Honesty is our greatest strength as practitioners. The pride that leads to fragility is our greatest obstacle. Please note that the sound quality of the recording is very bad in spots due to mic problems. But we think the content is important enough to publish anyway. Thanks for your patience! A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi
Podcast First Words
Honesty is the basis of everything. It’s the basis of happiness. It’s the basis of relaxation. It’s the basis of practice. If we’re not honest, then we’re in a state of fantasy, or in a state of reactivity where we have these automatic responses to be less than truthful, for whatever reason. And then we’re never dealing with the circumstance, and we lose the ability to self-reflect.
I think the greatest treasure that any practitioner has is to be able to honestly self-reflect. That is, to be able to see yourself and what condition you’re really in. And to be able to hear reflection when it’s given to you. If you can’t hear honest reflection or true reflection, then you’re in some other condition of not honesty, right? So this is an absolute treasure.
So to whatever extent one isn’t honest, you’re unrelaxed, and you have tension. Lack of honesty, self-defensiveness that involves lack of honesty, and lack of ability to self-reflect honestly and receive reflection honestly means that you have some anxiety. You have some tension. This means that you’re in a state of reactivity, and this is what we’re trying to interrupt.
