That’s not just a title; it’s an actual question! Take a moment and ask yourself, who the fuck am I? Do you know yourself, inside and out? One of the defining characteristics of humanity is that we have sentience. We are self-aware. Ask yourself, what are you, once this body ceases to exist? Do we simply wink out of existence? Of course not! Even science has proved that something about us is energy-based, and energy can only be transformed or transferred, never destroyed. That means that whether your beliefs are religious or fact-based, there’s something of an after-life. That’s right, folks! It’s gonna be “one of those” posts, so buckle up!
Why is knowing yourself so important? Well, according to an article posted by PsychologyToday.com, “When you know yourself, you understand what motivates you to resist bad habits and develop good ones.” IS that it? Or am I missing the ultimate lesson, here? There’s a lot more to it than that, depending on your point of view. And of course I’m gonna explain a bunch of it…
Knowing yourself is the penultimate aspect of life; the ultimate aspect is to do good and eliminate suffering, but I won’t get into that today. Without knowing yourself, you can’t know others. And by proxy, this makes it very difficult to help, associate or befriend others. But more importantly, how can you hope to navigate through life without knowing who you are? And what is knowing oneself? Is it simply acknowledging your genealogy? Knowing your ancestry? Or is it something more primal?
To be honest, I don’t have an answer. I’m mostly venting some of my free-floating thoughts that have focused on something my wife mentioned last week, which precipitated this post. I like to think that I know myself pretty well, yet every once in a while I surprise even myself. And I think that’s the important aspect: a person’s journey of self-discovery really never ends. The day you finish discovering yourself is the day that this life is over. Hopefully, I still have a few more decades of self-discovery ahead. ☯
The Blogging Buddhist 