Know Thyself

If one is self-aware, or seeking to be self-aware, it is quite possible to become aware of one’s flaws, and then doing something about them – whether that is contain the damage they do, or actually change oneself so the problems have been either transformed or resolved.

As an example of that, when I was a kid I became aware that I have a bad temper, largely because of my involvement in personal growth / spiritual development/evolution, including – as a teenager - Buddhism. Knowing, because of that personal growth work, that I am a “work in progress”, I was able to make the decision to use my anger, rather than being a tool for that anger (or, more accurately, whatever was behind it) to express itself.

If I’d been caught up in some sections of the New Age movement, I would have been focused on the “accept and love oneself as one is” view, and thus failed to acknowledge the value of, and need for, transforming and integrating that aspect of oneself so one becomes a better, more effective person.

The process for doing that is often referred to as shadow work.

This concept and terminology has, however, a much older lineage – one which goes back to the Temple of Delphi in ancient Greece, where it was the first of three sayings.

For more on that, see :

·         https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Know_thyself&oldid=1088998966, which includes the various attributions and historic usages;

·         https://exploringyourmind.com/the-origin-of-the-famous-saying-know-thyself/;

·         https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201403/know-thyself; and

·         https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Know+thyself.

I have also written about this at :

·         Post No. 873 – The Importance of Knowing Thyself … and Doing Something About It.

·         Post No. 2,130 - Burned bridges and other changes; 

·         Post No. 2,106 - the puppets of social conditioning; 

·         Post No. 1,214 - Courage in the Workplace; 

·         Post No. 1,208 - Some Thoughts on Living; 

·         Post No. 1,181 - Trauma; 

·         Post No. 718 - Intellectual Cowardice (and conspiracy theories); 

·         The brutality and sometimes sadism of engineering; 

·         Post No. 2,357 - What is the term for the opposite of wisdom?.

Related to this is also :

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

For more on that, see :

·         https://www.socratic-method.com/philosophy-quote-meanings/socrates-the-unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living;

·         https://echoesofquotes.com/the-meaning-behind-the-unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living-what-socrates-really-meant/;

·         https://thinkpeakstudio.com/blog/quote-explained-socrates-july-2026/; and

·         https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_unexamined_life_is_not_worth_living&oldid=1369756590.

 

 

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