Integrity is foundational. We live to be who we are and to do what is ours to do. We live to be true to ourselves in all we do. We live to discover who we are. To know what we are called to do and do it. What is “us”? What is “not us”? We live our way to knowing these two things. No one can tell us who we are and who we are not. We experience integrity. We do not think it up, make it up. We get there by knowing what we know and living accordingly.
Joseph Campbell said, “We know when we are on the beam and when we are off it.” Carl Jung said, ““Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.” And, “Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide.” Only we know what is meaningful, right, good, true to us. To know that and to do it is to be who we are. We live to know what we know and to do what is ours to do. We are our own guide through life. Living the life someone else would have us live is to betray ourselves and our sense of what is right for us.
When we fall off the beam, step away from the path, we only need to drop into the right kind of emptiness, stillness and silence and “wait for the mud to settle and the water to clear” (Old Taoist advice for finding the center and getting back onto the Way) to know what’s what, what’s happening, what is called for here, now, and do what needs to be done about it when, where and how it needs to be done. And do it. Integrity is the way, the truth and the life. The way of the Tao. And the way in which “The Father and I are one.” May it be so for all of us, here, now and always.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 