ADVANCED POSE II: INTEGRATION

*** In “Advanced Pose I: Desire Discernment” we discuss what True Desire is, and the difference between a True Desire and a compensatory desire. Read that first before reading this essay.  

Manifestation is a tricky business for most people. Most people cannot figure out how to conjure up what they desire and need, even to save their lives. Literally. Most people live very erratically, perceiving their experience to be a combination of coincidence, fate, luck, favor, curses, and miracles. Well, there are metaphysical principles that regulate the nature of all three of the great planes of existence. There is order and intelligence in The All. We learned this as the first principle of Hermeticism.

The Universe is mental. The All is intelligent. And in The Kybalion’s chapter on Mentalism the authors speak about how we create our life experience with our minds. We also learned about the principle of Correspondence, that teaches us, as above, so below, as within, so without. This principle explains how everything has a reflection/projection. It represents an Arcane principle that states “From one, know all.” There is correspondence between the spiritual, mental, and physical planes of existence. They have impact on each other. It is the “reap what you sow” concept. It is also the “golden rule” concept. And yes, it is also the “good for the goose/good for the gander” concept. Expanded out, Correspondence demonstrates itself in the principles of Polarity, Rhythm, and Cause and Effect.

For the purposes of the path we are on, we define Integrity as wholeness/righteousness. In this context what we mean by wholeness is everything in its proper natural order. Natural order is aligned with truth. So, of course honesty is an attribute of integrity. But there are more attributes. Keeping one’s word. Being mindful to use words clearly, concisely, and in generative ways. Aligning one’s thoughts and actions with what is known to be true and generative. Upholding agreements. Conscious self expression. Fulfilling what is expected (adhering to natural, social, and metaphysical laws, observing foreign customs when in foreign spaces, basic etiquette, roles and obligations in relationships and communities, civic duties, etc...). Accountability. Ownership of responsibility. Oneness mindset. These are all attributes of wholeness/righteousness. The advanced pose of honoring your Integrity is NOT a pursuit of perfection or rightness. These are comparative pursuits that lead to loss of humility and habituated forms of conceit (see Advanced Pose 3: Humility and Manifestation), and they create the distracting habit of judgement as a compensation for discernment, which then leads to disintegrated thought habits of blame, fault, shame, guilt. Honoring one’s Integrity is not about pride in being seen as right. Honoring your Integrity is about a commitment to BEING righteous and expressing yourself as whole and integrated.

Think of the structure of a bicycle wheel. It has spokes with one end distributed at equal distances around the inside of the wheel, with the other ends meeting at the center of the wheel. This is on purpose. Imagine if those spokes were arranged differently. What if they were all arranging parallel to each other in one direction across the wheel? It would not hold up to pressure when those spokes were horizontal. And the vertical position would also be weak. The multi-directional structure of wheel spokes distributes support in every direction so that as the wheel turns, the weight of the rider doesn’t cause the structure of wheel to fail and collapse. This physical engineering is the integrity of that wheel. If you remove one of the spokes of the wheel, you have a breach in its integrity. We wouldn't remove one on purpose right? We create this thing to function, not to fail. But there are extenuating circumstances that may intervene in its integrity. And a spoke might get bent out of shape, or knocked out of its place. And that one missing spoke may not render the wheel completely inoperable, but it will very quickly begin to lose its functionality as it has a weak spot in its structure. The frame of the wheel could break or simply become slightly misshapen. And that would impact the entire functionality of the bicycle. The integrity of that one part impacts the purpose and function of the larger mechanism that it’s a part of.

And ultimately, this lack of integrity could cause more damage to the bicycle, and injury to the rider. You see? So, what does a bike owner do when they see that there is a damaged or missing spoke? They get it repaired. They don’t ignore it. It’s very difficult to ride a bike with a messed up wheel. They get it fixed. Now some may fix it before dysfunction happens because of compensation... wanting to look good, sure. But that’s an example of pursuit of the appearance of “rightness.” With this as motivation, one might take shortcuts and just... you know... duct tape the shit together or something like that rather than getting a proper repair. Most will get it fixed because they know that the bike functions better, serves its purpose better, and is safer to ride, if it is whole, all parts in their place, and integrated. We do it because we know that if we don’t we are in danger, riding the bike will be more difficult, and ultimately other spokes will be damaged by the imbalance in the distribution of force upon them. The more we neglect the integrity of the wheel, the less integrated it becomes, until ultimately it becomes completely useless. This neglect of integrity could cost us quite a bit.

We are no different from this bike wheel. We are intelligently engineered by the All. There are circumstances that can cause breaches to our integrated functionality. We have, as one of our parts, a thing called will power, and additionally we are ourselves impacted by cause and effect. “So, Rev Brig, how does this all tie in with manifestation?” Well, I’m getting there! Your integrity is your most valuable tool. It is the practice of honoring, valuing, and maintaining the components of your wholeness (the spokes of the wheel) and alignment with the principles and structure of the All (the bicycle).

So, let’s come full circle then back to desire, and connect these two. True Desire of the Higher Self is a part of your wholeness. Compensation is a finite game. True Desire is an infinite game. True desire is the truth. You were born with this intuitive function. It is never going to steer you incorrectly. If you desire sex because you have a True Desire for Enjoyment and Connection, then, in order to maintain integrity, you have a need to fulfill whether you do so with sex or some other source of Enjoyment that involves connection. Paying attention to True Desire is one of the many aspects of honoring integrity. We call this being “true to self.” This should not be confused with conceit, selfishness, defiance, indignation, defensiveness, stubbornness, etc... And ignoring one’s True Desire is a breach of integrity that will cause unnecessary suffering and have great costs, spiritually, mentally, AND physically. AND, here’s the part you ain’t gonna like. *grins* Just like you may hate having to take the time and money to go get your bike wheel fixed, sometimes True Desire does not feel like something we WANT. It is compelling beyond superficial want. In a moment we’ll be talking about how to recognize these and how to override internal resistance so that you can remain in integrity and true to self.

But how does this connect with manifestation? We set out to manifest what we desire. We do things that we believe will help to conjure things that we desire. We solicit, plan, orchestrate, organize, manipulate, request, order, take, etc... all in the name of manifesting our desires. And still there is a certain ceiling under which we mostly remain limited as to how impactful we are at manifesting. This is because we are not conditioned to practice Integrity as a priority. It is the one most important element in manifestation. And we are not taught this because we live in societies that are led by people who don’t want us to manifest for ourselves. They want the masses to be dependent on them, so that they can mine our energy and gorge themselves on power. I know. This sounds very woo woo conspiracy theory, but look at our world today. It is truth. Our world is the way it is because the common folk of the world do not have consistent prioritized commitment to integrity.

It’s a hot mess because WE are a hot mess. How does this work? Principle of Correspondence. Whatever we commit ourselves to, the Universe is organized such that it co-arises to mirror us. That’s right. So if we are erratic, inconsistent, and do not live sustainably healthy lives, then the world around us becomes nonsense, erratic, and unsustainable. It’s pretty simple. You get what you pay for in a metaphysical sense. And we’ve also been taught to be fearful of paying. We’ve been taught there are limits to everything we value, so we should try and get what we can for free without any effort at all. But it’s not true effortlessness and it’s not in any way, shape, or form, sustainable.

Integrity is wholeness. You must be in integrity with what you desire. You must be one with it. You must accept that you already have access to everything you could ever want or need. To be in integrity with the acquisition of the True Desires of your higher self, YOU HAVE TO BE INTEGRITY WITH THE IDEA THAT YOU HAVE ACCESS TO THE DESIRES OF YOUR HIGHER SELF. You have to live, breathe, behave as if you have that thing you desire....as if it is already true. You have to BE the kind of person who has it. If you want to acquire access to happiness you have to choose to BE happy. If you want to acquire access to connection you have to choose to BE connected. If you want a world that is more driven by love and compassion you have to BE MORE LOVING AND COMPASSIONATE TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS. If you want to have access to enjoyment you have to BE ENJOYABLE and ENJOYING.

Why does this work? Well, Loves, it’s the principle of Correspondence at work. Whatever you set your mind to, whatever you align with, whatever you pursue ownership of, The Universe co-arises to conspire in your favor according to the service of your purpose for existing. And if that’s not happening, then you are either out of integrity in your commitment to a True Desire, OR it’s not a True Desire. That’s the simple metaphysics of it. And if you’re stubborn about the above, you’ll see a pattern upon introspection. You’ll see the limitations in your life. You’ll see the inability to sustain yourself. So you’ll see people chasing after dreams, looking very dedicated on the surface, but underneath the surface they are not truly being who they need to be in order for the dream to become manifest. Or they get what they want and it destroys their entire world because they got caught up in the compensatory level desire and forgot what they were doing the work for. Or they struggle and struggle and struggle thinking “why is it always so hard” and they don’t realize it’s because they’re afraid of the True Desire and neglect the infinite game to chase after a finite compensation. Or you see people doing the challenging work but allowing themselves to be distracted from flow, because of compensatory pleasures or other forms of stimulation or instant gratification... everything from extra sleep to partying and socializing without purpose. There is a time for everything. Some manifestations require the kind of dedication that motivates you to lose a few hours sleep or skip the party or whatever other fun distraction comes up to tempt you away from your focus. Sometimes these distractions are pleasant like that. Sometimes they are not. Anything that persuades you to depart from being the person you need to be in order to manifest that True Desire, is deeply impacting your ability to manifest.

Lastly, it’s really important to honor your integrity on the mental plane as well. Please know that all forms of upset are indication that you hold a belief or attachment that is out of integrity or inauthentic. Forms of upset include things like jealousy, defensiveness, shame, fear, perception of lack, self doubt, vengeance, helplessness/powerlessness, loss of control, etc… What this means is that when you experience any of these feelings there is something in your way of thinking, or there is belief which you hold, that is directly out of integrity with what is true.

So, in your life, pay close attention to how you show up for ANYTHING. From one, know all. Your way of being is impacting everything in your life. If you are inconsistent and erratic your results will be inconsistent and erratic. If you are non-committal then your results will be indistinct and insignificant. Half ass work gets half ass results. If you resist investing out of fear or perception of lack, then your results will be lack. If you are impulsive your results will be inconsistent. If you lack focus, commitment and follow through, your results will be diluted, temporary, or incomplete. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. The way you practice is the way you play. And accepting this fact is going to require that you stop using comparative thinking. If you’re focused on assessing yourself based on comparison with others, you’re doomed to failure in manifestation. It doesn’t work that way. Your integrity is about who you are inside. It’s the practice of maintaining all of your parts in wholeness and working order. And that self assessment is key. What it requires of you is Humility...