the second aspect of integrity - the complement to congruity, which is a thirst to live in wholeness.
Cultivating the capacity to live in wholeness invites us to tell the whole story of who we are –who we say we are, who we are that we don’t admit, and who we are that we don’t see[3] - the dark side of the light chaser[4], or ‘shadow’ work[5]. To cultivate the capacity to live in wholeness means that we practice deepening our awareness of who we are in all aspects of our life and that we cultivate the capacity to see the things that we may fear and resist seeing in ourselves; wholeness demands ruthless honesty and transparency. If we espouse that we ‘stand’ for a particular idea, we have the capacity to honestly reflect on our consistency to live with that idea.
Congruity and wholeness are mutually informing, complementary feedback loops, as we become more aware of our wholeness, we put more effort into strengthening our congruity and as we focus on living in congruity and attend diligently to our thoughts, speech, and actions, we deepen our view of ourselves – expanding our wholeness.
[1] With gratitude for the congruity concept to the inspiring, passionate, creative September Williams, MD. bioethicist, physician, filmmaker of “When We Are Asked:”
[2] See. Kate Ettinger, Reclaiming Wholeness: Passive Participation in Conflict under section War, Reconciliation, Healing.
[3] Imago Theory; including Getting the Love You Want, Harville Hendrix
[4] The Dark Side of the Light Chaser, Debbie Ford.
[5] The Four Fold Way, Angeles Arrien.
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