Know Thyself

 “Know thyself.” This quote from Socrates is better known than its meaning. You will see those two simple words scrolled on walls, journals, and even tattooed on people’s bodies. Yet, too few actually live by it. 

Being well acquainted with oneself is a concept that seems to be lost to most. We have been taught how to work with complex machines or cells. We stare into the endless abyss of the deepest oceans and seek out its secrets. We gaze upward and reach as far as we can into the unknown cosmos, longing to know more. Still, we struggle with understanding our own motivations. We ignore our own feelings, fears, and desires. We walk around as spirits covered in flesh and ignore what lies within. We live with a stranger in our own bodies. 

We have ignored the command to, “take the plank out of your own eye,” in favor of seeing only the problems in others. We do not see our own issues. We don’t even recognize our own cries for help. We refuse to see ourselves and yet cry to be seen by others. We are the epitome of childishness. And too few ever grow out of it. 

It is a forever process. It doesn’t end. You never stop growing up. When you stop, it’s over. You have stopped. You end. The boundaries of who you are will be set and the potential to become anything more will die in you. 

Asking the simple question of “what do you want” is more than most people can take. They don’t know. They can’t know. And we can blame parents, society, hack psychiatry, and abuse, all we want. And it might be true, but it doesn’t change the facts. We do not know who we are. We do not know how to be properly motivated and the outcome is all-out slavery of humanity. We are slaves to everything, even our own whims. We lack control over our very lives. Our days are spent pouring into the desires of those that are…stronger? Smarter? What? What is it that makes them better? Why do they have control over your life? Because they provide a convenience? Or is it that they remove the risk of mistake and so you take the path of least resistance, never being willing to discover your actual capabilities because the path set before you has been bordered by fears, in order to prevent you from stepping out of line? 

Being free is tied to how much of you you know and have control over. It is step-in-step with self-knowledge and being able to be responsible for yourself. You are only as free as your ability to take care of yourself. So for each inch of responsibility that you give to someone else in order to be protected, which is also known as extortion (I’m looking at you, U.S. government), we give up our own right to be responsible and free.

All over the world we are seeing people waking up to how they are being used and abused for the sake of a few powerful people. There are calls for big changes. And I agree. But the truth is, change will not happen until we ourselves are changed. We must be able to know who we are, what we are, what we are capable of, and what we need. Seeing ourselves in the trust form will open the doors to seeing humanity for what it really is, and THAT will open the doors to real change. 

This is a process. It does not happen in an instant. It happens over lifetimes. We learn, we teach, we grow. If there is any hope for honest freedom, not as a concept or an ideal, but as a reality lived out, then we must know ourselves. 

Christians call it slavery to sin, but they can’t seem to escape it despite their claims to freedom through Christ because they lack even the basic understanding of what it actually means to be enslaved to something they cannot see. If you cannot understand slavery, then you cannot understand freedom. If you do not know what has entrapped you, then you cannot hope to escape it. 

“Well, Jesus saves us from sin.” 

He helps you realize what it is that has you and teaches you how to overcome it. Freedom from sin, no matter what religion or belief system you are a part of, is not some magic spell that happens when you find the “right” religion or truth. It is the effort of a lifetime to overcome your demons. And yes there are right ways and wrong ways to do it all. But it MUST be done. We cannot sit in complacency and hope that we, our lives, our families, our world will magically get better. Get off your ass and do something about it. Change! And the only way that is going to happen is when you take a long hard look inward. Not at the world and how messed up it is, but you. Just you. It’s hard, and painful, and scary, but it is in all ways and forever necessary. The idea that you can change anything in the world without first working on you is a fruitless and dangerous concept that has brought us to our current state in every conceivable manner.