To know others is wisdom, to know yourself enlightenment - Lao Tzu-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching
http://www.mysticbanana.com/what-do-these-quotes-of-lao-tzu-mean-to-you.html
To know others is wisdom, to know yourself enlightenment - Lao Tzu-
by frankiespeakin 6 Replies latest jw friends
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frankiespeakin
I thinking this Guy did a lot of thinking, meditation, or some form of deep inner searching.
What does it really mean to know one's self perhaps a glimps of the totality or can we say nontotality of it,,(totality is such a imaginary word that each ones psychic projection of what this word means is varried by our each imagination.)
I think it means knowing ourselves beyond this chemical synaspes computer we call our brain,,more profound than that,,Knowing our desires, and beyound that,,,, what makes desires, tracing all the way back to even more basic things than that.
Of coarse when this was written these thing weren't known. But to know one's self intimately requires effort and honesty we can't lie and make up stuff about ourselves and expect to get anywhere close to knowing. A false knowing,,based on wishfull thinking,,culturally conditioned beleifs with a touch of self pride clouds the picture. And if someone really knew themselve in this way would the really speak it or write about it? Perhaps it could happen but without pride or other common emotions that would have to be subdued or seen and recognized for such a search to progress very far.
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poppers
I think Lao Tzu means this: to "know yourself" means to be able to see how you deviate away from your true essence and then return there spontaneously when you find yourself in the world of duality. When you know yourself you "see" those strategies that draw you away from that essence and are no longer fooled into remaining in the mentally created world of separation. In other words, you can function there when needed, but no longer get lost and trapped there because you are so consciously and firmly anchored in your true essence.
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James Brown
I think a person could write a book on knowing oneself.
Why you do what you do. What your motives are.
I think you become enlightened when you realize that you become what you think about.
And if you can control what you think about, you can control what you become.
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poppers
I think you become enlightened when you realize that you become what you think about.
And if you can control what you think about, you can control what you become.
I think you are on the right track, but I will add this: what you are isn't a product of thinking, and you can't add anything to your true essence. In other words, you are already fully complete and have no need to "become" anything more because it's in knowing yourself that you feel and realize that you are complete. It's the perceived "need" to become something that keeps you trapped in duality. That's what the enlightened have realized directly.
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apostatethunder
Our essence is spiritual, it has nothing to do with what we think or even feel. We are who we are.
Every choice we make moves us closer or farther from the enlightenment of our true essence, and from life itself. Isaiah 44:24-25
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