I begin by stating that the saying “Know thyself” is a very important frontispiece to ancient wisdom and needs special consideration. But where does it belong? Is it a state of being that has to be earned, or is it an element of the tripartite motivation-medium-effect that, wanting or not, is the motive of our lives? Is it about our past, our present, or our future?

One thing is for sure. Knowledge of the self and any customization that may be behind such an important statement have as many pitfalls as the benefits it promises without promising.

The first and most important problem facing a person who will accept the above exhortation and will try to put into practice is that he understands everything by the degree of consciousness he has at the specific time of his life. 

And this period belongs, as time, in the here and now. This is the criterion through which he sees things. He considers that, in the past, he was less conscious and therefore judged things using less valuable criteria. He regards the present as the highest level of consciousness, but it is a present that flows into tomorrow during every moment of his life, but always remaining his “now”. But the awareness effort will be completed tomorrow. That is? Knowledge of the self is a process that, when started, will continue forever, but which will always be based on the mental state of the human being at that moment.

So for what knowledge of the self are we talking about and, most important, how can such a saying be a command for improvement? Come on now! What every bitter teacher regurgitates as a delicious candy is this Delphi quote. (Not to mention the Christian quote which literally prejudices not only the complete knowledge of the self but also the knowledge of the whole).

So this urge to shape the Self throughout life has two parts. Know who you are, something that commits you necessarily to the past, and the second part, think who you can become, that is, predict in the future what you can do by changing … Really, what should you change?

For the time being, we better stay in the first part. Who you are and what you believe – these two go together – has to do with your course from the moment your parents conceived you to this day. Right? Wrong. There is information in your genes that goes further back in time. And what the genes carry is a bunch of information very important to your survival. The human creature, human as a being, in the course of its formation in the womb of its mother, carries the course of the race. That is to say, ontogeny is the same process as phylogeny.

You will say and I will accept as correct that this information is generic and therefore classifies us as a species. But we cannot ignore it. For example, we cannot imagine that by knowing and shaping ourselves, we will be able to fly! There is a limitation to the process we have so far unconsciously followed.

But is it possible to interfere with DNA? There is. Professor Bruce Lipton assures us of that and speaks to us of the power of will. Those of you who are interested in transforming your being learn about it. It is worth it.

We therefore have an environment that influences us a lot. And the environment is not only the family but also the school, our friends, the profession we decided to follow, and all the influences that come from the environment in question come and become part of our brain synapses.

“Did I tell you good morning? I didn’t tell you! Good morning!”

This funny sentence, uttered by actor Giannis Vogiatzis, is of particular importance because it suggests a tendency to escape the problem that will inevitably arise within you whenever you decide to get to know yourself. Many will say “I’m a fine man” and there everything ends. Of course, you are a fine person, but that does not mean that you are within the specifications of your construction, as only a few can do that. If you belong to that group, have a good time and believe me, such articles have not been written concerning you.

So what distinguishes us is our behavior, that is in some strange way stored in our brain synapses. That is why some scientists, without going into detail, tell us we are our brains. I have stated that I identified myself with the view of Arthur Kessler that places us as ghosts in the human machine. However, again, the need for knowledge of the self does not change, although what will change are some parameters that make up the course.

But it’s not just the environment. It is also the typical way you treat life itself. No more, no less, your character.

There are still many who will say that their character is something that cannot be changed, and for that, the stars are responsible. And there begins a chatter about zodiac signs and horoscopes that have no end. Alan Leo, the quintessential first-time teacher in Astrology, states that stars give the tendency, not the necessity. The shaped up (educated) man does not succumb to the tendencies of his character but exploits them to his advantage. The unshaped human being is unfortunately subject to the impulsivity that many attribute to stellar influences.

We therefore have to study our character, besides the environment, and see how we can nurture it for the benefit of our being. And the benefit of our being does not always go hand in hand with the benefits of our daily lives. The first has to do with the essence of existence, the second with the illusion of the well-being of the present.

And all of that, come and establish up our personality. And because my esoteric friends are correcting me and talk about individuality, let me add that personality defines our individuality. Let the fact that we overrate the concept of individuality as if we need much to understand what it means.

But we base everything on the ability to distinguish between unfamiliar concepts. If we only sort them by good and bad, the result is very simple. But if we include in our criteria concepts as law, injustice, morality, immorality, etc., then things change. But these concepts must be known and must be based on objective criteria that only education can offer.This is the way.