{"id":951,"date":"2026-04-06T22:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/?p=951"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:35:41","slug":"we-think-we-know-ourselves-but-we-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/we-think-we-know-ourselves-but-we-dont\/","title":{"rendered":"We Think We Know Ourselves but–We Don’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is meant by the ancient Delphic maxim Know Thyself<\/em>? Do we know ourselves?<\/p>\n

“Oh yeah, I know myself”, he said. “I know I like red meat and I don’t like fish. I know I like Christmas more than my birthday. I know I like chocolate more than vanilla. I know I like baseball but not football.”<\/p>\n

“Sure I know myself,” she said. “I know I like to wear blue and I don’t want a spouse who snores and I don’t like sad movies and I do like comedies and I know that when it comes to pets, I totally don’t like parakeets…”<\/p>\n

And so on. But all that isn’t what is meant by the maxim “know thyself.” Sure, it’s knowing something about yourself. But it’s like comparing the view from snorkeling along the top of the water to the view from a submersible at the bottom of the sea. <\/p>\n

Even many of the ancients didn’t fully grasp what Know Thyself<\/em> meant–to most of them, it probably meant “know your limits and possibilities”. <\/p>\n

Sure–know those things. But that self knowledge is only the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n

In the 4th century BC Plato expanded the meaning of the maxim to “know your soul”. The sages who speak of self-knowledge interpret Plato as meaning: See yourself as you truly are. Know the deeps of your unconscious, which is the key to discovering your spiritual possibilities and spiritual infirmities.<\/p>\n

To know oneself requires a particular kind of self-observation<\/em>, which is empowered by self-honesty. And self-honesty is powered by a deep desire to understand why one does what one typically does–and what one typically doesn’t do. “Now why the hell did I do that? Why didn’t I have more patience? Why didn’t I think it through?”<\/p>\n

With objective self-observation, taught in certain schools of spirituality, in several traditions, one discovers the blind selfishness we didn’t know we had. One discovers the deviousness, the dishonesty we didn’t even know we were using. One discovers that one is more fear-driven than supposed. One discovers how asleep we’ve been to ourselves, going through our lives like sleepwalkers. One discovers that we’re normally caught up in machine-like reactions to the world, based on neurosis, conditioning, fear, trauma, sheer habit. Through self-observation one discovers deep psychological motivations, hidden emotional triggers, and how many more possibilities there are for conscious choices. <\/p>\n

There are many, many more choices, in our response to the world’s input, than we suppose. With self-observation we see them at last, and learn why they were hidden away…<\/p>\n

“When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.” <\/em> Jesus of Nazareth, quoted in The Gospel of Thomas<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is meant by the ancient Delphic maxim Know Thyself? Do we know ourselves? “Oh yeah, I know myself”, he said. “I know I like red meat and I don’t like fish. I know I like Christmas more than my birthday. I know I like chocolate more than vanilla. I know I like baseball but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-know-thyself-meaning"],"yoast_head":"\nWe Think We Know Ourselves but-We Don't - John Shirley Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/we-think-we-know-ourselves-but-we-dont\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Think We Know Ourselves but-We Don't - John Shirley Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is meant by the ancient Delphic maxim Know Thyself? 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