Know yourself
We are, what we think we are, that’s what Buddha said; you can trust that this statement is true, and you can take it literally. Now, here’s the first problem: instead of trusting ourselves, and believing in ourselves - we believe what other tell us. You’ll maybe say now, that a person is defined by his/her environment, therefore - there’s no choice. But, even though we’re define by our environment - there’s a choice, actually, a path on which we can go; the path of self-exploration, - self-realization. So, the exploration of our inner world. The realization who we are, and what’s our purpose. And this realization shouldn’t be just something shallow, but should be deep, philosophical and spiritual experience.
When realize who you are, you won’t need grasp on the words anymore, and living in hope, that people will say something good about you, so that you could feel a bit better, and you won’t have to hope, that people won’t say something bad, what could made you sad. This is the point on which you know who you are, they have right to their opinion, but you know, so you don’t have to (and you don’t) react emotional.
It’s really logical - you lived with yourself all your life, so I guess, you’re the one who should know yourself the best. There’s not even a single day, which you wouldn’t spend with yourself, there’s not even a single person who could know you better - that’s of course - if you explore just a little bit, and if you start believing in yourself, and in your experiences.
Self-exploration isn’t just important - it’s the key actually, since without it, you’ll easily got cough in your own made-believed-word, which consists of old, and outdated opinions. You must explore your inner world, and realize who you are - and you must keep exploring your inner world - and never stop.
People are running away from themselves, somewhere out, since inside, it’s often too bad, too strange and unfamiliar. Music, television, work, people just can’t be alone in peace and quietness, they’re looking for joy outside.
Right now you can imagine you inner world, as a big dump - everyone comes, and throws some of his things into it, and you just take it all - you love those who throw something “nice” and useful, — and on other hand, you hate those which are throwing bad items; “exploration”, in this analogy, is cleaning of this “dump” and replacement of it, with nice garden; cleaning will take you a lot of time, but when you’ll clean it, - you won’t have so much work with it anymore, and even the work which you’ll have won’t be so hard, opposite, it will be mostly joy. When other people will see this nice garden of yours, they won’t have desire to throw trash in it, quite opposite actually, they’ll enjoy and appreciate it.
But mostly you’ll benefit from this nice clean garden, you’ll feel good in it, you won’t have the need to run away from it anymore.
