Post #3-Know Thyself

“Know Thyself”

~Socrates

In the last post I lifted the sage wisdom of Socrates, the father and exemplar of Western philosophy in his best-known declaration, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Subsequently, I can hear the question, “but how does one examine one’s life?” And in response, I see this quote, also attributed to Socrates, answering that question by simply stating, “know thyself.”

“Know thyself," while credited to Socrates by his most famed puil, Plato, was actually a common Hellenistic or Greek maxim -or rule to live by- (kinda like the American sayings “never put off for tomorrow what you  can do today” or “two heads are better than one”). “Know thyself” has taken on many forms throughout European and American literature, as we have been encouraged to turn away from the multitudes and look within, however my favorite reference actually comes from an ancient Egyptian proverb that states “Man, know thyself ... and thou shalt know the gods.”

There is something intriguingly powerful about this proverb, suggesting if we invest time and energy into examining our lives and our identities in those lives, we will somehow draw closer to universal power, the Great I Am, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. For many, I know this statement makes you uncomfortable, uneasy, and may even be seen as downright blasphemous. If so, let me suggest that this is due to the paradigm of duality that has come to control our perceptions and imaginations. This dualism, unfortunately, can primarily be laid at the doorstep of Christianity and its dominance in the Western world.  Duality has taught us to see things as good or bad, ugly or beautiful, right or wrong, black or white, when in essence, everything that is different may not be good or bad, better or worse but just that, different. Maybe choices can instead be seen as having more productive results or healthier consequences than others, and possibly a great deal of those determinations depend on the individual and their needs. For my Christian friends who are feeling a little threatened right now, let’s go to scripture:

Genesis 2: 16-17 (NRSV)

¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Wow! Adam and Eve were given permission to eat of any tree of the garden but this one. They were forbidden to taste it because it would bring death….which, obviously is the opposite of life and leads us back to the 8^th  and 9^th verses of this chapter:

⁸ And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, AND the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The caps on the word “AND” in the above scripture was an emphasis I added to contrast the difference between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death, otherwise known as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, what is not life-giving, what will kill and bring death????…. the knowledge of good and evil will. In other words, ALL of the trees (or truths, which trees are symbolic for in biblical imagery) are good in the garden except the one that tells you that the others are not. QUESTION: What was forbidden for Adam and Eve? What was the opposite of life-giving but in fact brought about spiritual death? ANSWER: The competitive dualism that distracts us from living lives of balance and wholeness.  THEREFORE: If dualism brings death, embracing the integration of truth and truths bring life.

What am I trying to say? Dear hearts, there is no such thing as sacred and secular, “worldly” knowledge and wisdom versus biblical knowledge and wisdom; there is no battle between science and faith. All truth is God’s truth and to know any truth is to know more of God. The wisdom of psychology, biology, and anthropology is no more or less sacred than the wisdom of theology and biblical study (and may I add the study of other “holy “texts). All is offered to us by the grace and goodness of the universe, the perfect will of a loving God. Know God by receiving all and all kinds of knowledge and truth and then ultimately express it through the most sacred lens of your own life.

Ultimately, I believe God has given us the abundance of the world’s knowledge; a plethora of information, and through the spiritual act of self-actualization we produce perfected praise to God through our own creativity, ingenuity, and most importantly, our own purpose through a life well-examined. And it all begins with knowing thyself.

So, truly and sincerely, who are you and (in many instances most importantly) who aren’t you? What do you do well? What makes you giddy with joy? What causes you to burn with passion?  What makes you squirm with insecurity and what scares the hell out of you? Know yourself because knowing yourself is a holy act, an act of worship, an act of prayer. Don't be frightened by a dualism that pits you against God, and "wordly" endeavors against that which is supposed to be hallowed or sacred. Know yourself and live yourself so that you may fully become yourself. Don’t be distracted by dualistic bickering but instead embrace all the abundance the universe has to offer, because….

This is not the end of your story. Your best days are not behind you, they are ahead of you….and as you know yourself, you will indeed know God in ways and depths you have never known, offering a guarantee of #bigthingscoming!

Be Blessed!

 ~Ray

NOTE: If you’re new to the site it might be helpful to read my first introductory post. Also, feel free to post your questions or comments here and you can always reach out to me on Twitter @raycjordan using the hash tag #bigthingscoming.

(Copyright, 2013, Ray Jordan)