Do You Really Know Yourself?

Objective
One of the reason for the prevalent problems of humanity is:
human beings are ignorant of 'themselves'.
The majority of humans are not aware of the mechanisms of the 'engine' that drive their good and bad behaviors.
How much do you really know about yourself?
What is the significance of knowing yourself as Being Human and your role in humanity?
How can you reconcile your self as being human with the infinite universe?

If you do not know yourself as a wholesome human being, then you are likely to go through life like a zombie and be at the mercy of your instincts and passions. One will always be tyranized by the inherent subliminal and The Primordial Fear and Terror of Mortality within one's psyche.

Not knowing yourself sufficiently is like driving a car downhill without brakes.

• If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.
  - Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu's quote with reference to war, is relevant to life strategies. Your internal enemies could be your passions and instincts when they wrongly invoked and unmodulated.

How to Know Yourself
The most critical step to know yourself is to admit you do not know much about yourself. The first thing you need to do is to understand human nature and the role of the individual self within the infinite universe.

To really know yourself means, knowing the why and how of the following;

1. What is Self and a Human Being's role within the universe
2. The Core Purpose of Life
3. Humanity and its core purpose
4. Human Nature
5. Human Being
6. What is Spirituality and role of religion
7. Alternative solutions to resolve life's problems
8. The meaning of Life
9. The Primordial Fear of Mortality
10. The existence of the universe
11. Your pyschological self
12. Your intelligence and proclivities
13. What is knowing and knowledge?
14. Every physical parts of yourfself especially your brain and mind.
15. The Human Brain (1)
16. How your brain and mind interacts with the external environment.
17. The workings underlying your consciousness
18. The proximate cause of human problems


Continuous Improvement Basis
The principle of knowing oneself is based on a continual improvement approach with actual rewiring of neurons in one's brain.

Neural-Based
No improvement will be realized unless the proper neural circuits are correctly wired.
As one builds up knowledge about oneself and rewire the relevant neural wires in one's brain/mind, one is installing 'brakes' that would modulate the wild passions and intincts from the lower brain/mind.
There are many ways to ensure one's neural circuits are effectively wired to align oneself to the core purpose of humanity.

The Result of Knowing Oneself
When a human being knows oneself, one will realize that maintaining one's basic existence and ensuring one's survival itself is by default contributing to a role in humanity. This can be done by sustaining psychological homeostasis to align to the The Core Purpose of Life and Humanity.
The next stage is to ensure a progressive positive contribution and avoid negatives to humanity.

Implications
Once a person knows oneself, one will be able realize one's role (no matter how insignificant) in the universe and within one's capability contribute positively to humanity.

It is critical that a being human on Earth has two significant purposes and role for humanity; i.e.

1. Basic self-existence
2. Progressive existence

This two functions of existence and role for a human within humanity is very important.

1. Basic self-existence - Basic Role
The fact and process of reproduction of a human being is basically a fundamental role of every human. The birth of every human being is a potential to serve the core purpose of humanity. The basic purpose of every human is to ensure they maintain their survival at all costs. Thus when one is able to survive one's life cycle, one is already aligned and has serve humanity's purpose regardless of any reputable contributions to mankind.
This will enable every human to have a sense of purpose and meaning in life. This is necessary as not every one born on Earth can be an Einstein, Leonardo, Edison or Bill Gates.
The additional responsibility other than basic existence is for any human being to avoid being negative or hinder humanity's progress. Examples are religious bigotry and other crimes against humanity.
One need to be a team member of TeamHumanity and at the minimum support the team if one is not able to contribute for various reasons.

2. Progressive existence
The other more significant role of any human is to be aligned to Humanity and its core purpose and contribute positively to it within one's capability and competency.


Related Post in this Blog
Human Nature
Human Being
Being Human
The Core Purpose of Life
The meaning of Life


Notes and Related References:
Know Thyself -wiki
Self-knowledge -wiki
Self-Concept -wiki
Psychology of Self
How to know yourself -wiki
Know Thyself - Stanford Enc. of Philosophy
Brain-Mind - Know Thyself
Know Thyself - Groups and Forums