Know Thyself to Heal Thyself
Truth, and specifically moral truth, are the foundations that enable us to actualize our potential for engaging in the wisdom of right-action.
To know-thyself is important. Philosophy is philo-sophia, the "love of wisdom". Wisdom is not simply knowledge or understanding, but acting on that understanding and producing right-actions. Wisdom is especially living a certain way based on moral truth that produces those right-actions and not wrong foolish actions. Philosophy as the love of wisdom, is therefore properly the love of right-action.
True philosophy is based in moral truth and determines our conduct in life to act rightly. A way of living not based in truth is not a proper philosophy, but an ideology that leads one astray into foolishness and suffering. The "love" of wisdom to behave and conduct our lives in a way that is conducive to producing rightness, and reducing wrongness, is how we heal ourselves and the world from its current condition.
This is the foundation which drives ancient "occulted" disciplines such as alchemy, Kabbalah, Tarot and Freemasonry, and also religions at a deeper level, despite the corruption in teachings they have all incurred over time.
The "spiritual"/consciousness journey and search for truth, knowledge and understanding is also a search for answering the question "who am I?”/"who are you?” (know-thyself). What we do as we manifest our consciousness through action and behavior, is a part of who we are.
Wisdom is doing something with what we know. If we don't act on what we understand to be right, then we don't really understand the responsibility that comes with the knowledge and understanding of what is right to do.
"To know and not to do, is not to know.”
- Wang Yangming
There is a difference between having internal knowledge and understanding, and properly applying that knowledge and understand to externally act upon it. The knowledge and understanding gained is meant to be applied as action, right-action.
Understanding must be unified with action at some point in order for something to result from that understanding. This is the basis of the trivium methodology (knowledge, understanding and wisdom). Otherwise, understanding without action leads to nothing in the end. Nothing will end up changing or being healed in the world.
Action through conscious will-power is required for things to change around us. The change and healing that first occurs is internal within, through knowledge and understanding of our attachment to falsity, lies, deceptions and immorality. Then change can happen in the world through external action that needs to be applied. Having accurate understanding of what 'is' in reality is the first step.
Once we know, what are we going to do with what we know?
Knowledge and understanding is not power in itself. Right-action that's developed through accurate understanding will imbue knowledge with power. Knowledge alone has no power. Our will-power makes knowledge powerful because we act upon it.
Right-action is knowing and understanding properly, and then acting upon it. We can act from a position of lack of knowledge and understanding and hope to get the results we want. But since we don't know enough about the situation to produce the results we want, acting from a position of ignorance is not likely to produce the results we really want.
Only by understanding the core foundational root causal factors of the situation/problem we are in, can we come to a position of accurate understanding in order to apply proper solutions.
Aligning with moral truth/law will provide us with the wisdom of right-actions to take.
"Under analysis a person discovers that situations consist of elements, some of which are wrong and others right. If he sorts out and examines those elements, truth is easily separated from error. Some tasks of sorting are more difficult than others, but only because they are more complicated. They have more elements; therefore, they take more time to analyze, or perhaps the individual lacks knowledge of how to deal with them.
Often it is hard to collect all the pertinent facts. Some facts must be filled in by speculation, and here it is important that the speculation be done by a scrupulous person. If those analyses are continued long enough, there finally emerges a clear pattern of distinctions between right and wrong. Those who act before a clear pattern emerges are the persons whose irresponsibility is causing much of society's trouble.”
- Right is Might by Richard W. Wetherill, pg. 23
Knowledge and understanding can be used irresponsibly to create falsity, deception and manipulation, to keep people ignorant and under control. Or it can be used for good to elevate, expand and evolve consciousness. We must know the truth in order to not be fooled, conned, manipulated, hoodwinked, bamboozled and tricked.
Accepting the idea that there is "negative" information you should not learn, ignore, deny, reject and refuse to acknowledge, prevents one from embracing the truth in all its beauty and horror, light and dark, positive and negative, good and evil. Refusing to look at the shadow, darkness, "demon" and negative that dwells inside each of us (consciousness, psyche, mind and "heart", "spirit", which are the same thing), will halt the journey and path towards truth and prevent us from getting to the "heart of the matter", the core foundational root causal factors of our current condition.
The only way out of the problems we have created is by confronting them. In the end, the source of the problem is us, humanity as a whole, that chooses to live in a certain way and create what we create as our human way of life.
The only way forward to overcome a problem and correct it, is to face it and go through it, not ignore it. The only way to overcome the darkness is by shining a light on it. Knowing ourselves by looking in the mirror, into the "heart of darkness", allows us to face that which needs to be transmuted, sublimated, transformed, healed or purified.
Turning our backs to the hard uncomfortable truths is not a solution. We can learn and develop the wisdom to know what the right-action is to take. We can learn from our mistakes, correct them, and become new, truer, higher, realer more authentic potential versions of ourselves. We can continually self-renew who we are. We can change for the better.
Empower yourself with the care, courage and will-power to face the truth. Care for moral truth.
Accept the personal responsibility and take the time, energy, effort, dedication, determination, persistence and perseverance required to learn and understand what is going on in the world and in yourself.
We can heal ourselves and the world if we all work at it. Anarchy of not living with any rulers or masters above others is possible, but only when we are living in ways that allow that to manifest. Until that time, we will have external centralized government and control because we don't develop the self-control and self-governance to be able to truly live in freedom and peace.
Truth takes time. Healing takes time. There is no time like now to start the journey forward and heal. If not now, when?
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
Recent posts you might also be interested in checking out:
- Force vs. Violence - Is Force the Same as Violence?
- Trinity of Unconsciousness
- Healing Ourselves, the World, and Creating the Positive, Requires Facing the Falsity and Negative
- Exercise Makes Your Gut and You Healthier
- How Living By Example and Practicing What We Preach Can Backfire
- The Force-Power of Speech, Physical Action and Defense to Stop Violent Violators
- What's Right for One is Right for All, What's Right for All is Right for One
- Responding to Injustice: Punish Wrongdoers vs. Support Victims
- Chaos Teaches
If you appreciate and value the content, please consider: Upvoting, Sharing or Reblogging below.
me for more content to come!
My goal is to share knowledge, truth and moral understanding in order to help change the world for the better. If you appreciate and value what I do, please consider supporting me as a Steem Witness by voting for me at the bottom of the Witness page; or just click on the upvote button if I am in the top 50.
love your wisdom @krnel, we have the same thinking in some field. when i started meditation i've never experience sickness in myself, i don't know why, probably when your mind is empty from stress and anxiety it will get rid of sickness.
Well constructive philosophy about truth and wisdom, using our wisdom we can come up with the right decisions where we cannot deny the truth, if the results come contrast to what you think of before we shouldn’t feel that much sorry cause a man cannot get all of what he wish for, nature has something else for us which is far more best then our thinkings but man is a greedy creature who always want more and more
Thank you :)
"Understanding must be unified with action at some point in order for something to result from that understanding." - that's the heart of it all and where the challenge is, great stuff your posting, keep it up!
Yup, if we don't act on what we know, nothing happens, and a lot of things that are knowledge require actions, like spreading the word for people to become aware, or physical action, etc. Thanks ;)
Everyone needs to start working. The more we work on ourselves the more we work on eachother. Just like that Lao Tzu quote tells us, no need to worry about other people's progress, awaken yourself and you raise the consciousness of those around you simply by changing your observation of the world and. Your being affects everyone and everything you come into contact with.
No more ignoring our own issues and fears, confront them, acknowledge them, and see where they stem from.
Great post @krnel, I really hope we can all get our shit together.
What do you mean?
When we start to see, or even just look for, the divinity in everyone without exception, we start to lift our world up. Everyone out there is putting out their being, or vibration, so when we put out the divine vibration we lead the way for others to do so. We transmit or teach our vibration, so the higher we raise ourselves the higher we raise everyone, and the higher we raise everyone in our observation of them, the higher we raise our own vibration.
Basically that Lao Tzu quote, awaken ourselves and we awaken the world, literally. Every person has a root inside of us, we are all one, so we affect eachother. The more we look for the good in eachother and stop judging and criticizing, the better off we will all be. Supporting one another will get us so much further than competition, and that support should extend to thought and beyond. This is deeply challenging work imo.
Please do not consider me an authority on this, this is something I'm starting to learn and apply in my own experience. I've had some minor successes in the past where I've felt like I was witnessing the divine. This was brought on by pscilocybin which I felt raised my frequency. At this level of consciousness the world literally changed with my consciousness. People, myself included, became more beautiful, interactions began to flow, and every little creature showed it's true beauty.
Now I spend my days working to understand that without a substance, learning to let go to my true self, but I feel this to be true, maybe the words are unclear though. I hope this made some sense! Otherwise I'll try to refine my language and strengthen my understanding before I talk like I know :)
love to read it...
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvote this reply.
Wow nice @krnel
Wisdom they say is light @krnl. Without wisdom, we cannot apply whatever knowledge we might have acquired in life property.
We are an extension of our thoughts, they can definitely make us heal or fall sick. I am on a journey of acceptance. At the end there is only the truth.