“Know thy self and you shall know God”
This old saying is not just a mirror-like mystical proverb that has long lost its meaning throughout the ages.
Indeed, on the most shallow level this proverb makes perfect sense, since we are made “In His image and likeness”, but let`s analyze the symbolics by more thorough and rigid means, after all our brilliant minds are intended to be used as much as we possibly can.
If we turn our minds` eye towards the first half of this ancient proverb and try to analyze it that is to analyze ourselves as it instructs us, we will inevitably notice something profound in the nature of our mind, of our soul. Namely, its layered structure and the jointly coexistence of the opposites in ourselves. If you observe yourself, you will reach the limits of your conscious awareness at some point, beyond which lies the vast expanse of our unconscious psyche. Your thoughts pop up out of nowhere in your mind, random memories and associations surface in your imagination, you react in ways the reasons for which are hidden and unknown and you are under the control of your moods and emotional affections.
When you try to follow the cause and effect chain that is behind all these, the reach of your awareness hits the impenetrable barrier of the boundaries of your consciousness, where it dissolves into the darkness of your psychology. And these unexplored depths of your mind contain exactly what you need to know in order for you to solve your inmost controversies, settle the uncertaincies and better your personality, while in this process of self-observation and self-analyzes you expand the borders of your self-awareness and consciousness on the whole. This is essentially the process of knowing yourself.
When you discern the existence of your unconsciousness, you have made the first step. The second step is to acknowledge the existence of your imperfections that is behavioral and characterological inferiorities and draw-backs that affect your communication and relations with others. It is this deepend awareness about your psychological world that widens and heightens the state of your mind so that you become not just the subject who experiences his/her thoughts, moods and reactions, but also the object of your observations, who creates new thoughts and emotions that react to this higher self, that observes yourself. So, there are three essential entities here: your thoughts, your “I” experiencing your thoughts and your Self observing your “I” experiencing your thoughts. You become both the subject who observes and the object of observation.
It may sound somewhat confusing at this point, but it will clear up further on in our lectures.
In fact, the presence of observing subject and observable object is a fundamental and universal law in order for any knowledge to exist. And this law applied on a universal scale creates life and all forms there are in the cosmos. When you observe yourself and gradually realize the causes, reasons and mechanisms of your psyche you create knowledge and expand the dimensions of your mind, you fill your inner universe with new life and new forms that only existed in potential before your minds` eye brought them to life. All this may sound very inspiring and even exotic in a mystical kind of way, but the process of realization is a truly incredible experience that goes far beyond all words.
Now that we discerned the essential components for knowledge formation, we can briefly turn our attention to the second part of the mystical ancient proverb at the beginning of this post.
Just as when you observe yourself and generally realize your mental factuality, so that you can confidently declare that “I am” (existing), by the same principle this Universal Entity or God declared the same for Itself. The Universe is the mind of God, the universe is the observable object that God, as the observing subject, realized and declared that “I am”. God IS, because the universe exists. Just as we are because our minds exist and realize our existence. God has no name, God is everything but a mere human being with human face and emotions and God certainly has no religious preferences. It is quite ridiculous to say that the Universe is evil or good, christian or muslim. All this grotesque religious tension is due to our limited awareness and primitive understanding. And “evil and good” are purely human qualities/concepts and apply only to human beings. This is a very ground braking and hard to wrap your mind around, but don`t try to swallow it all up at once. Analyze, imagine, observe, think, estimate and synthesize.
It is time to grow up and move on to the next level of our mental evolution, it is time to realize the universe at large. And this is it. In brief. Very brief. Yes, God is Everything. Not just everything around us, we live in the Mind of God, we are made of God. Of course, this does not makes us gods, but we are truly divine beings. Everything is Divine! Do try to think objectively and release your mind off religious dogma and stagnant narrow mindedness. Think, analyze and expand your mental horizons. Use your mental potential, do not satisfy with old, primitive limits. Evolve! We will discuss the nature of reality and go deeper into our understanding about God later on in this series of lectures, somewhere at the beginning of 2009 by schedule.
But now let us return to exploring our selves, because we have to first solve our inner misconceptions and lift our limits in order to understand the Universe and grasp it better.
And this is the meaning of the old wisdom “Know yourself and you shall know God (better)”
And the most pressing issue people need to solve globally is the limited and even lack of self-awareness and self-control. This is a process that every person has to initiate in him/herself.
The global change must begin in the mind of the individual! No one is going to do it for you, there are no magic wands, pills or brain technologies. You can fry your brain with frequency modulators or get high with psychedelic herbs if you like, but the true process of mental advancement is exactly a process, that becomes a state of your mind and a standard in your life and interaction with others. Take your life-long dose of inspiration and live by the standards of higher awareness and deeper understanding!
Do not use the old, passive ways of thinking and do not say “Well, that`s just the way I am” when addressing an inferior aspect of your character. You have the potential to build your personality and transform your inferiorities into qualities! There are no defined limits for the human mind. Just look around you, our whole civilization is a product of our human minds. All the knowledge we have and I want to emphasize on all is a fruit of the human minds. Is this not so?
Do not be simply driven by your instincts and mechanical reflexes. Observe, think, analyze.
Here is a simple and important exercise for you to begin with:
Since aggression is a major issue for humanity today, next time when you feel angry or aggressive emotions take over you, stop. Seize yourself and step out of the emotional affection. Now turn your awareness inwards and analyze. What is the reason? Why do I react this way? “He/She makes me angry.” Yes, but search for the reason not in the person there, but in yourself! Of course, this scenario is not universally applicable, for there are situations when the reason is indeed in the other and not in yourself. Say, you are angry to someone because they are ruing their life without being able to change their self-destructive behavior. Still, anger will not solve anything. Anger and aggression are primitive emotions that never solve anything, but just make things worse. So, in the longer term try to fully take control of these negative emotional states and remove them from yourself.
Have you ever thought about how excessively we use the word “hate”? “I hate milkshake; I hate work; I hate getting up early; I hate winter; I hate him/her; I hate, hate, hate….” We hate everything from inanimate objects, to situations, to abstract concepts, to our friends and family. Why do we hate so much and so easily? Why do we have to use this word at all, even in this careless and humorous way?
But the inadequate use of words and concepts is yet another topic to discuss at another time.
You must be overwhelmed by now with all these issues that you even did not considered as such and thinking “Cheese, life is so much easier when you are not that much aware of everything.” Indeed, the life of an ignorant is an easy and simple life. You just don`t bother to think about global events like the reason for religious tension, political conflicts, human behavior and nature of reality. But, again our brilliant minds are intended for to be used and used by the most out of it! Also, and this is a major misconception as well, geniuses are not born, they are made! The brain is just like a muscle – the more you use it, the better it gets!
To know yourself starts with questions, questions asked to yourself about yourself! Mental advancement consists of self-observation and self-analyzes, to search and realize the reasons and psychological motifs behind your emotional states, affections, reactions and behavior. To grasp and understand the cause and effects that shaped your character and personality throughout your life and to consciously modify and better all those negative and inferior traits that plague your self-esteem, confidence, communication and relationships.
This is the highest meaning of being a human, beyond that of evolution to simply reproduce yourself and beyond that of the social system to contribute to local and global economics like a brick in the wall. To heighten your mind is the intransitive meaning and deepest mystery of human life. And to heighten the global standards of consciousness is the only solution to humanity`s crisis.
“Knowing is not enough – you must apply! Willing is not enough – you must do!”
Bruce Lee
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