Expert: Joe McSorley - 3/13/2007

Question
Hello Mr. Joe!

Henry David Thoreau wrote that: We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.

I think he was trying to say, among others, that collecting new acquaintances was not really that important.  Getting to know one's own self was far more important than getting to know many other people. Someone else has said: "To know yourself is to know the Universe" if you know yourself you'll be like God. The question is: What does it exactly mean to know yourself, to know what??? If I get to know myself what will I know, what will this mean for me???
thanks

Answer
Hi Luke,
 You can only know the answer to this by finding out yourself. You say, "If I get to know myself..." so this means that you don't know yourself already.  It does not mean that you need to get to know your likes and dislikes or things like that but that you know who it is that was born and is going to die.  Without knowing this everything we think about life is just a theory. To truly know who you are, who it is that asks me these questions, is to know the root of all being.  Without knowing who we are, we are forever lost and wandering about disconnected from the root of life. In Zen it is not about believing in something or following something but about knowing who we are in the moment. It's up to you Luke to pursue this, there is no answer I can give you.
 Take care,
        Joe