From early childhood, a person wonders about who he is, trying to figure out himself, in his inner world. Thus begins the process of self-knowledge. And this is not only contemplation of oneself, but also observation of one’s actions, thoughts with the aim of improving them. After all, knowing yourself without inner work is meaningless.
One of the main requirements for this is the recognition of one’s own ignorance and the desire to gain this knowledge. One introspection is impossible to know yourself. There is not enough logical reasoning or other mental activity. It is necessary to awaken the consciousness of your Divine nature and do it better under the guidance of an experienced mentor or Master with knowledge.
Each person is a separate world that contains many mysteries. And how difficult it is to comprehend the external world, it is also not easy to know the inner world of man. This is a very exciting, challenging, but achievable task.
An interesting fact is that this is not a one-time process, but a gradual one. Discovering one part in himself, gradually a person learns something else new. And ultimately, it can take a lifetime, making it incredibly fun.In order to understand yourself, you must also be aware of what is driving the actions, what are the internal motives. Such an assessment should be objective.
With each stage of self-knowledge, a person changes himself, changes his attitude to life. He discovers in himself more and more new sides, new opportunities, which he had not guessed before.In ancient teachings, self-knowledge was understood as the knowledge of one's depth, in which the divine nature of man was revealed. It was combined with the study of mental states. Such self-knowledge took a person beyond the knowledge of his own self.
In order to engage in self-knowledge, a person must have not only desire, but also to learn what methods of self-knowledge exist. This may be religion, philosophy, psychology, various meditative techniques or bodily. It is important to understand what result this or that way of knowing oneself leads to.
A person must constantly develop - this is another of the important conditions for knowing oneself. Self-knowledge constantly lags slightly behind the object of knowledge.
In the process of knowing yourself, it is important not to belittle your qualities, and also not to exaggerate them. It is a sober assessment and acceptance of oneself as such is the key to the proper development of the individual. Otherwise, arrogance, self-confidence, or vice versa shyness, isolation, shyness may appear. These qualities will become an insurmountable barrier to self-improvement.
Some philosophers appreciated self-knowledge. So Socrates said that it is the basis of all virtue. Lessing and Kant argued that this is the beginning and center of human wisdom. Goethe wrote: "How can one know oneself? Thanks to contemplation, this is generally impossible, it is possible only through action. Try to fulfill your duty - and then you will find out what is in you."
Self-knowledge through communication.
There are a huge number of areas in psychology and spiritual practices that help a person to realize himself, contribute to his improvement, but few resort to the simplest way of self-knowledge - self-knowledge through communication.As a rule, they treat him very lightly, listening only to what lies on the surface of what was said, without going into a deeper meaning. Someone praise or criticize, this is taken into account, but almost no one listens further to what we are talking about, they are telling us, or someone is talking next to us about someone. By learning to listen, you can discover a whole new world of communication, better understand yourself and those around you, learn how to build relationships based on what you have learned, and thus achieve greater success in working with other people.In order to understand how this works, you need to learn a few key points from the field of philosophy:
1.Unity in differences, differences in unity. All living things are individual in nature. Each has his own abilities, tastes. It is impossible to find two absolutely identical creatures. But with all this diversity, all living beings are part of one whole, part of God, which unites them. The Maya tribe has the word inlakesh in their language, which means I - this is another you. It very well reflects our similarity and at the same time difference from each other.
2.All living things are a reflection of each other. We are all mirrors for others, and we ourselves can also look in others to see ourselves. And this explains why pets are so similar to their owners: they are a reflection of each other. However, there are discrepancies in the quantitative reflection of qualities. This is due to the difference in unity.
3.Changing yourself, you change the world. This is due to the fact that we are a reflection of each other. Changing ourselves, we change the people around us, or a natural change of environment occurs, and new people come into our lives.