(Page Updated 3/12/21)
The following was taken from “Healing The Self, Healing The World” by Yasuhiko Genku Kimura (2017)
(Section 3: Omni-Integrity of Self and World)
“In Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality (2006) the psychologist Henry Cloud defines character as ‘the ability to meet the demands of reality’, consisting of six character dimensions as follows. According to Cloud, the integration or integrity of more of these dimensions produces a greater and more wholesome character:
“An excellent list of character dimensions applicable to the theme of our work, but one important character dimension is missing, or at least it is not made explicit. That is, the ability to be oneself authentically--the ability "to thy own self be true" (William Shakespeare, Hamlet). This ability to be oneself, to be true to oneself, is at the very heart of the development of character and maximization of psychotensegrity.”
“The term authenticity shares the same etymological root as author and authority. Authenticity thus implies self-authorship and self-authority. Therefore, to be authentic means to be the author of your own life following your own inner authority, whereas being inauthentic means to live your life according to a script written by external authority (parents/teachers/society).”
“Societal problems or 'functional deficits' and psychosocial problems or 'actualization deficits' can be seen as the inevitable results of the culture of inauthenticity in which people are programmed to pursue to become ‘somebody (worthy)’ that is their 'not-self', that is, their inauthentic self.
“To this suboptimal, unwholesome, and unnatural condition of the world… people react with the sense of frustration, irritation, anxiety, rage, sadness, or depression. Even those who succeed in becoming ‘somebody’ worthy by the standard of society, they would still feel empty inside if they did not be or know their own self.
“The emptiness inside is the void of failing to be one's authentic self--the sign of a life devoid of real meaning or fulfillment. By succeeding in becoming ‘somebody’, one has become nobody.”
“The Delphic maxim/the Socratic injunction "Know thyself (Gnothi sauton)" can also mean "Be thyself", for knowing your self (epistemology) implies and is inseparable from being your self (ontology). Integrated character development therefore involves the development of real self-knowledge.
“Since the time of Socrates, a very small portion of humanity has followed the Delphic maxim, because following it requires that you live your life as a never-ending quest with ever-greater clarity but without any final answer--without any certainty. The quest belongs to infinite game, not finite game.
“This implies that you develop the vehicle of quest--i.e., your being, character, and intelligence-constantly and consistently, so that your quest becomes increasingly more authentic and that you become increasingly more able to ask authentic questions.
“Humanity has not developed a culture in a significant enough scale that enables, encourages, and empowers such a quest, which is the highest expression of what it means to be human.
“If we can allow ourselves to be and to love who we truly are in pursuit of the mystery and the wonder of our own self in relation to the world and the universe, we are unlikely to act out our frustration or rage, seeking political power to control others, to engage in violence, or to wage war.”
“With the seven character dimensions integrally developed, the individual would live an authentic life of integrity and successfully meet the demands of reality. With the integrated whole intra-psychic semiotic interchange activated, the individual would be highly intra-communicative and hence conscious and aware of the world of his/her psyche without fragmentation and without denial-without the "disowned self".
“They say ‘Truth liberates’ or ‘Truth heals.’ There is truth that we want to know. There is truth that we would rather not know. The truth that liberates and heals is not usually that truth which we want to know but we would rather not know-the truth that in truth we do not want to know.
“It is when we can dare to know the truth that we do not want to know that we begin the process of liberation and healing, and eventually attain the state of pristinely innocent openness. It is not ‘truth or dare’ but truth and dare. The truth that heals requires daring.
“Through the process of liberating and healing, of maximizing psychotensegrity and optimizing psychosemiotic integrity, we develop intellectual honesty and integrity and emotional maturity and intelligence, and acquire clarity that is beyond the dichotomy of certainty and uncertainty, and of security and insecurity.”
See More: Inner and Outer Freedom
Find Artical at: Genku World Essays
Research Resource Video: Authenticity: Courage to be Yourself