Actors talk about their performances as the best when they were in the moment. Meryl Streep in one of her interviews says she likes to research a lot about the role and when going to act she tries to forget all about it. In this way she is letting her instincts guide her through the process. These instincts were developed partly from the research she did and partly from her own previous experiences. Similarly for us learning about ourselves plays an important role in living our life. Unconsciously we gather a lot of information about us during our daily life. We learn about our tastes, likes, dislikes, allergies, passions, weaknesses etc. But when somebody questions us to list our strengths and weaknesses we draw a blank! Why is that? We believed we knew what we are. But we struggle to describe ourself, our passions, our goals etc. Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj in His discourses talks about the real "me". In ancient Hindu scriptures the real "me" is the soul while body is just like clothes we wear. Every religion, philosophy, school of thought strives for self-realization. We earn doctorates in subjects but we struggle throughout our lifetime to learn about ourselves. What is stopping us from learning about ourselves and why do we need to learn about ourselves?
Actor Dustin Hoffman in one of his interviews talks about the importance of knowing ourselves. He says we always jump off if we sit on something hot; it is our first reaction to avoid those hot spots. He further adds that as a human species we are flawed and we don't want to know things about ourselves that we don't like we always avoid it. This is the reason we know so little about ourselves. We have only explored ourselves superficially but deep down inside us remains a repository of self-knowledge untouched by us. That repository most of the times holds the key to what we are! Unlocking that repository is the key to our satisfaction.
But why do we need to learn about ourselves? Hindu scriptures says if we can just remove the curtain of ignorance can we see who we are. Actor Billy Crystal answering to a question about sacrifices need to become an actor calls for time to dig into ourselves. He asks us to identify the brown spots on our apple and all the other good things that make us who we are and use them to spin the straw into gold. The more we learn about ourselves the more our choices would be closer to what we need. But most of our times we are just aligning our needs to the wants. This leads to confusion and dissatisfaction which is an unnatural state for us.
Actor Dustin Hoffman in one of his interviews talks about the importance of knowing ourselves. He says we always jump off if we sit on something hot; it is our first reaction to avoid those hot spots. He further adds that as a human species we are flawed and we don't want to know things about ourselves that we don't like we always avoid it. This is the reason we know so little about ourselves. We have only explored ourselves superficially but deep down inside us remains a repository of self-knowledge untouched by us. That repository most of the times holds the key to what we are! Unlocking that repository is the key to our satisfaction.
But why do we need to learn about ourselves? Hindu scriptures says if we can just remove the curtain of ignorance can we see who we are. Actor Billy Crystal answering to a question about sacrifices need to become an actor calls for time to dig into ourselves. He asks us to identify the brown spots on our apple and all the other good things that make us who we are and use them to spin the straw into gold. The more we learn about ourselves the more our choices would be closer to what we need. But most of our times we are just aligning our needs to the wants. This leads to confusion and dissatisfaction which is an unnatural state for us.
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