Know Thyself is not enough...

I realize that Socrates, Know Thyself is but only the first step.  That being aware of one’s thoughts, one’s emotion and where it springs from, and that which forms the basis for our actions and behavior is only a prelude.

We are informed about ourselves, as we bring alertness and reflection to our behavior, recognize that these action modalities spring from attitudes and beliefs, consciously and unconsciously coded over time, but mostly during our primary family system – the early years, that enabled wiring in our brains, that played itself out thereafter, causing repeated  ‘déjà vu’ moments’ and patterned responses that moved us closer to success or doomed us to failure. A vicious and repeated able circle of inference and action, that spiraled our lives towards and inevitable consequence.  That Karma which comes from our ‘doing’, even if that meant not doing.

However, knowing thyself, is a continuous process, forever evolving, and the self evolves and unfolds, a journey in which the journey itself is richer than the destination. Truth is, that when the self is realized, the destination itself is reached. Truth is that when one recognizes for instance that the pursuit for perfection is but an ‘illness’, when one is already perfect (in our current imperfections), that there is every imperfection that is both necessary and relevant to our growth, that very 'amness' that allows for our growth: this realization enables the destination. We drop the search for ‘perfect’ and accept our own very special uniqueness.

Then we do what is the critical: Be Ourselves! We take responsibility for who we are. 

Swami Vivekananda says: “Never say any man is hopeless, because he only represents a character, a bundle of habits, which can be checked by new and better ones.”