Know Thyself

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The Path Within

In the journey to try to know ourselves better, one question we all can ask of ourselves is this – how do I benefit from being unforgiving?

Or how do I benefit from being unmerciful?

Or how do I benefit from judging others?

Or how do I benefit from choosing to not be understanding of another person’s life?

Or how do I benefit from being impatient with others?

Or how do I benefit from being unkind to another?

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Or, in turn, if we seek to know ourselves better, we can ask ourselves a different question, like …

how do i benefit from forgiving?

Or how do I benefit from being merciful?

Or how do I benefit from letting go of judging others?

Or how do I benefit from choosing to try to understand another person’s life?

Or how do I benefit from being patient with others?

Or how do I benefit from being kind to another human being?

A Path of Healing

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When we choose to not ask deeper questions of our self, we can understand what goes on within us when faced with this, and then understand why others don’t ask these deeper questions of themselves, also. And hence why they don’t try to change, either.

When we choose to ask our self deeper questions, we can gain greater insight into ourselves, and perhaps one day use that insight and learning to choose better when relating to others.

Blessed, also, are they who ask self difficult questions, for they will gain the insight that leads to the path of healing, which leads to the path of change, which leads to the path of Loving Kindness.

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by

To Know Oneself

Over and over and over, we give ourselves messages from ourselves.  We talk to ourselves in our minds.  We think to ourselves.  We assure ourselves.  We comfort ourselves. We chastise ourselves.  We criticize ourselves.  We are instant messaging ourselves all the time – telling ourselves all kinds of things about the world and ourselves throughout the day.  We communicate more with ourselves than any other being in existence – all happening in all the different levels of our minds.

And we’re always honest with ourselves, right?  The one person who we would think would be honest with ourselves would be our self, right?  There’s no question that what we tell ourselves is always the truth, right?

Not really, and that’s putting it mildly, isn’t it.

In all honesty, we’re just as likely to be dishonest with ourselves as we are with anyone else.  In fact, sometimes it’s easier, isn’t it. Many times, since we’re the one who judges whether it’s okay to lie about something, we are mostly okay when we lie even to ourselves.  Aren’t we.  We do it so often, that we often don’t know the truth when we hear it, or say it.  Isn’t that true?  We have a version in our minds which we say is true, and which we tell ourselves is the absolute truth, and which we would swear to in front of any other person who asks, right?

That “truth” that we call “truth” to ourselves – we know that very well.  That’s the version of truth that we’ve worked out inside ourselves to be called “true.”  In our subconscious and in our day-to-day consciousness, we go about our day deciding what is going to be the truth and what isn’t.  Isn’t that so – not always consciously, but then sometimes consciously, right?

And how does this serve us?

It serves us by not requiring us to feel all the feelings and emotions which go along with acknowledging the actual truth.  Many times the actual truth that we don’t acknowledge comes connected to sadness and sorrow, grief and disappointment, anger and bitterness, hatred and aggravation – feelings we don’t want to be experiencing or acknowledge.

It also serves us by giving us a different view of who we think we are – or a view of how far we think we’ve grown on this spiritual path or in any way whatsoever.  Sometimes, subconsciously, these are factors that we think may determine whether we get loved or not.  After all, everyone wants to be loved, and maybe the “better people” are the ones that get loved.  And if I’m a “better people”, I should then be loved, too.  Right?

The actual truth doesn’t come with all of these aspects and factors all the time, but still, the actual truth that we want to not be true, many times does in truth come with heavy, painful, and disturbing feelings and acknowledgments as well as those subconscious messages which we tell ourselves related to being loved in the world, (a formidable source of motivation, since after all, everyone wants to be loved.)

Yet, this actual truth can come forward within us, but only if we allow it and only if we allow the emotions to come, also.  It can knock on the door, but it comes in only when we open the door and welcome it in.

This actual truth often comes with an assessment of ourselves.  It sometimes points out how we need to change something within ourselves or how we may have acted inappropriately in how we related to someone.  It can come with regret or sorrow, shame, guilt or embarrassment.  Or it can come with a chance to heal.

There are times that we can really benefit from knowing the actual truth.  There are times that we can heal when the actual truth is acknowledged.  Counseling helps that process.  Talk therapy helps a person find their way to clean out their closet filled with all kinds of stuff that we fill closets with.  Yet, that’s only one way of many ways to figure out the truth within ourselves, though.

Sometimes, it helps to just be willing to accept the actual truth, regardless of what comes with it.  “Willingness” to allow the actual truth to come forward is the single strongest quality that helps it come forward.

Yes, we can lie to ourselves about being willing.  We can tell ourselves that we want the actual truth, and then not be willing to open the door for it.  Sincerity is a big key, but then sincerity includes willingness and comes with one of the deeper forms of honesty, doesn’t it.

What has helped me many times is to pray to God – “God, help me be honest with myself.”  If I’m really wanting honesty and truth, who better to ask for help to gain honesty and truth.  When we’re truly sincere about working to be more honest with ourselves, it’s best to start with the one who can actually help make that goal a reality.  When we pray for God to help us be honest with ourselves, we are “standing in front of the face of God.”  We are placing ourselves in front of the face of the One who knows Truth about ourselves, about our thoughts, our feelings, our actions, our behaviors, our pain, our suffering, our shame, our guilt, our disappointments, our grief, our hopes, our dreams, our loves, our hates, our healing, our needs, our crying out in the wilderness, our courage and our fear – our whole selves – our deepest parts of ourselves and our shallowest parts of ourselves – our honesty and our lies.  It’s not that easy to do, but again, all we need to be is “willing” in order to move forward.

“God, help me be honest with myself” is a gentle prayer, but can be an effective one if what we seek is the real truth about ourselves and our lives, and to be honest with that real truth about ourselves and our lives.

It’s a challenging “row to hoe”, and what I describe here is in no way the whole truth and nothing but the truth, because I don’t have a lock on ‘Truth’.  But the effort we make to dig for the truth – to dig for being honest with ourselves – pays off with a greater understanding and knowledge of ourselves, and to know our self, honestly and truthfully, is an ever greater thing to know.  “There’s gold in them thar hills” – or in this case – the priceless jewels of who we are await us when we come to know ourselves.  Getting to know our self is one of the greatest things in all existence.  When we do this, we then come to understand more of our relationships with God, with others and very importantly, our relationship with ourselves.

Surprising, but true.

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