how can we know ourselves?

How can we

know ourselves?

SUNDAY DIALOGUE1st March 2015

KFI CUTTACK CENTRE

KFI Cuttack Centre / Sunday Dialogue

Lets Explore

How can weKnow Ourselves?


What we want to know about ourselves?

Why we want to know about ourselves?

How can we know ourselves?


Is knowing ourselves and self knowledge same or different?

Is knowing ourselves possible only in relationship or in abstraction & isolation?


Knowing Thyself in the words of PHILOSOPHERS & POETS

• Socrates said:The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

• Plato:“The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge,”.

• Persian poet Rumi wondered:“Who am I in the midst of all this thought traffic?”

• ZEN:The Self is the goal of life; attain this goal.Those who know the Self become the Self.



William Shakespeare has written…..

Of all knowledge, the wise and good seek most to know themselves.

Thou sleep’st: awake, and see thyself.The fool don’t think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxI know myself now, and I feel within me A peace above all earthly dignities,A still and quiet conscience.


Upanishad on Knowing Thyself…..

The Self lies beyond the senses and can only be understood by him who knows It is.Those who realize the Self are forever free from the jaws of death.

Is the understanding of oneself a slow process? - taking time, days, years; or do you

understand yourself completely, on the instant?


Krishnamurti says…….

To know oneself is the very purpose of all education. Without self-knowledge, merely to gather facts or take notes so that you can pass examinations is a stupid way of existence. You may be able to quote the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Koran and the Bible, but unless you know yourself you are like a parrot repeating words. Whereas, the moment you begin to know yourself, however little, there is already set going an extraordinary process of creativeness. It is a discovery to suddenly see yourself as you actually are: greedy, quarrelsome, angry, envious, stupid. To see the fact without trying to alter it, just to see exactly what you are is an astonishing revelation. From there you can go deeper and deeper, infinitely, because there is no end to self-knowledge.

This Matter of Culture Chapter 15



So now lets read together How can we

know ourselves? in the words of Krishnaji.

Krishnamurti On Education Talk to Students

Chapter 8, On Image-Making


Student: Sir, how can we know ourselves? Krishnamurti: That is a very good question. Listen to me carefully. How do you know what you are? You understand my question? You look into the mirror for the first time and after a few days or few weeks, you look again and say, "That is me again." Right? So, by looking at the mirror every day, you begin to know your own face, and you say: "That is me." Now can you in the same way know what you are by watching yourself? Can you watch your gestures, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you behave, whether you are hard, cruel, rough, patient? Then you begin to know yourself. You know yourself by watching yourself in the mirror of what you doing, what you are thinking, what you are feeling. That is the mirror - the feeling, the doing, the thinking. And in that mirror you begin to watch yourself. The mirror says, this is the fact; but you do not like the fact. So, you want to alter it. You start distorting it. You do not see it as it is.


Now, as I said the other day, you learn when there is attention and silence. Learning is when you have silence and give complete attention. In that state, you begin to learn. Now, sit very quietly; not because I am asking you to sit quietly, but because that is the way to learn.

Sit very quietly and be still not only physically, not only in your body, but also in your mind. Be very still and then in that stillness, attend. Attend to the sounds outside this building, the cock crowing, the birds, somebody coughing, somebody leaving; listen first to the things outside you, then listen to what is going on in your mind. And you will then see, if you listen very very attentively, in that silence, that the outside sound and the inside sound are the same.

Krishnamurti On Education Talk to Students Chapter 8, 'On Image-Making'

how can we know ourselves?

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