“Be a Light To Yourself” — 3 Essential Points on Self-Knowledge.
Unlike common sense, self-knowledge serves not only to obtain the quality of life but to understand the conflicts of all mankind.
“You have to be a light to yourself. Not the light of a psychologist, a professor, Jesus, Buddha, or a good heart. You have to be a light to yourself in a world that is utterly becoming dark”. These were the words of a man named Jiddu Krishnamurti, who was concerned, in addition to other issues relevant to the quality of life — such as happiness, loneliness, and relationships — with self-knowledge.
Starting from the idea of Heraclitus of Ephesus that “all men can know themselves and think sensibly”, there are some essential points that philosophy treats to begin the development of self-knowledge.
1. Self-knowledge does not depend on any external authority.
Although one of his most famous phrases is that “it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society”, Krishnamurti has advanced much in the studies on subjects relevant to humanity, and one of them is self-knowledge. Unlike common sense, self-knowledge serves not only to obtain a quality of life but to understand the constant conflicts of all humanity:
“Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. In self-knowledge is the whole universe, it encompasses all the conflicts of mankind”.
Krishnamurti said that “Truth is a pathless land”, that Truth is within you, your soul, and not within a book, dogma or any belief systems. “Why do you want to be students of books instead of students of life?”, he asked. Not that systems, methods, and dogmas are not important. Clearly they are. They have the function of filling a specific space within one’s life, but our life is composed of other spaces, and one of them can only be filled by yourself through self-knowledge. That is your responsibility.
According to Jiddu Krishnamurti, the development of self-knowledge does not depend on any external authority, guru or leader:
“Obtaining self-consciousness is an arduous task, and as most of us prefer an easy, illusory way, we create the authority to shape and pattern our lives. This authority can be the collective, the state or it can be the personal, the Master, the savior, the guru. Any kind of authority is blind, it creates recklessness.“
Krishnamurti’s intuition is that man can establish his own uniqueness by means of the encounter with Truth, but “Truth is a pathless land”, it becomes inaccessible by other methods or pre-established systems. Truth is not found in any organization or belief system, because “Truth is not a fixed point,” he said. The need arises for us to develop self-knowledge from ourselves, not from outside authorities.
Bruce Lee, the protagonist of mine in the previous article and strongly influenced by the thinking of Jiddu Krishnamurti, understood that although we have “more confidence in what we copy than in what we create”, it is necessary to understand the fact that there is no external help, but you help yourself, improve your self-control and follow your own direction.
Bruce adds the following two points:
“There is a strong desire, in most of us, to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus to free ourselves from the responsibility of acts that are stimulated by our own inclinations and questionable impulses.”
“We have more confidence in what we copy than in what we have created. We can not produce a sense of absolute security of anything that has its roots in ourselves.”
For Bruce, the first step to change as a person is to have the perception of how we are today, after all, “to become different from we are, we must have a certain awareness of who we are.” For him, the path of self-knowledge and self-awareness go hand in hand, however, “the path of self-perception is the most difficult.”
2. Self-knowledge is constant, continuous and endless. It is not an end result.
Krishnamurti said that self-knowledge should be seen as a continuous and endless process, not as a fixed and final objective:
“Self-knowledge is not an end in itself. Is there a source for a river? Every drop of water creates the river from beginning to end.”
He also said that self-knowledge should not be seen as a result to be achieved, an end, for “there is no end to self-knowledge, for it is a constant process of understanding.”
“Understanding the whole process of oneself requires constant vigilance, awareness, in the action of the relationship. There must be a constant look at each incident, no choice, no condemnation or acceptance, with a certain sense of impassibility, so that the truth of every incident is revealed, but this self-knowledge is not a result, an end, there is no end to self-knowledge, it is a constant process of understanding”.
Krishnamurti understood that self-knowledge is different from self-improvement. The self-knowledge requires observation without condemnation or acceptance, and the self-improvement implies condemnation and obtaining results.
Bruce Lee also saw it that way. He believed that the Truth was not in styles or fight methods but within each one. That’s why in his famous 1971 interview, The Lost Interview, on The Pierre Berton Show, he says:
I do not believe in styles anymore, I mean I do not believe that is such thing as like Chinese way of fighting or japonese way of fighting. (…) Styles tends to a only separate man because they have their own doctrines, and the doctrine became the gospel truth, that you cannot change. But if you do not have style, if you say “well, here I am as a human being, how can I express myself, totally and completely?” Now that way you won’t create a style, because a style is a crystallization, that way it’s a process of continuing growing.”
3. Relationships are an excellent source of self-knowledge
First, we must remember that I am not just talking about a loving relationship because everything in life is a relationship. Krishnamurti understood that “there is nothing alive on Earth that is not related to one thing or another.” We are constantly relating to people, the environment, objects, etc.
Krishnamurti understood that the very function of a relationship is “to reveal one’s state of well-being”, and that the relationship “is a process of self-revelation, self-knowledge”:
“All life is a relationship movement. There is nothing alive on Earth that is unrelated to one thing or another. Even the hermit, the man who sets out for a solitary place, is related to his past, is related to those around him. There is no escape from the relationship.”
“Self-knowledge arises when we are aware of ourselves in the relationship, which shows what we are from moment to moment. The relationship is a mirror in which we see ourselves as we really are.”
But why does Krishnamurti compare the relationship with a mirror? Because it is in the mirror of relationships that our imperfections stand out, and this allows us to see what really exists without distortion. Understanding what exists, that is, perceiving — among other attributes of the personality — our defects require an enormous capacity for perception and recognition, and this is the first step in knowing how to deal with ourselves. Our anxieties, fears, and insecurities appear in the mirror of relationships, and the perception of these attributes of personality-attributes we often dislike-appear when we are in the process of relating with another person, and from self-awareness comes self-knowledge.
From the observation of our thoughts, reactions, feelings, we have the opportunity to know what we are, and this only occurs within a process of relationship. And from this perception will bear the self-knowledge.
That way, if it is necessary to develop the wisdom to deal with ourselves, it is still more indispensable and difficult to have patience and good sense to deal with others. Therefore, a relationship is an excellent source of self-knowledge.
This self-knowledge based on the relationship is constantly developed and implies an awareness of how we react to the situations that life exposes us, and this is only possible through relationships, after all, to live is to relate.
Just in a relationship, there is a possibility of developing consciousness about ourselves in action. “You can not find yourself isolated, but related — with society, your spouse, your brother, etc.,” said Krishnamurti.
Bruce Lee understood that maturity came with self-knowledge, for “it is a perception of what is within us.” It also complements:
“A relationship is an understanding. It is a process of self-revelation. A relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself ”
Self-knowledge is developed from the mirror of relationships. To live is to relate. There is no self-knowledge in isolation. To know the other is to know yourself.
“After all, knowing yourself is observing your behavior, your words, what you do in your daily relationships, that’s all.”
The development of self-knowledge requires the perception of our own defects and imperfections, and this is very difficult because these characteristics appear only in relationships.
However, self-knowledge allows us to walk more firmly on the ground, to have personal security, self-control and think in a correct and sensible way in the face of situations. These are symptoms of self-knowledge.
That does not mean we will not make more mistakes anymore. Nor does it mean that we are no longer going through difficulties and that others will not try to reach us. However, as Seneca says: “It is not invulnerable something that does not receive a blow, but that which does not suffer injury.”
Self-knowledge depends on the perception of ourselves, and this requires sensitivity. A sensitivity to everything and everyone, devoid of thought and judgment. It’s about just noticing our characteristics without trying to change them. And it is by perceiving us through our sensitivity that we have the chance to do differently not only ourselves but with the people with whom we relate.
