Living Honestly

 

Living honestly means facing one’s flaws and, sometimes, facing change

 

Published July 6, 2007

 

In the “Gospel of Thomas” Jesus said, “Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you.  For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest.”

 

What I think he meant is that, if we make an HONEST effort (as children do) to perceive the world around us, without allowing our fears and pride to interfere, as each piece of the puzzle is discovered we’ll find links to larger pieces.

 

In “Circles,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The life of man is a self-evolving circle which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end.  The extent to which this generation of circles…..will go, depends on the force or truth of the individual soul.”

 

That last line holds the key.  Living honestly requires a person to face his flaws and mistakes, and to change and grow as a result.  Change is a scary thing for most people.  Consequently, I believe that most people purposefully avoid living an honest life by clinging to long-cherished dogmas, adopting the “majority view,” and/or distracting themselves with superficial activities.

 

As a result, their lives (or “houses”) are “built upon the sand,” instead of the rock of honesty.

 

I believe that if you live your life honestly long enough you eventually perceive the interconnectedness of all creation.  At this point, you realize that although your individual life is very, very small in relation to the world around us, you nevertheless have an obligation to fully participate in the “life cycle” by being the best “you” that you can be; just as a single flower in a vast field does everything it can to sprout, blossom, reproduce, and then return to the dirt from which it came……along with everything else.