Wednesday, March 20, 2024
When we were young and were asked if we were telling the truth, that implied that the story represented factual information. Honesty, however, is not just recounting truthful facts. When I write on this blog, I’m expressing concepts that simply come to me. The words are a natural outflow of what is inside me. I’m not trying to say anything that I think you want to read. I’m not trying to copy the writings of others. I am just expressing myself from my heart. If others read my writing or not, it’s not my motivation. That’s not to say I don’t love when people read, but that my motivation for doing so is for me. Simply, I do it because I love to write, and that’s honest.
When you allow yourself to speak and the words come from a deep, sincere place, you are being honest. When you allow yourself to express something that comes from a deeper place in you, you are being honest. The Buddha called this kind of outflow, loving kindness.
Pleasing others, in that your action is for their benefit is dishonest. Doing for others, in that your action is for their attention, is dishonest. Conforming to others, in that your action goes against your natural proclivities, is dishonest. Honesty comes from an inborn desire to act, to say, and to express precisely who you are, what you feel, and what is within you in a given situation. Honest people say what’s in their heart. It’s sincere. It’s not what comes from the top of the petulant mind, the judgmental ego, or the temper. If you’re worried about what others think, or if you are conforming to be “cool” or anything that places your motives outside of yourself, honesty gets blurred. Honesty is truth expressed from within alert awareness and peaceful comportment. It is from this sound, inner place that honesty expresses itself.