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Self Knowledge
By rachel | April 24, 2008
Self Knowledge is the quest for truth. It is the journey of an individual to determine who she is. When beginning this quest, she must assess every life experience singularly, as well as, holistically. She must also be aware of what happens in the world around her to influence her reactions to each experience.
When considering the search for Self Knowledge, one must consider whether this is a public pursuit or a personal pursuit or is there a happy medium between the two? You can not have one without the other if you want to have a comprehensive evaluation of who you truly are, and what elements make that possible.
Our individual vision of who we are changes constantly. The mature individuals will self reflect on each impactful experience and assess how and why it affected who they are. A person’s political ideology may change periodically throughout his/her life depending on how well they understand the politics of the times in which they live in. Religious ideologies also change as people have different experiences which often lead to questions like “Why would God allow that to happen?” In this sense, this is a very public pursuit. Most individuals in society have all been through the same experiences that have led to these changes. These same experiences can include, but are not limited to: death of loved ones, natural disasters, marriages, divorce, questioning governmental decrees of how citizens are treated, and war.
Because we have been through these same general experiences, it is not unrealistic that others may have the same general concept of “Self” as I. In these cases, it is feasible for someone to comment on my view of the situation and how it affected society as a whole.
However, the search for truth should also become a very personal experience. Once we have assessed how the world has been affected, we need to assess how a particular experience has affected us personally. We need to reflect on the “outer” reactions, but more importantly, the “inner” reflections of HOW and WHY the experience affected us as it did and what we learned from it.
This is often the difficult part of our quest for self-knowledge. The “informed individual” will spend time increasing their knowledge base by reading, actively listening and questioning various points of view on government, religion, and sociological ideologies. IF we are mature enough, we will learn opposing views to enable us to see the whole picture and not be blinded by one good idea. This expansion of ideas serves as a base for developing our own thoughts on how and why we deal with each experience that happens in our lives. Though this information is available to every one of us equally, it is imperative for us to take all views offered and formulate our own thoughts about the topic. This becomes the question of how perception influences our ideas based on the environment we live(d) in.
Because of this internalized study of “truths” and the ultimate end product of reflection, there is no one person that can argue that your thoughts about your “self” are inaccurate. Each person’s perception of the same experience will be inherently different, based on factors such as the type of environment they are from, prior self-analysis in regards to political views, social views and religious views. Often times, we become arrogant and tell others that their ideas are “wrong”. We tend to forget that a person’s ideas are a personal part of their individual “self” and it is not for us to judge their process of reflection. We do not know the knowledge base or the experiences that have helped to formulate a person’s “level” of self knowledge. The processing of experiences on an internal level is going to be different for everyone based on each person’s perceptions.
Self knowledge is both a public and private pursuit for the truths that take a lifetime to complete. We may never find the answers for which we are searching, but through careful analysis, we will become closer to the clarity needed to obtain a greater balance in our own “self”.
Topics: Randomly Musing |