Gullregel nr. 9

Mitt samvittighetsfulle selv;
Hold ditt ideal høyt under alle omstendigheter.

Pir Zias kommentar:
This rule calls upon us to hold our ideal high. If one reflects on it, one might find that the substance of one’s ideal is the latent perfection within oneself, the presence of the Divine. My father used to say that prayer is the most creative of acts. On the surface it seems the least creative of acts. While everyone is out in the world doing things and making things, the one who is praying is seemingly unproductive. But in calling upon the Divine Names, one is opening the heart to receive the infusion of the Divine Qualities. And so one is re-created in the image of God. And then when one acts, it is the Divine Action working through you, it is the blossoming personality of God revealing itself in your expanding, deepening, widening personality.

This rule is also a reminder that alteration of circumstances around us does not justify an alteration in our ideal. Generosity and kindness must persist in the face of difficulty, otherwise we are just mirroring what comes, and not standing resolutely in that higher vision of life that is our ideal. Notice the temptation to succumb to influences acting upon you in such a manner that you would depart from the clear guidance of your own conscience, and how it can happen in an instant without reflection. Suddenly one has slipped down into mere reactivity. If one pauses to reflect, perhaps one can preempt the temptation by holding clearly one’s ideal. One can remind one’s self that the value of upholding one’s ideal cannot be compared with the trifling advantages to be gained by denying one’s ideals. In the moment those advantages may seem attractive enough whereas to hold one’s ideal would mean perhaps sacrificing those premiums. In the eyes of the world you would come out the worse for your decision. But you would know the value, and God knows, and in the silence of sincere contemplation that is what matters. When we leave this world we leave with those ideals that we have held intact.

My conscientious self, hold your ideal high in all circumstances.