Self – The Center of Our Conscious Universe
We live in a world where each individual’s self is the center of his or her own conscious universe. Our awareness and influences emanate from this center of consciousness like expanding concentric circles. The closer things are to us, the greater will be their relevance, and our ability to influence them. The farther things are from us, the less of them we can see or understand, and the less we can affect them in any significant way.
We may be aware of the light that shines from a distant star far away across the universe, however, we can do little but observe the flickering light that reflects the energies and actions that occurred in that star millions of years ago. What we can see of the star is too far away and too far in the past for us to be able to do anything about it. We can merely watch and enjoy its flicking light, and maybe wonder about what might be happening way over there.
Things that are closer seem more relevant and easier to examine, understand, and influence. Yet, when we turn the focus inward on ourselves, and try to be aware of, understand, and influence the things that are inside of us, the things that actually make up our selves and our consciousness, they become quite difficult and challenging.
In some ways, looking into ourselves is harder than looking out at those distant stars way out in the universe. What’s inside of us can seem just further away, more mysterious, and as difficult to change as the distant stars. It is like looking at an inner universe. The deeper we get into ourselves, the less we seem to be able to navigate, understand, and change what makes us tick.
We have learned how to map the solar system, the galaxies, the distant stars and planets. We have even learned how to navigate through deep dark space and send probes and rovers to other planets. We have developed amazing telescopes though which to better see and map the skyscapes around our planet. We face the same challenges when attempting to explore the deep dark spaces inside our heads. However, we don’t have the same kinds technology of probes, rovers, and telescopes to help us look into ourselves.
There is no doubt that information about our inner universe is much more relevant and useful to us than information about outer space. If we are equipped with better information about our bodies, brains, emotions, thoughts, intellect, motivations, and minds, we should be able to affect, manage, or even change more about ourselves. Whereas, even the best telescopic views of some distant galaxy, will not empower us to change anything about it, I humbly submit, that self knowledge and understanding are the most relevant and useful information we can discover. Consequently, investments in developing better self knowledge and self understanding seem to make a lot of sense.
