What is Self-Knowledge?

It is knowl­edge of my own con­di­tion­ing – lit­er­al­ly under­stand­ing every­thing that pre­vents me from total free­dom; every­thing that is based on fear; ever­thing that is past in me; every­thing that caus­es me to behave in ways that I know at the core are destruc­tive to self and/or oth­ers (destruc­tive to the human spir­it in one way or anoth­er); every­thing that pre­vents me from choos­ing and doing what is right; every­thing that caus­es me or oth­ers to suffer.

And it is every­thing that I can do that will enhance the pos­si­bil­i­ties for oth­ers in their own free and nat­ur­al spir­i­tu­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal unfold­ing. To see these things is the begin­ning of free­dom. A leader who is free cre­ates free­dom and pos­si­bil­i­ties for gen­uine com­mu­ni­ty. In gen­uine com­mu­ni­ty is true abun­dance. The rest follows….

rose for self-knowledge

I have a per­son­al­i­ty in order to unlearn it; to pour out that con­di­tion­ing so that fresh water/air/light may come in. And I must do it. It can­not be giv­en to me. If it is, I have joined a cult, and the cult is no bet­ter than the leader of the cult. If I let in the leader’s con­di­tion­ing as a require­ment of join­ing; then I become the leader – and the leader’s shadow.

Self-knowl­edge is also my gifts; gifts that came with me into this world to be expressed, uti­lized, chan­neled into being for the good of the world.

Self-knowl­edge is the grace of not hav­ing to under­stand every­thing; it is mys­tery; the receiv­ing of help and love from sources deeper/higher than what is human; it is liv­ing the goal of the human spir­it, not just touch­ing that spir­it itself.

Self-knowl­edge is the mys­te­ri­ous core of mean­ing in life.

By Dan Oestreich

I am a consultant, coach, facilitator and trainer supporting the growth and development of leaders and teams. For further information about my work and services, please access my Oestreich Associates website.

4 comments

  1. That is beau­ti­ful­ly said and right and true. Self-knowl­edge has a pur­pose. It makes us bet­ter peo­ple. It clears out of the way the things that come between us and oth­ers so that we can con­nect with them. And that makes every­thing that we can imag­ine possible.

  3. With­out doubt the truth lays art­ful­ly in your last sen­tence, for the core of life is real­ly your­self, who­ev­er you are, or sad­ly who you “think” you are. Wit­ness to the con­di­tion­ing of my per­son­al­i­ty and the soci­etal and insti­tu­tion­al pat­terns as well, I am still watch­ing myself as I uncov­er and inter­sect with the per­son I am try­ing to find in myself. It is always hard to decide ulti­mate­ly who we are as an indi­vid­ual, when I ask a dear friend who has­n’t got­ten there yet, she asnwers sim­ply “I am first and last name.” This sim­plic­i­ty in itself seems to point direct­ly at the posi­tion I take in our wild world, not enough peo­ple are being taught that there is some­thing deep­er in the self and life than the mate­r­i­al world which we wake up in every day. 

    As you talked of the pour­ing out, the emp­ty­ing of the con­di­tioned self I was soul­ful­ly remind­ed of the Vision Quest. A rit­u­al­is­tic man­ner which guides the young adult towards the light of self dis­cov­ery. Put out­side of soci­ety, left to sur­vive in the world of its nat­ur­al essence, just maybe the you begin to see the empti­ness swal­low­ing your­self up. I went out alone on a three day fast, with the Rites of Pas­sage pro­gram, and I wit­nessed a vehi­cle that emp­tied me of every­thing that I was. And in the beau­ty of that empti­ness I began to wit­ness for the first time in my short life the vast infin­i­ty that is LIFE, call it God even, if you want.

    To stay with lead­er­ship I will not for­get to remind us that we are all the lead­ers of our own lives. Self-knowl­edge may be the most price­less com­mod­i­ty in an age where every­thing has a price. To be in the process of journy­ing towards the self is the soul’s path, but by begin­ning to be aware of the jour­ney we are able to take quan­tum leaps towards cre­at­ing love and beau­ty in our lives. True lead­er­ship must be by default only an exten­sion of one who is the truest leader of his or her own life, and in shar­ing this art with oth­ers can help guide and be an exam­ple that life itself is just great­ness wait­ing to be dis­cov­ered, if only we knew how. 

    Why don’t we? I often sad­ly pon­der this ques­tion alone, or with few oth­ers who’s life path accepts the greater real­i­ty that “self-knowl­edge is the mys­te­ri­ous core of mean­ing in life.” 

    I could­n’t agree more Dan!

  4. Self-knowl­ege is very pow­er­ful. If one knows how to apply, it ben­e­fits them­self and oth­ers. It is very beautiful.

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