The first thing I would like everyone to come to know is this: know yourself. Every person has lived with themselves since birth — yet those who truly know themselves are exceedingly rare in this world. This is not unique to any of us; it has been this way for thousands upon thousands of years — indeed, since the world first came into existence.
Why is this so? Because the very moment we open our eyes each morning, our physical body compels us to look outward. No one instinctively turns their gaze back upon themselves.
Having grown so accustomed to looking outward, we see only others and not ourselves. We therefore have little inclination to critique ourselves, yet are very much inclined to criticize those around us — for we can see their faces clearly. And in criticizing one person after another, the whole world begins to appear lacking in virtue, with only one person seeming to be good: oneself.
However, if one practices meditation sufficiently to bring some calm to the mind — even without yet being able to see one’s own face — one will begin to see one’s own behavior more clearly with each passing day. When one has acted wrongly, one will know it; when one has acted rightly, one will know it. The rightness and wrongness, the good and evil of one’s own conduct, will grow clearer day by day through having practiced meditation to a reasonable degree.
This, indeed, is the very purpose of meditation. As for the fact that deeper and deeper practice leads to progressively higher attainments of the Dhamma — as in the case of the Lord Buddha and the Arahants — that is another matter entirely. But at the very least, meditation will calm the mind, and through that calm, one will come to know oneself ever more clearly.
February 19th, 2014
