Yourself...

"What is it that you wanted to learn from teachings and teachers, and although they tought you much, what was it they could not teach you? And he thought: It was the Self, the character and nature of which I wished to learn." (pg. 31) When I read this I started to think about life and learning, to reflect how it applies to everyone, everyday. Teachers can show you ways, meathods, or tools that will be useful to you in the future. Still they can never truly teach you about yourself, or what you can learn from yourself. You can learn how to do things your way, you can learn what you are good at, and what you like. All these things and many more are things that you learn alone, from yourself not from others. And even though the person that knows you the best is yourself, you will never know everything about yourself. This will allow you to learn and discover new things. You will constantly change, and every time you can learn more and different things.

"The reason why I do not know anything about myself, the reason why Siddhartha has remained alien and unknown to myself is due to one thing, to one single thing - I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself. I was seeking Brahman, Atman, I wished to destroy myself, to get away from myself, inorder to find in the unknown innermost, the nucleus of all things, Atman, Life, The Devine, the Absolute. But by doing so, I lost myself on the way." (pg. 31) Siddhartha realized that he was searching to find the Devine through different paths that were not right for him. He was being a Samana, he was a Brahman, but the one thing he needed to be he was not being. He needed to be himself. By being all those other things he lost track of who he really was and that is why he had not found what he was searching for. I made a connection of this to an episode of one of my favorite TV shows, Charmed. This episode is called "Malice in Wonderland". In this episode one of the main characters does not know who she is anymore. She says that in the process of being and becoming a witch, a sister, a daughter, a wife, and a mother, she lost herself along the way. I think that it is very important to know who you are. When you lose yourself you also lose purpose and the things you do may stop making sense, because you don't know why you do them anymore. Also if you are all those things but not yourself as well, you will not be able to do any of the things you do right.