This one thing will smash through every obstacle holding you back in life.

Get an alternate life perspective.

“Know Thyself” — the gist of every spiritual sermon boiled down to just these two words. All of philosophy is essentially urging one to be self-aware and understand the nature of self and its relationship with the universe. One you understand this the mystery of the universe unfolds and there is massive shift in your perspective which leads you to true freedom.

There are very tall claims, I agree. Hold on there though and try to unpack “ What do we really mean when we say “Know Thyself”?

When someone asks this generic question we often end up answering our name, where we are from, what we do, what our family is like etc. Do these things really define who we are? The eastern philosophy disagrees. Albeit it says these are the voluntary bondages we have accepted upon ourselves because of our conditioning. These are labels taught to us while we were growing up and accepted them as is without questioning. “Know Thyself" essentially urges us to question this conditioning of ours. Eastern philosophy also provides an essential tool of “ Neti Neti” to strip down these labels. It says when you try to find out who you are , just say “ neti neti “ or “ I am not that “ for every label you give yourself. For example in my case I can ask :

“ Am I my name? “

and answer “I am not that” as that’s just a label

“ Am I a writer?”

and answer “I am not that” as I am way more than just my job

“Am I a daughter?”

and answer “I am not that” as I am way more than just my relations

When you go deeper into this inquiry while removing all the layers on labels from yourself that’s where you end up finding yourself.

As per understanding, when I removed all my labels I found that I am just a combination of the smallest unit of matter in a particular order. There is no difference between me and any other object or living being of this universe. We are the same unit just arranged in different variations. An AI analogy of this would be, If I were an AI I would just be 0 or 1. If that is true, it is like I am a wave to the ocean. How different is a wave from the ocean? How different is a wave from another wave? Which wave is more important? Which wave is rich or influential? No snowflake is better than the other, all snowflakes are just unique. Every snowflake should revel in their uniqueness. You were made as perfect and unique as you could be. Just be supremely proud of who you are. What is a snowflake meant to do? what is a wave meant to achieve? Similarly, what was an early man meant to strive for? Just be, that is more than enough. If you wish to do more than that you are free to explore. The whole of the creation is at your disposal just for that. Just paint the canvas with the colors of your choice. Not to be better, not to make a masterpiece, not for fame, Riches or return of any kind. Just to enjoy the process. Just to express yourself and whatever your essence is.

When you take away this competition and judgement, imposed on yourself, only then you become truly free. You are complete just as you are. You have to unbound yourself of your desires and become free.

If you would like to understand more about this topic or don’t resonate with it at all, please do comment. I would love to have a conversation with you.