Knowing your true self

The main barrier to self-knowledge is that man thinks like a machine: we are for or against, or switched off, not interested. No one wants to listen, everyone wants to comment and like.

We are a world of robot thinkers programmed by robot parents, robot teachers and a robot society. We know little outside what someone else has taught us or said. The little else we think we know we chum out with a monotony that sends us rushing to social media, television or alcohol to drown our own screeching mediocrity.

Every generation of youth seems to sense it and tries to rebel. But to change the robot world we must first change the robot patterns of our own inherited thinking. Revolution without this fundamental change is the substitution of one evil for another, precisely what man has been doing for thousands of years. The young rebels soon put out their wrists contritely to be chained to the rest of the shuffling, mechanical throng.

To be different permanently, and not be a misfit or an eccentric, you must first understand what has to be changed. This is what self-knowledge is all about.

The robot in us is clearly the enemy. It is the cause of most of the worry, suffering and unhappiness in everybody’s life. It is the thing we have to understand by becoming conscious, by observing our own mind in action.

People are unconscious for most of their lives and they seldom see themselves as they are, except by accident. When they do they usually run from the fact in horror. They sleep from birth to death, enmeshed in the robot’s thinking which they imagine is themselves.

You must not believe this. To believe what another says about you is unconscious, robot thinking. Nothing is true in self-discovery unless it is true in your own experience. This is the only protection against the robot levels of the mind.

Truth does not need argument, agreement, theories or beliefs. There is only one test for it and that is to ask yourself ‘Is the statement true or false in my experience?’

The ability to distinguish between true and false depends on your understanding of yourself which in tum depends on how long and how often you are able to remain aware of yourself. Any source claiming to teach you truth or wisdom has to be tested in this way. Truth cannot be taught but it is quickly recognised by the person ready to discover it.