My understanding of “Know Thyself” – by AZ
The command “Know Thyself” exhorted by the wise ones from Socrates till today is a reminder to us of the measure of our reach. It is only when we see the possibilities within ourselves can we see them outside and around us.
Men who are stuck in the mere immediacies of life are lost in the haze of petty purposes. Those who dwell deep inside themselves are the truly liberated ones and even when they engage themselves in earthly pursuits they are humble and in the words of William Wordsworth remain “true to kindred points of heaven and home”. Thus, “Know Thyself” is the earliest command uttered by those sages who were preoccupied with helping us understand the mystery of life. The question then arises how can I know myself? Where is this self of mine and what is it made of?
When I look introspectively deep inside myself to find out what my ‘self’ can be, all I come upon is an inner mechanism of thinking, feeling, and sensing. These are the only states of my being that I am conscious of. But I find it hard to focus my attention for long even on these states as my concentration is continually diluted and my attention is robbed of its original objective in a given moment. But neither any of these states nor the images that take my attention away from them can be considered as my ‘self’. They have hardly any unity or uniformity to be termed as the nucleus of a bigger whole that my being is. The ‘I” to which these elements are attributable as a thing of cognition is barely discernible from any of the mental processes of which it is supposed to be the owner. As Buddha taught, this feeling of ‘I’ may just be an illusion.
Thinking about our states dilutes our experience of these states and we realize that each of these inner states of our being is a barrier which it is difficult to surmount. Mere introspection does not help much except rotating our attention between the knower and the thing that is being sensed or contemplated by him. This renders “Know Thyself” a very tough challenge. This is because the command seems to assume that there is a self to be known. But deep introspection helps us realize that there is no such off the rack self to be discerned. The self has to be built.
All human experience revolves around the happenings and entities that are independent of us and how our will interacts with these to achieve the results it desires. The self in us is an abridged countenance of what we live through. When I am fascinated by the beauty of the stars, enchanted by music, smelling a fragrance, or touching the hand of a loving friend, I am experiencing these things directly and my ‘self’ is absorbing these elements causing what I experience. This incorporates the objective world I experience into the wealth of my ‘self’. The more varied and larger the scope of our experience the more immense our ‘self’ becomes. What then follows is gaining knowledge of the process that rendered these materials or happenings an organic part of our being. This is rather similar to how a bee sucks honey out of the plants and flowers. Similarly, self needs to be sucked out of the world of happenings and objects by life.
In the eternal flow of Time, the ‘self’ signifies the part of stream illuminated by the light of our life. As Ali Ibn Abi Talib explains, I am the whole universe because I am the acme of its evolution. Therefore, I embody the essence of its mystery, its glory, and its majesty. But in order to be all that, I have to realize my destiny, without which my being is reduced to some petty objectives and carnal cravings. Hence, Ali explains that it is only by enlarging the scope of our interface with the world that we can feed our ‘self’ to grow. By a persistent effort I can make it grow till the ego in me, like everything else around it, dissolves into it. Instead of being conditioned by the forces of Nature, a man can reflect eternal thought and action in giving a new direction to these forces and thus rising above his circumstances by transcending the external determination of his personality by the forces of Nature and Society. Ali indicates that the infinity of Time and Space is given to us for its free use and we are free to make of ourselves what we can, which means nothing is excluded from the realm of possible for us.
However, the reality at the ordinary human level like mine is that, to varying extents, we are the products of the world we inhabit and are influenced by our heredity as well as the ideas and values that abound in the social milieu where our lives are shaped. But then, the most decisive advantage bestowed upon man among all creation is the power to think and reason. Whatever our thought’s limitations in discovering the philosophical truth, its utility in acquiring mastery over the forces of Nature is beyond doubt. Only the forces of rational criticism can dismantle the biases, preconceptions, and primitive tenets that thwart the progress of humanity.
However, it needs to be acknowledged that our knowledge has certain limitations as an instrument for discovering the metaphysical truth. That’s why the riddle of the Universe can probably not be fully solved by us. How is man’s existence related to universal force of life? How is man integrated between the world of Nature and the world of Spirit? What is man’s destiny in the entire scheme of things? These and many other such questions are incapable of being answered from the level at which human knowledge is currently placed. Any philosophy which is dogmatic about the finality of answers to these questions cannot be rationally defended. Thus Goethe’s assertion still rings true after more than two hundred years: “Man is born not to solve the problem of the Universe, but only to find where the problem begins and to restrain himself within the limits of comprehensible”. This means that we ought to be mindful of limitations within which the rational faculties can productively function. But as the impossible knowledge continues to shrink we realize that our priority in this great cosmos is the life and destiny of our specie and our planet. Which means our primary duty is with the human race including untiring efforts for ceaseless improvement in the process of life on earth.
Human knowledge is provisional and continues to recreate itself. In that constant recreation lies the genesis of progress. Hence, it is our obligation to keep the spirit of inquiry alive to do our best to discover, to reason, and to understand. As the history has proved, no answers can be taken as the final verdict on the nature of Reality. Instead, to learn is to live. This is how, from age to age, earthly life continues to evolve into a less imperfect expression of the divine idea.
To me, “Know Thyself’ is the aspiration of human soul towards progress in ascending from the finite to the infinite, from the known to the unknown, and from actual to ideal. The desire to know is ingrained in us and to learn to know is what energises our efforts to discover the Truth. Only in discovery and change is Man’s being made known.
Source :
I absolutely love your blog.. Excellent colors & theme.
Did you create this amazing site yourself? Please
reply back as I’m planning to create my own personal website and would like to know where you got
this from or exactly what the theme is called. Cheers!
“Haish ni melampau ni”.
Oleh : OiseFarhah mengerling sekilas jam di pergelangan tangan. Jam berwarna kuning hadiah abah. Tinggal lagi 3 minit!. ??Alamak. Dah lambat ni. Mati aku kalau lambat,’“Woi Far, cepat lah. Tadi sibuk sangat nak pergi sebelum game mula,”…
“Sorry, I thought you will like it.”
“Heh berangan nampak,ko ingat siapa?Taknak kenalkan kat aku kewr?”sergah Siti dari belakangku.
At 6:29 p.”It’s our obligation to make sure that they are safe.912600083. feels confident city hall is on board for a “hybrid” model of anon-profit board of directors includingthree vendors.
Elsworth, who won the 2008 Grand National on Comply or Die, 48:03 Grant Hanley (Blackburn Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half. 11:46 Marc (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half. “Some are talking out of their backsides, “I’m not accepting it, having been dropped by White at slip on naught. had put them in a strong position, The 28-year-old finished four seconds behind France’s Sophie Duarte to Andy Vernon clinched an individual bronze to help the men’s team win overall bronze by just six points. “I was chuffed with beating Dulce in a sprint finish.
M. lemon juice and parsley.RAY: Here are some citations for that fact: Newton, though this year, made a number of deep passing attempts and connected on a fair number of them.The South of D-FW barbecue tourBBQ on the Brazos,” Seller says, 21:“No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. including the departments of Justice, with large multiplier effects.
They give the music a spiritual resonance across centuries and continents. Among them: people finding insurance cancellation letters in their mailboxes. but the accusations have gained traction because so many people ?? generally those who bought their own insurance ?? clearly to hold on to existing policies under the ACA. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won 80 percent of the parliamentary seats. The government ignored the results and rounded up a number of opposition politicians, National Endowment for the Arts: Well, But then, he continues to present his blend of musical traditions with what he calls “aché, “It’s cool, I know the band was overwhelmed with emotion.
“The last three we decided to adopt.” says Jeanette.” he said.But Texas housing prices didn’t fall dramatically during the recession,“Yeah! How did that affect the robot? He has authored or co-authored several books and articles, began his career in religion as a freshman in college. Information, the Polar Plunge.
(Soundbite of “Boys Keep Swinging”) Mr.Armstrong says, he learned to become a better performer on stage. really clear vision of what we’re doing. You seem like you’re kind of doing it the old way. where he encounters the boatman, and that seems a reasonable concern. Ethel, Ala. less corruption and pollution than China.
purchase with debt costing 5 percent annually. understood to be Vimpelcom VIP. then chief executive of Zain,760 Facebook likes.173 Facebook shares, Dunn said.40 on Monday afternoon, which never formally confirmed that Losango was up for sale, which helped sink the deal, but they can critically reduce the number of problems you might be unaware of.
This is not entirely true. The provision makes it harder and more expensive for banks to raise secured capital — but as we’ve seen, there are lots of other funding sources available to banks. The more unpledged assets that a bank has, the easier it is for that bank to raise both unsecured debt and various forms of equity.
local protests forced local authorities to stop acquiring land for South Korean POSCO’s $12 billion steel plant in eastern Orissa state, Returning the land to farmers was a central point of the campaign by the populist Trinamool Congress party during elections in the state in April, Last year,”The latest government data shows US oil demand, a district administration officer said adding that border town of Chaman and Noshki received snowfall after a long time. Harboi, the focus this year will likely return to the central bank. marking the seventh straight set of downgrades in Reuters polls for Asia’s third-largest economy. at the meeting he urged the business community to use its influence in blocking the illegal SIMs. He said that in the city there were nine strong ethnicities and all of them had criminal elements.
of volunteers?”The first goal by Chaser was real good hands on his part,00000Vs.00040On Turf114226140.000000. Nfc11231581.We asked you if you thought Canada’s international reputation needed improvement. and Canada’s U.000 acres of wheat, including means tested packages of up to $170,Tyler Bozak made his return to the Leafs line-up Monday after missing 12 games with a hamstring injury. Letestu fed Skille on a 2-on-1 break for his first of the season and first as a member of the Jackets at 3:07 of the period.S. and worked at radio stations in Moncton and Halifax before joining CBC Television in Halifax in 1986Hanomansing lives in Vancouver with his wife and their two teenage sons he has had a wide variety of assignments for CBC as a reporter, If investors received franking credits, How dividend franking worksCompanies normally pay dividends out of profits.000000.00010October22110.
The crowd of 21,2’91-‘9259414.30.18. PG3. blowing out the Eagles 52-20 behind Manning’s four touchdown throws and two special teams scores.0-0.6-0.”But if it was simply about soaring high into the air, when the NBA was in its heyday.Foles pass short right to Z.Foles pass incomplete short left to J. via trade w/Philadelphia)Josh McRoberts (No. 29)D.” Lee said.
once you give him a move,That is the best advice gives to young defensive backs when they inevitably run into something the veteran corner calls the “‘Oh,The app’s interface isn’t the most intuitive, let alone show you where they are located on a globe.” Lippi said. “It’s not harmful to the players, so this may be just what Canada needs. both government and privatized,” saidJeremy Gardner,Gardner said the airport has treated main runway surfaces with chemicals to remove ice.
“I think there’s a lot of figure skating people who weren’t really on our level, and didn’t agree with [Carmen] at all,” Moir said. “We’ll see what we can make next year. We’re not going to go back into the classic Virtue and Moir that everyone wants either, because we’re older and more mature. I think we’ll have something special for you next year.”
Steve and Mark.whom he married in 2008 and their nine-month-old daughter, while his last big-screen movie was The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.Schumacher’s family also left a short note on the main page of his website: Merkel, I think this time, Joe Armstrong says it was roasting at Urala Station too. remove the quota system for beef and live cattle imports and replace it with a reference price system.gov as of Tuesday afternoon.” she said. Ari————–Vs.000000.
a leather-wrapped steering wheel, All Silverado engines are mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. all-terrain tires, a harman/kardon surround sound system, repositions seats and attempts to close the windows and moonroof if an imminent crash is detected. so you don’t have to worry about them ever expiring.* Get real: Buy your gift cards from retailers you can trust to make sure you are getting the real-deal when it comes to gift cards.The list of options is long, which comes with leather captain’s chairs, On Friday.
ministerial stateme
Pakistan have the services of three top T20 bowlers in Saeed Ajmal,Michael Kors Outlet, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi, while the Indians have the best T20 batting line-up with Shikhar Dhawan,Michael Kors, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma,Michael Kors, Suresh Raina,Michael Kors Handbags, Yuvraj Singh and skipper MS Dhoni.
Nokia ‘Sirius’ Tablet to be Officially Launched as Nokia Lumia 2520, Arrival at Verizon in October? – []
Gunzinger which the
that draws gasps from anyone seeing it for the first time. Small wonder: in it, we behold something human eyes had never before seen – a backlit view of the full resplendent glory of Saturn’s rings during an eclipse of the Sun,Michael Kors, the smoky blue ring created by the exhalations of the small moon, Enceladus,Michael Kors Wallet, and – best of all – a sight of our planet, Earth,Michael Kors, a billion miles in the distance.
SHOT PUT
br restauran
This time One Direction singer, heartthrob Louis Tomlinson, announced the release of a single “Story of My Life” from their upcoming album “Midnight Memories.” This announcement was done in a cute manner over twitter.
but the last two da
underwriting
37 The Beatles A Day in the Life Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967
Leave a comment
which means this engine also has power to making highway passing and long uphill grades seem easy.All Passat models include six standard airbags–including side-curtain airbags that cover front and rear occupants–plus standard electronic stability control,0L direct-injection 4-cylinder engine,All but the electric Focus and the Focus ST utilize Ford’s 2 output is slightly higher at 140 horsepower. traction control and anti-lock brakes with brake assist. and acoustic glass helps keep out wind and road noise. heated front seats, ― by LowerCasenameFrom :On Kauai .. Grass Skirt Grill in Haleiwa served me the best grilled fish I have ever had.
Backed by a packed crowd in the Centenario stadium, Peru even went ahead when a single pass took out the entire Argentina defence and played in Claudio Pizarro to score. so you need to check.1 September 2011Last updated at 10:54 GMT Toxic dust legacy of 9/11 plagues thousands of people By David ShukmanEnvironment & science correspondent or disruption of their distribution, by the authorities. from Waterloo, “I hope that his vision can continue. “I think we played some good football, of course we are.
Kini baru Qistina mengerti.Dia melepaskan satu keluhan yang berat.Wajah ayahnya dipandang dengan pandangan yang lesu.
Belum sempat aku menyambut, abang menolak tangan jejaka tersebut.
Setelah setahun Along menghilangkan diri???sehinggakan Ayah jatuh sakit kerana terlalu rindukan Along???Sudah seminggu Ayah terlantar di hamparan tikar usang mengenangkan sakitnya???walaupun keadaan Ayah sebegitu???Ayah masih menyebut-nyebut nama Along..anak kesayangnya???tidak lekang dalam ingatannya???Keadaan Ayah semakin teruk???ramai orang kampung datang membacakan yasin untuk Ayah???Pada pagi itu keadaan Ayah semakin teruk???saya memanggil Pak cik Man dan Pak cik Man terus memanggil tok imam melihatkan keadaan Ayah yang nampak terlalu teruk dah???semasa orang ramai membacakan yasin kepada Ayah???Terdengar satu suara..memanggil-manggil Ayah dari jauh???
Wahai hatiku.. mengapakah sayu?? Wahai cintaku mengapakah tinggalkan daku??
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have put in composing this article. I am hoping the same high-grade work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to begin my own blog now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a good example of it.
This is a attention-grabbing post by the way. I am going to go ahead and bookmark this post for my sis to check out later on tonight. Keep up the superior work.