Nosce te ipsum

Is it truly a possibility to know one’s self; to fully grasp the intricacies of your own soul; to truly navigate and master life from within?

The Ancient Greek notion; “Nosce te ipsum” or “know thyself” as used by several ancient scholars through time, has borne several meanings but I choose to focus on the one that has ignited my interest, arousing my curiosity so to speak.

To “know thyself” has to be arguably the most profound piece of advice in history, or at least that’s the way I see it. I feel most of the problems (if not all) the world is faced with today would be gone if every homo sapien could truly come to know who they really are; to travel to the undiscovered depths of the soul and get truly acquainted with the very essence of their being. Not that for ages now man hasn’t been in a seemingly unending quest for self discovery and realization. Perhaps it’s not that the search isn’t being conducted but rather we’ve all probably been looking in all the wrong places. Yoga, meditation, psychiatric consultations, expeditions aimed at (the so commonly used) “soul-searching”, have been some of the methods we’ve employed and are still using today and still the number of clueless individuals is on the daily rise; each new day trying to outdo the previous. To truly know yourself is to master life and discover purpose and consequently, find meaning in life itself.

Now, how does one really come to this point of self knowledge? How do you “master” yourself? The answer is quite simple, yet somewhat elusive but most of all, ignored. I’ll put it as simply as possible. To truly know yourself, you must first know your origin, your roots; and mind you, I don’t mean your local government area or county or village. I mean know your source, your Creator. The one who’s got your instruction manual on the shelf; Who knows you more than you could possibly know yourself. If I were to summon some boldness as to the rephrasing of the iconic saying, I’d put it this way; “Know your source, know your content”.

Know your strengths, your weaknesses, your limits, your excesses, your emotions, your desires, your yearnings, your abilities, your triggers, your thoughts, your dreams, your hopes, your aspirations, your victories, your defeats; know not little, know all.

Seriously though; “Know Thyself”