HONESTY IS INTEGRITY

Uncategorized 3 Minutes

It is said that to find out if a mystical experience was really a legitimate mystical experience is to see if it really changed you or another person in a positive way. The major mystical experience that I had in my life transformed me from thinking that I was separate from others to seeing and realizing that others are just like me inside ourselves. I knew and felt that we are all interconnected. I could tell things about others. I became heart-centered and my love for others grew and grew.

I was taught by The Sisters of St. Agnes when I was young and I have many career spiritual people as my friends today. We work on our spiritual lives together. The sisters developed a deep sense of the inner-life in me that I have kept for my whole life. They stressed the virtue of honesty with love.

When I started doing stand-up comedy at the age of twenty-eight being honest with myself came in handy. In my mind I thought that I really wanted to attempt being a comedian and to do it right I should be honest with myself to align myself with the common reality that we all share. I loved what I was doing. I believe that everyone should practice honesty to align with common reality no matter what you do. Honesty is love in action. Honesty will make honest people love you and in the long-run help most people who are not as honest. We feed the whole with our honesty. We rob the whole with our dishonesty.

The Universal Spirit that is US as mankind has urged us through all spiritual traditions to be honest with our selves and others. Through honesty we “get a hold of ourselves.” Being as honest as we can with ourselves is really what is called in spiritual circles self-inquiry meditation. This type of meditation combined with running, being a juggler (which aids in concentration), yoga, and general and spiritual studying led me to our Divine Presence that is inside US and I entered OUR Universal Consciousness. What I entered and what I know and see is beyond words and explanations of it always come out different.

Grasping the Divine Presence within ourselves is what types of silent meditation are about also. The Divine Presence then flows through the particular personality.

Through these activities I achieved the ground-floor state of honesty or INTEGRITY. Pushing one’s self to do activities like stand-up comedy establishes the virtue of COURAGE in one’s self for a life-time. You become confident to stand your ground and look others in the eye. The ground-floor for the hardest spiritual virtue of them all, HUMILITY, is established because until you understand how to articulate your humor for your particular comic persona the audience will just stare at you. This strengthens US so we do not care about being vulnerable to others opinions so much.

These activities taught me to know myself and in knowing myself the Universe introduced me to US all. I see myself in others. I know others. I love others. I know others are just like me inside ourselves. My heart feels for others.

It is said that everything we experience is really emotional. From this statement it makes sense to practice the virtue of honesty which will keep your mind connected to your heart with INTEGRITY. Joy will pervade your being. This state brings with it a heightened sense for understanding the beauty given to us by our Divine Mother. We see the beauty of humanity that is in people of all ages and conditions. We see the beauty of the child, the teenager, and adults of all ages. We know that we are connected to them.

We need to associate with others’ of INTEGRITY. People who have not reached the level of INTEGRITY (49% of people in U.S.) do not want to get too close to US because it is uncomfortable for them. People who have not reached INTEGRITY misinterpret US.

I run around with my female friends in Milwaukee and we experience synchronicity after synchronicity. This does not happen as much when I am with men. Men in general are not as open as women but things are changing now. We ride around talking about love and how we can help others. The sisters always told us that God knows everything and is watching everything. That is what I now sense. That there is one loving mind that knows It’s own. I love God and I love mankind and this is getting ineffable now. Like the Zen Koan goes: WORDS ARE TRAPS.

Published by Gary Hobbins

I was born in Wisconsin to a Roman Catholic family. My mother June was a talented writer and started her own service club. My father Joe was a Right-of-Way agent for Bell telephone. Joe was an avid golfer and overall sports enthusiast. Joe would play sports with me and I became a life-long athlete. I was known as a rebel and was expelled from the Catholic school I attended at the age of fourteen. I was arrested at nineteen for being a thief and was placed on probation. Around this time, not being happy, I turned inward. I worked at different jobs that did not satisfy my budding inner life. I traveled down south several times reading books trying to find myself. In 1980, at the age of twenty-seven, I enrolled at a local college. I was now in an interesting environment. I was curious about almost everything and I eventually majored in speech and psychology or speaking and thinking. Many people told me that I was funny. I was able to make them laugh about unusual subjects. In the summers of 1981 and 1982, while still a college student, I traveled to Minneapolis and pursued the art of stand-up comedy. During these summers I would write comedy, run twenty-five miles a week and perform comedy at night. I was also a juggler but did not juggle in my stand-up act. I took up Hatha yoga and studied nutrition. In Minneapolis, I interacted with the local up-and-coming comedians. Minneapolis at that time had a small close-knit comedy culture that produced a good number of comedians and some became quite famous. I was making audiences laugh shortly after I started. During this time I was also performing comedy in other cities. I planned on being a professional comedian. Catholicism conditioned me to have a clear inner voice. I had to make people laugh and the only way I could see to do it was to be brutally honest with myself. I thought honesty would align me with common reality. The Sisters of St. Agnes, who taught me, always told me to tell the truth. So I was continually examining myself and weeding out delusional thinking. This became my way of life. One day in 1983, I was alone at my parents house and all of a sudden I had a massive spontaneous kundalini awakening. The awakening of this spiritual energy made me realize my self. I achieved the ability, among others, to see through other peoples egos or read their hearts. I was forever changed. In 1983 there was no internet or otherwise easily accessible information for me to be able to find out what had happened to me. Because of the massive explosion of energy my nervous and digestive system had to rebuild. Due to what happened to me, I changed my plans and soon moved in with my best friend and her son. We lived together for many years. I hid out in college going on and off for thirteen years. I read one book after another to understand what happened to me. I eventually received an M.A. in Speech/Rhetoric and also amassed many extra college credits. Currently I am an investor and forever a student. I am repentant of the trouble I got into years ago and the embarrassment it brought to my parents. People that knew me when I was a kid remark that I sure changed my ways. I went through what I call psycho/spiritual/physical alchemy or I transformed myself by healing the past and living in the ongoing present.

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