Self-Knowledge is Self-Liberation
Talk summary: In this podcast, Guy Finley talks about how self-knowledge is essential for any human being who longs to be in relationship with a higher order of life that is everlastingly whole and content.
Talk notes: Spiritually speaking, absolutely nothing stands in our way except what we do not yet know about ourselves. This means that we do not have to look anywhere else. The other side of this idea that nothing stands in our way is that there are many parts of us that don't want us to know about them at all. These parts have absolutely no interest in anything revelatory taking place.
It is impossible to ever come upon "bad" knowledge. There is no such thing. If that is the case, then why do we resist negative self-knowledge? Why do we resist discovering that we are selfish, self-centered, and full of fear? We resist seeing these presently unknown parts of ourselves because something lives inside of us that has convinced us that it is bad to see these negative qualities. If we are earnest in our wish to become better human beings, then it is mandatory for us to be able to look and see all of the characteristics -- negative and positive -- that live within us. If we want to know the truth, we have to know all of the truth, and not just the parts that please and console us. We have to know the whole of our nature.
There is no such thing as bad self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is the key to liberation. No other liberation exists without it. The refusal to receive and look at what we are is the same as refusing the liberation that comes when we simply agree to see ourselves as we are.
