How can we know ourselves?

Question

It is possible to know other better than they know themselves, this is relativly easy. The hard part is coming to really know oneself.

How can one come to know oneself.

Please explain your answers and any techniques used.

Thanks.

Answer 1

The best way I can think of explaining it is just being completely honest with yourself. That is actually very difficult, because everyone has things about themselves they don't like, many of those things we don't even notice. I.E. - I had to be honest with myself that I am a racist. I don't hate other races, I believe we are all equal and deserve the same chances in life. I don't think I am any better because I'm white, or that they are any different because they aren't. One of hte men I hope to be the most like is Malcolm X. But, there is a Mall about two hours from where I live that I find myself in from time to time. Atleast 75% of the people in that mall are black. Without even realizing it, I start getting very nervous. I start wonder how might be thugs or drug dealers, or high and just plain stupid. I understand that all these are racist feelings, but I can't help them when I'm surrounded by that many black people. And thus, I am a racist.

I take no pride in being a racist. Actually, I'm quite ashamed of it. But just because I don't like that part about me doesn't mean I can just ignore it and make it go away. It takes alot of work to solve problems.

On the plus side (cause that was really depressing), When you look that deep inside and find your ultimate evil, you find your ultimate good too. thats a good feeling, but you can't find one without the other.

Answer 2

In my view, it is not that we can not know ourselves better.... it is more like we do not want to know ourselves.... perhaps we are subconsciously aware that we have negatives as well as positives and our ego prevents us from judging ourselves lest it should turn out to be negative.

We are more tuned to what we want rather than why... if we can train our mind to constantly question why we want whatever we do want, it is almost certain that we would know ourselves better. However, the process has to be continuous because we are dynamic and almost every thought that arises in our mind changes us in some way or other. The result is that however better we end up knowing ourselves, we would never be totally predictable even to our own understanding. That is why the skill to move people is considered the highest and even higher than that is the capability to move or change one's own self.

Hope this makes sense.

Answer 3

Knowledge is the result of the act of knowing. Such knowledge is a property of the self. In otherwords when one gets a knowledge one gets qualified by the knowledge

Whenever one knows an object the object is out there and is not qualified by the knowledge. Only the knower, self, is qualified by the knowledge.

Your hand is an object. Your heart is an object. Your brain is an object. Even your mind is an object, because you can close your eyes and observe your mind and know "oh, this is my mind", when the knowledge is resident in you and not in the mind.

So in all cases usual knowing situations, the knower and the known are different because the knower has the 'property' or 'quality' = knowledge and the known object does not have this quality.

If I can say "I know me" whatever I have known is not me because the knowledge cannot reside in the known object. In otherwords in the situation of self knowledge, both the known and the knower becomes one and crazyly the known object also posseses the knowledge!!

This cannot be achieved by regular means of knowledge, but can be done only by meditation. There are many methods and techniques of meditation. Read and consult some experts

Answer 4

visit:http://www.discovergoldenindia.com/

The first move in striking up this friendship is to make an acquaintance with what you are and what you might become. “Know thyself!” said the ancient Greek. Until recently it was not possible to make a very wide acquaintance. Little was known about human behavior. But atomic physics, in revealing new knowledge to man, has also revealed the general characteristics of the energy of life and by that a great deal can be known which was not before suspected. You do not need to know atomic physics to know yourself, but you need to know something of the apparent goal of life in general and your own goals in particular.

Just now let’s talk about the general goal of all life. Knowing that, we can know something about the basic laws which motivate your own urges and behavior.

Answer 5

Plato's goal in philosophy was to know God.

Plotinus, his great student, realized One Mind Soul was All Truth, and Soul-individuation was knowing Self.

Christ's three "spheres" of "Love God completely," then, within so doing, "love Colleague as Self" (golden rule), and, within those two nested spheres, "Love as Christ, Truth, loves," permit One Mind Soul-individuation to the nth.

"Be still and know I Am God."

Saint Teresa of Avila's "Interior Castle" meditations are seven Crystal (Christ-All) spheres, similar to the seven major chakras of e.g. Paramahansa Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi" http://www.yogananda-srf.org kriya yoga teaching.

Thus, more than a few recognized paths up the mountain.

"Climb the Highest Mountain," Mark Prophet, gives one method.

"Watch Your Dreams," Ann Ree Colton, another.

"Man's Two Natures: Human and Divine," Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, another.

"The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", Free and Wilcock, "The Field," Lynne McTaggart, "Psychoenergetic Science," Dr. William Tiller, and "The Master of Lucid Dreams," psychiatrist Olga Kharitidi, all are somewhat laudatory. Http://www.divinecosmos.com http://www.tiller.org http://www.coasttocoastam.com radio also deal with this issue, generally.

I would suggest beginning with "Climb the Highest Mountain," "Watch Your Dreams," "Man's Two Natures: Human and Divine," and "Autobiography of a Yogi."

Two interesting autobiographies of Ph.D.s who encountered knowing self more than they were doing are Elizabeth Mayer's "Extraordinary Knowing" and Martha Beck's "Expecting Adam."

C. S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" is a novella about how souls learn of their true natures. Jonathan Murro's "The Path of Virtue" is also worthwhile.

"Sunyata: The Life and Sayings of a Rare-Born Mystic," Camhi and Isenberg, is also worthwhile.

At the end of the day, one reflects briefly on the events, dispassionately, with some love, then asking God and e.g. Saint Michael the Archangel to protect, guide, and teach one to be a better person, while one's body rests, is good. Waking up gently, rather than to raucous music or alarm, is good, as alpha awarness and dream awareness are often reflections of lessons given the soul during sleep. A morning prayer/intention, some attention to one's awakedness during moments of the day, complete the cycle. Dream diary, lovingkindness, a regular time and protocol for knowing self/Kingdom within is advisable.

cordially,

j.

Answer 6

The best way to know ourselves is by knowing others and God. We can do this by loving and praying.

The more we love others, the more we become ourselves; the more we become ourselves, the more others tell us who we are.

The more we pray to God, the more we know ourselves because in prayer, we open ourselves to God and God reflects to us our very self.

So, LOVE and PRAYER make someone wise.

Answer 7

Contemplation of one's own motives in how you approach individuals and the world around you.

Answer 8

well there is a chart called the jahori window, it takes self disclosure inorder to create a self image of one self, check out this website

Answer 9

OURSELF : the way we thinking , the way of our emotions , the way of our reactions (emotional and bodily) , the way of our bodily physicality , etc. ...... = will brings about to our CHARACTOR and BEHAVIOUR , that's is and was OURSELF in GENERAL KNOWING of RESPONSES to OURSELVES.

Answer 10

By asking that question, you already do.

And yet, we will never.