How to Know Ourselves Through Self-Reflection

How can we
know ourselves?
SUNDAY DIALOGUE
1st March 2015
KFI CUTTACK CENTRE

KFI Cuttack Centre / Sunday Dialogue

Lets Explore
How can we
Know Ourselves?

What we want to know about ourselves?
Why we want to know about ourselves?
Howcan we know ourselves?

Is knowing ourselves and self knowledge
same or different?
Is knowing ourselves possible only in
relationship or in abstraction & isolation?

Knowing Thyself in the words of
PHILOSOPHERS & POETS
• Socrates said:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
• Plato:
“The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge,”.
• Persian poet Rumi wondered:
“Who am I in the midst of all this thought traffic?”
• ZEN:
The Self is the goal of life; attain this goal.
Those who know the Self become the Self.

William Shakespeare has written…..
Of all knowledge, the wise and good seek most to
know themselves.
Thou sleep’st: awake, and see thyself.
The fool don’t think he is wise, but the wise man
knows himself to be a fool.
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I know myself now, and I feel within me A peace
above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.

Upanishad on Knowing Thyself…..
The Self lies beyond the senses and can only be
understood by him who knows It is.
Those who realize the Self are forever free from
the jaws of death.

Is the understanding of oneself a slow
process? - taking time, days, years; or do you
understand yourself completely, on the
instant?

Krishnamurti says…….
To know oneself is the very purpose of all education.
Without self-knowledge, merely to gather facts or take notes so
that you can pass examinations is a stupid way of existence. You
may be able to quote the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the
Koran and the Bible, but unless you know yourself you are like a
parrot repeating words. Whereas, the moment you begin to
know yourself, however little, there is already set going an
extraordinary process of creativeness. It is a discovery to
suddenly see yourself as you actually are: greedy, quarrelsome,
angry, envious, stupid. To see the fact without trying to alter it,
just to see exactly what you are is an astonishing revelation. From
there you can go deeper and deeper, infinitely, because there is
no end to self-knowledge.
This Matter of Culture Chapter 15

So now lets read together
How can we
know ourselves?
in the words of Krishnaji.

Krishnamurti
On Education Talk to Students
Chapter 8,
On Image-Making

Student: Sir, how can we know ourselves?
Krishnamurti: That is a very good question. Listen to me carefully.
How do you know what you are? You understand my question?
You look into the mirror for the first time and after a few days or
few weeks, you look again and say, "That is me again." Right? So,
by looking at the mirror every day, you begin to know your own
face, and you say: "That is me." Now can you in the same way
know what you are by watching yourself? Can you watch your
gestures, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you behave,
whether you are hard, cruel, rough, patient? Then you begin to
know yourself. You know yourself by watching yourself in the
mirror of what you doing, what you are thinking, what you are
feeling. That is the mirror - the feeling, the doing, the thinking.
And in that mirror you begin to watch yourself. The mirror says,
this is the fact; but you do not like the fact. So, you want to alter it.
You start distorting it. You do not see it as it is.

Now, as I said the other day, you learn when there is
attention and silence. Learning is when you have silence and give
complete attention. In that state, you begin to learn. Now, sit very
quietly; not because I am asking you to sit quietly, but because
that is the way to learn.
Sit very quietly and be still not only physically, not only in
your body, but also in your mind. Be very still and then in that
stillness, attend. Attend to the sounds outside this building, the
cock crowing, the birds, somebody coughing, somebody leaving;
listen first to the things outside you, then listen to what is going
on in your mind. And you will then see, if you listen very very
attentively, in that silence, that the outside sound and the inside
sound are the same.
Krishnamurti On Education Talk to Students Chapter 8,
'On Image-Making'

How to Know Ourselves Through Self-Reflection

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