Know Thyself-From my angle

Richard Shusterman’s questioning  got me thinking. “Know thyself”-Is it a critical warning for mortals to know their place and limitations by acknowledging their inferiority to the gods?

I'm of the contention that humans  without exception are  full of lacking. Feelings of inadequacies , packed with flaws- guilts and fears, filled our lives.  That constitutes to the unpredictability in their behavioural norms and how they act and react. Whether people agree or not, there is a small element of ‘madness’ in each and everyone, . That 'thing'   defies reason and logic, it causes the irrational and irresponsible act, sometimes  against the natural order of things. We do not understand ourselves; we do not know why we did what we did. When that madness passes and sanity returns, remorse sets in. The act of awakening and returning to sanity brings with it light as in call from conscience and yet feelings of confusion and even depression. Complex!

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Imperfection is the trait of mankind. Man is a natural product of sin. They lack wisdom, hence clarity of being..  That feeling of lacking pushes us to strive and search for  self improvement, all the time. Man is a restless animal. They are unable to find peace because they are forever caught in a cross fire between longing, needs and what has been given. They have problems with finding a balance and being grateful for what has been provided.Most times, they suffer from blindness. Somehow, they cannot seem to attain the expected level which brings in total satisfaction. Achievement and attainment always fall short of desire and the cravings for more. Therefore in the happiness of attainment, elements of unhappiness still lurks.  There is the inability to transcends above needy status to contentment and  the level of already have.

I’m looking at the words, ‘acknowledging inferiority to the gods’. That is with a small ‘g’. In my angle of looking, they refer to the  worldly things; we  always feel, we are in need of. We adore them as  ‘gods ‘hence- would go to any lengths to get them, even venturing out of peaceful pastures to the challenges of the wilderness., then suffer the consequences. That is precisely what obstructs man’s elevation to enlightened state, the state where  cravings ceased to exist and peace and contentment takes over.

 Perhaps, philosophers, theorists, religious teachers are correct. When we look up to worldly treasures and obsessively craved for them, placing them above our everything; they becomes our 'gods'. We become their subjects , bound and controlled  by their kingship. We become slaves to negativeness and servants to agents of  self destruction.

To be continued.