Knowing Yourself
Knowing others is intelligence.
Knowing yourself is true wisdom.- Lao-tzu, Father of Taoism, 6th century B.C.E.
Why would I post a writing by a great Chinese philosopher? Because in the 2400+ years after Lao-tzu’s death, those words ring dead solid perfect (golf reference for effect). In today’s connected world, from pundits to punks, from leaders to losers, from the rich to the poor, you hear people saying they “know how someone thinks” or they “know how they think”. This leads to analysis from the macro to the micro. People are cross-examined and re-examined based on what people know about other people. It’s sexy. It’s America. It’s the world! But it’s decidedly unsexy to know yourself. You can’t be a guest on Hannity and Colmes and talk about knowing thyself. Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the partisan slant on that? Where’s the choir that sings praises to you based on your finger pointing? Not there. You just get yourself and all of your emotional baggage.
yippee…
No, this isn’t about to turn into the Dr. Steels Show. I’m not comfortable at all telling people how to know themselves because I’m not trained to do so and I’m working on it myself. But I can say this: when you get on the path of knowing yourself, you start feeling happier. You start feeling more “synced in” to life. And you can really say how you really feel much easier. And if it’s politically incorrect, so be it. At least you are starting to know who you are. And that’s priceless.
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2 Responses to “Knowing Yourself”
This reminded me of Sartre’s play ‘No Exit’.
Three people exist, isolated, in a house with no mirrors, so the only way each can know him/herself is to read how the others treat and react to him/her.
This manner of self-knowledge contains many traps of error, of course, because social interactions also involve the self-interest and poissible deceit of the others.
I’ve had many imaginary debates with Sartre, and I always win, BTW.
Still, how others react can be one source of self-knowlege. When they see you coming, do they smile or cross the street?
Strenuoulsy resisting self-knowldge contains an element of weakness, IMO. It takes a certain degree of self-confidence to accept some bad reviews of the self without fear of breaking.
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The wisdom of self-knowlege is hard to gain, but seeking it always leads to interesting avenues of thought.
The caveat is if the self is worth knowing. After all, knowing oneself of you’re a great thinker, inventor, leader, artist, scientist, is a task, but if you’re Joe Slobovsky, third man on the assembly line, whose idea of a good time is a good talcum powder for his hemorrhoids, well, bupkus.