Personality is destiny -- 100 suggestions for shaping a healthy personality

Author: Lai Shouhua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features:
2. "Know Thyself" – The Recognition and Establishment of Individual Personality
The Delphi Oracle of ancient Greece proclaimed, "Know thyself." Socrates was the most wise man of his time, yet he did not understand the meaning of this oracle. So he began to question various people in the city-state. Through numerous conversations with them, he found that most of them were arrogant, domineering, and believed themselves to be omniscient, yet in reality, they had shallow knowledge and could not withstand his cross-examination. Socrates finally understood the meaning of the Delphi Oracle's pronouncement: that he could fully recognize his own ignorance, and "knowing one's own ignorance" was where his wisdom lay. For thousands of years, "Know thyself" has been a famous philosophical proposition, constantly brought up by people. Coincidentally, Montaigne also said, "The most important thing in the world is to know oneself."
In psychology, "Know thyself" is also a very difficult proposition. Scientific experiments, including psychological experiments, often use various animals as subjects. Humans are accustomed to examining others through this experimental method, treating them as their own experimental subjects. Many advancements in scientific civilization have also been achieved through this objective experimentation. For the objective world, we can sharpen our eyes and observe with microscopes thousands or even tens of thousands of times magnified; but for ourselves, how many people can truly objectively examine themselves? So, how should one truly know oneself? The famous religious thinker and philosopher Ivan Illich believed that one can know oneself both from above and from below.
"Knowing oneself from above" means recognizing oneself from the light of one's own being, from the divine source within oneself; "knowing oneself from below" means recognizing oneself from the darkness of one's own being, from the spontaneous demonic source within one's subconscious. He argued that humans possess a dualistic contradiction—they are both animalistic and divine. On one hand, humans crave nobility; on the other, they descend into degradation. Thus, humans both imagine freedom and descend into a tragic world, even risking eternal damnation.
"The consciousness of individual personality illuminates humanity. It is humanity's highest nature and also its highest mission. Even if one is severely oppressed, enduring hardships; even if one suffers from serious illness and is about to leave this world; even if one exists only in a possibility or potential, the most important thing is that one must never lack individual personality. Once one lacks individual personality, one becomes indistinguishable from other things in the world, losing one's own uniqueness."
Individual personality is more important to a person than life itself. Only by possessing a sound individual personality and achieving freedom on it can one become