Discovering Self

 A discovery is never what's known, it's what's found.

The journey of discovering you begins with a burning desire.  And as such, the tragedy of life wouldn’t be death, but satisfaction with who you are and where you are. However, to break free from the clutches, fetters and milieu of inertia and complacency, in order to fulfil destiny, you will have to discover you.

Your success in life doesn’t necessarily depend on changing your nature or nurture, rather it depend on discovering who you really are. That is why the inscription on the entrance to the temple at Delphi [a city of ancient Greece] says gnothi seauton “Know thyself.” But I say, discover thyself and know thy source.

Many years ago, so the story goes, the government of a certain nation wanted to build a highway that would come right through a remote small town. In the highway’s path was a revered Buddhist temple. The government spent so much money on the siting and construction of the highway that it could not change the routing of it, so the authorities decided to relocate the temple to a beautiful place on a hill.

They invited experts including archaeologists, architects, and other specialists, and they began, on a piece meal basis, dismantling the temple’s stones, statuettes and other sacred artifacts so they could later replicate the original structure of the temple. However, in the middle of the old temple lay its most prized objecta gigantic statue of a clay Buddha. The people had come there to worship everyday for centuries.

The workers brought in a crane to lift the Buddha. They put the big fastening chains around it and prayed, “Don’t let anything happen to this Buddha,” for they too, had come here most of their lives to worship before this huge clay Buddha.

As they lifted the Buddha above the ground, suddenly the arm fell off onto the ground. Everybody began to lament. No sooner had the villagers bewailed the Buddha’s one arm detachment than the other arm fell off, and the ear and then the nose; it was too late to stop the haulage. By the time they moved it over to the new site, what was left of the dangling Buddha had fallen away.

In desperation of the turn-out of event, the workers were dispirited, the villagers howl, and the government afraid the people would rebel. The whole village encompass the Buddha as the clay continued to fall to the ground. Suddenly, the people saw something they never knew existedthere appeared under all that clay a pure gold Buddha statuette. Their ancestors had hidden it under clay so thieves would not steal the pure gold one.

Rumours of this discovered golden Buddha quickly spread round surrounding villages, hamlets, the suburbs and conurbations like a wild fire; attracting worshippers, pilgrims and tourists into the remote small town.

 The original pure gold Buddha in the story could neither shine nor was noticed until the clay Buddha was dismantled. The huge clay Buddha was known, but the pure gold Buddha statuette was found. It was discovered!

He who thinketh he hath discovered self, but cannot tell from whence is confounded. Indeed, I couldn’t agree more. Everything that has ever been discovered had a source. For the pure gold Buddha, it was underneath the massive clay Buddha. For crude oil, it was underneath the earth crust. For diamond, it was from the rocks. And for pearls, it was from the shell of bivalve molluscs under water.

Certainly, it is futility in effort trying to fit a square peg on a round hole.  So it is for a person who claim’s he’d discovered self, yet cannot tell of his source. Like the pure gold Buddha, until you discover you, confined to earthen vessel, your effort to shine and be noticed would continue to haemorrhage.

A man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things he possesses, but in the consciousness of that which he has. Perhaps, you’re living in the abundance of ephemeral possessions, in the vein of the massive clay Buddha, but until you discover you from your source, you can never fulfil purpose. In the book “The Power of Now,” Eckhart Tolle remarked, “Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth.” Tolle went a step further in saying, “They are looking outside for scraps, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.” In other words, majority of people in our world today are living and reliving in utter deception, oblivious of the wealth inherent in them.

The whole purpose of your existence would be fulfilled when you discover you. As a case in point, consider, the story of the unjust steward who had wasted his master’s goods; having realized he was at the verge of losing his stewardship said to himself, “What shall I do? For my master taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.”

In the arsenal of the steward’s resolve was a self assessment of his method and values. He discovered that he could neither till the ground nor entreat for survival; that his body was not designed for manual labour. Thus, he applied wisdom, discovered himself and redefined his method of stewardship. In the end, his master commended him for acting shrewdly.

Indeed, you will discover you by introspective valuation of your method and values through your source.

As established, discovering you is an art, and as such it has its own dynamic process. It is not a mere notion of possibilities, nor a fanciful ideology. Rather, an art that hinges on unfeigned faithbirthed by conviction and entails an attitude of intentionality and discipline.

To have discovered you, you should be able to give definite answers to the following arguments, who am I? Where am I from? And what can I do? Perhaps, you are like a myriad of people whom have no concrete answers to those contemporary mind boggling questions yet. Not to worry, you are not alone; the vast majority do not have answers to those ponderous questions eitherthey don’t know what manner of people they are.

Nonetheless, I would recommend that you read this material in piecemeal in order to digest its content; and by the end, you should have commensurate answers to those questions.

Remember, the huge clay Buddha was known, but the pure gold Buddha was found. It was discovered! How? Solely by dismantling antiquated sediments of clay and the pure gold was herald.

“Anyone who wishes to be cured of ignorance,” says the French essayist Michel de Montaigne. “Must first admit it.” In other words, you should first admit you have no answers to those ponderous aforesaid questions, and should be willing to put aside any prior conception of who you or the society think you are. Then shall you receive the truth about who you really are; because, you really are phenomenala keg of gun powder waiting to explode.

You’ is never known, you’ must be found and discovered. Therefore, you may want to ask yourself the rhetorical questions, is it possible I could be better at what I do and who I am?

  No matter who you are, no matter your family background, wherever you may have come from, and no matter how small your town is on the map; we all have certain drives in common, and that includes to be noticed, celebrated and successful.

However, to attain these results, we must employ heavy duty crane and fastening chains to haul away every thought of limitations, mental boulders and antiquated erroneous beliefs cladding our radiance and lustre from being seen and noticed. For what we were, like the clay Buddha, is history and is now obsolete. What we are now is scarcely known; and yet, what we shall become is a mystery.

The time is now for you to be discovered. You were uniquely fashioned for such a time as this. “Life asks of every individual a contribution,” says Viktor Frankl. “And it is up to that individual to discover what it should be.”

quick steps to discover self

know Your Source

You must first recognize that your source is the infinite intelligence [God].

It is often said that those who fix their gaze at the sun never see the shadow. Therefore, if you acquaint yourself with your source you would see beyond your limitations.

Introspective Valuation

Introspective valuation of self enables you to discover your inherent potential. you must recognize that you do not decide potential, rather you discover it.

Identity

This is sticking to your discovered potential, developing and harnessing it to produce your desire result.

Tenacity

You must never compromise what you have for anything in the world.