INTEGRITY and WISDOM

Integrity is easy to define: wholeness, unity, authenticity, honesty, acting in accordance with our beliefs. But living in integrity can be a long-term project. We are inundated with information from the moment of birth - some of it is right for us, much of it is not. For anyone who seeks Truth, a large part of our lives is spent sifting and sorting to find our own personal Truth. Swami Shankarananda says it so well:

"The inner or yogic criterion of truth is the feeling of harmony. Truth always has a feeling of harmony and peace . When you are in a state of agitation and suffering, it means you have not arrived at truth. The Self, which is truth, is also a state of love, peace and perfection. That is your inner standard. It is not an objective standard. Even if the whole world says something, you know inside whether it is true or not by your inner feeling. It is an inner knowing. Too often we don't listen to that inner feeling; instead, we listen to what everybody else says. One of the things that happens when we go deeper in inquiry and meditation is that we listen to our own feeling." - Swami Shankarananda, "Self-Inquiry"

In other words, when you know, you know!
But how do we get to that knowing? That feeling of calm confidence and trust, centered, connected, with an inner flexibility and strength?
The first step, always, is to take one or two deep, calming breaths.
Shifting our awareness to experiencing our personal selves and all the living matter that we share this universe with as vibrational energy helps us sense and recognize Truth. Here is an exercise which facilitates that knowing:

CONNECT THE DOTS
Sitting in a comfortable position with your legs uncrossed and feet resting on the floor, close your eyes and take a few deep, relaxing breaths. Bring your awareness to your feet and imagine a dot on the bottom of each foot. Then bring your awareness to your belly and imagine a dot in the middle of your belly, about an inch below your belly button. Bring your awareness up to the center of your chest and picture a dot there. With your awareness on your hands, imagine a dot in the palm of each hand. Put your awareness on the center of your forehead, and, bringing your awareness directly inward to the middle of your upper head, imagine a dot in the center of your brain.
in your mind’s eye, imagine that you are drawing a line which connects the head dot with the dot in the center of your chest. Imagine two lines radiating outward from your chest dot, one through each arm to the dot in each hand, and then a line from the chest dot to the belly dot. From the belly dot imagine a line through each leg to the dots on the bottoms of your feet.
As you connect the dots you create a stick-figure, like a child's drawing, in your body.
Keeping the picture of the stick-person in your mind's eye, imagine a rheostat light switch near your hand. Gently bring up the power with the switch, causing the stick-person inside your body to glow with a warm, soothing light.
As you inhale, the light within you grows stronger. As you exhale, the light radiates throughout your being. Continue breathing with deep, relaxing breaths, enjoying the feeling of inner warmth that your inner stick person engenders.

When I am trying to assess the rightness - for me - of any thought or action, I can refer back to the sense of wholeness I experience with my glowing inner stick figure. In any moment I can ask, Is this action (or decision or thought) in harmony with my inner being and in harmonious connection to those I am interacting with?

Music also models a way that I can gauge my level of integrity. Music is entirely vibrational - sound waves that we perceive not only via our ear drums but through our entire physical being and in the mighty space within and between each atom. An F# major chord by itself is lovely, as is a C chord sounding by itself. But play the two together and the notes create a dissonance, particularly if sounded for a sustained period of time. If my energy is vibrating a C chord I probably won't want to spend too much time with F# people or in an F# situation. On the other hand, I don't want to sound only one pitch, and only hang out with others who are vibrating on the same pitch. Part of the adventure of life is being part of an ever-changing symphony.Spending time in Nature is also helpful. The innately proportionate quality of the visual aspect of mountains and streams and plants and trees and rocks imprints on the human consciousness, bringing order to the inner world. The natural landscape exists in a harmonious vibrational pattern which brings other living beings into a balanced rhythmic flow.