Honesty
by Philia Stauber, Switzerland
Honesty is a basic element of human life and therefore unavoidably affects all material and spiritual realms of human existence. Since exploring, searching and striving for something is an essential part of human nature, honesty may not be underestimated in its importance concerning human development and spiritual evolution. Exploring, as well as searching and striving for something, requires an effort based on honesty in order to reach the right conclusions resulting in true cognition.
The realms of human life are manifold and not so easily understood in their complexity and context. Therefore they have to be explored step by step, which calls for a lot of effort, perseverance and patience. This isn't exactly a human strength, since the human being rather chooses the line of least resistance instead of hard work connected to slow progress. Thus, he is constantly tempted to cheat a little bit here and a little bit there to make it easier for himself. As long as he only turns things into a direction more profitable for himself, without obviously lying, he doesn't even consider his acting as dishonest. But honesty cannot simply be defined with the statement: If I don't tell lies, then I'm honest. Even though the truth of this statement cannot be denied, it rather reduces honesty to something not really worth further consideration.
Nevertheless, this seems to be a common point of view and thus exposes a common way of thinking. It is obvious that being in this state of mind neither supports a thorough consideration concerning the meaning and the importance of honesty nor does it lend itself to the comprehension of its real value. It more likely reveals that mankind in general isn't really interested in honesty. This assumption is confirmed even further by observing all the great efforts made by those who need to pretend to be someone else.
Even though a human being can be very skillful at pretending as he advances his play-acting into habit by constant practice, it nevertheless is very strenuous for the person because the danger of exposing himself is a permanent given possibility. It isn't only a waste of time and energy to continually maintain a picture for others to see, which is not true and therefore worth nothing, but also a severe betrayal of oneself and a serious hindrance in one's own evolution. Pretending to be someone else, requires the construction of an unreal world, in order to be able to maintain the falsely given picture. Such an artificial world can be compared to a prison where the human being has to hide himself so as not to be exposed and thus, he imprisons himself without really realizing it. He does not feel as if he is hiding in a prison, but on the contrary, he mostly feels very clever about being able to mislead and deceive his fellowman, while considering his actions as successful. He is unaware that all his decisions support and depend on bringing his life in line with the maintenance of his self-made world and therefore has no idea how much he is hindering himself from making free decisions. He is so busy with preventing the discovery of his deceit that he doesn't even realize how he deprives himself of his own freedom. He can neither leave his world nor let anybody in, which results not only in losing his freedom, but also in losing the opportunity to share. He cannot be open to another person while hiding behind his self-made borders, therefore he prevents himself from experiencing the joy of sharing something, which would create a feeling of being connected to another human being; a feeling of not being alone.
Human nature is in general not directed towards loneliness, but rather towards sociability because the human being naturally strives for company and love. Sociability also fulfills two other important components. On the one hand it provides him with connections to other human beings and possible relationships which are not only important because they diminish loneliness, but also because they may stir interests which can awaken the human being's natural urge for searching and exploring and thus nourish the thinking process. On the other hand sociability delivers a manifold and inexhaustible source for his studies in order to satisfy his natural urge.
This natural urge is only given to us because everything within the realm of human life really needs to be explored and searched for, in order to achieve a proper understanding. But how could a proper understanding be achieved if searching and exploring are not based on honesty? The results would be worthless and the human being couldn't gain anything else other than self-deception which would deprive him of love and hinder him even more from leaving his self-made prison.
To be honest doesn't mean to be an open book to everybody, but it does, first of all, mean that a person must be honest with himself. Without being honest with oneself it is neither possible to discover one's own ambitions and intentions, nor is it practicable to build a realistic, neutral point of view concerning life and its requirements, its rights and duties.
There is something else worth mentioning. The more honest a human being becomes, the better are his chances to find love and real friends because his outward behaviour starts to adjust to his internally required honesty and reflects an undisguised picture of himself. He shows himself as he is and will be loved for what he is. There isn't any fear of becoming exposed or of losing the ground under his own feet, but instead, he will find a growing self-certainty within himself, which supports inner contentment and peace. The human being needs to know who he himself is otherwise he will never discover his strengths and weaknesses and cannot be his own master, living a life in freedom. Furthermore, he also should use his time and energy to honestly explore himself, in order to concede to other people the right to be confronted with the truth. And this right belongs to everybody. So, it is a human duty to be honest and truthful in order to guarantee an honest sharing of inward and outward matters and to insure a valuable, mutual progress together.Isn't it undeniably advantageous for the human being to be like a mirror for his fellowman and the other way round? Even though it might be uncomfortable or even embarrassing to be made aware of certain things, it nevertheless provides a chance to make some changes for the better. The human being's interest in his fellowman's thoughts and needs are connected to his observations, conclusions and cognition which let him experience human individuality. This individuality reveals a variety of immeasurable dimensions to him, so it furthers his understanding of life itself and increases his tolerance towards his fellowman. Comprehending honesty as a basic element of human life results in freedom, love and peace because it insures finding the right path and living a life as a real human being.
photo credit:(top) [cropped] page 75 "Core Group of 49 Members" from Through Space and Time - A Photo Journal of "Billy" Eduard Albert Meier Copyright 2004 Steelmark
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