KNOW THYSELF

LOVE OTHERS AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF

We cannot love ourselves until we know ourselves. We think we know ourselves. We do not, or at least I do not know myself, consequently I can not say I love myself.

Others react as though they see things in me I do not see. They may be right. I know there are things I do not know. The big issue is, there are things I do not know that I don’t know.

Courageous self observation and examination is required. Do I do so? I doubt it. My great goal is to discover Truth. The search begins with me. How do I begin? What I have done thus far is inadequate. I must see myself as others see me. I need not agree, but I must know and learn.

It is probable I will see uncomfortable characteristics in me that I want to deny. “That’s not me”. I will be wrong on some or many occasions. Something gives rise to the way others see me, something I do not see. I must search for what that is.

I must be prepared to discover I am another man, not the one I think I am. I may find positive characteristics about myself that are surprising. I will almost certainly discover negative characteristics I have not yet seen.

Will this knowledge change me? Only if I am willing.

When people say negative things about me are they talking about me or projecting their own unrecognized characteristics onto me? When I do the same, the same question arrises. We begin to know ourselves through those we most dislike.