'Know Yourself, the beginning of self-care.

'Know Yourself, the beginning of self-care.

Socrates emphasized 'knowledge of self' and 'self-care', and divided 'self (I)' into three categories.

One is 'I', the 'belongs to me, and the last is 'belongs to me.

For example, my body belongs to me. And the shoes belong to me. Therefore, these two belong to me, not 'I' itself.

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The first thing to do for self-care is to distinguish between 'me' and 'things that belong to me.

They do not yet know the 'I' who is the object of consideration. Instead, one thing is certain. It is 'belonging to me'.

It is necessary to separate things that are mistaken for 'me' through 'what belongs to me.

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First, there is property, that is, possession. We live in a world that commands us to value possessions more than our lives. What I have is me So, above all else, I try to prove myself through possession. In this way, instead of using what I have for myself, I live with consideration for what I have.

Here you can clearly see the difference between 'I' and 'I have.

The way I treat myself is 'consideration'. On the other hand, what belongs to me or what I have is subject to 'utilization' rather than consideration.

Consideration is treated as an end, but utilization is treated as a means.

When 'what belongs to me as a means becomes an end, 'I' as an end becomes slavery to Sudan.

The story of a monk Beopbeop who grew orchids seems to be a good illustration.

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Second, there is the body. Training and honing the body is necessary to be healthy and to live long. However, taking good care of the body is not an end in itself, but rather for the 'me' who is not reduced to the body. The body itself cannot be called 'I'. Therefore, it is difficult to regard the body as an object of consideration. However, we also treat the body as an object of consideration, not treatment.

A society that forcibly enforces a diet in the name of 'self-management does not take care of me through the body, but kills me and makes me sick. Self-management in this age is close to self-abuse.

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Third, there is such a thing as status or identity.

In a class-based society, one's identity such as one's identity, race, or nationality is regarded as one's own. Taking care of yourself is taking care of yourself.

Things like status and identity are socially given to me. This cannot be 'I' itself.

Affiliation, origin, gender, these are just my attributes. If you identify these things with yourself, you make yourself a tool.

An example is an extreme terrorism. They view themselves as tools and destroy themselves for the sake of religion and race. Don't fall for this ideology. In this respect, 'what belongs to me, given socially, is also an object of utilization, not consideration.

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Finally, there is desire.

In the society in which we live, what is considered the most 'me' is 'my desire'. We often think that knowing ourselves means knowing what we want to do. In this kind of society, people's understanding of themselves is the same as 'what they want to do'. When this happens, the self we need to take care of is our 'desire'.

'Consider your own desires first.'

This age stands for this proposition. So it is important to know that the desire is not me.

Thinking of myself as my desire, and trying to realize my desire, is nothing more than a life of being a slave to desire. The moment I identify with desire, desire becomes the master, and I am drawn to that desire and become a slave. So, the 'life that everyone wants to do as they please' is paradoxically a life in which one's desire is the subject, not oneself. I am not the subject of desire, but the debtor of desire. In this sense, desire is not a consideration, but an object of 'ruling'.

In Buddhism it says

"It is of no use to conquer a thousand warriors on the battlefield unless you first conquer yourself."

If you can't control and control your 'self', especially your desires, no matter how strong you are, you will inevitably face trials. Through that ordeal, you learn that you must be able to control your own strength and desires.

A special strength that a hero has compared to a criminal is "the ability to self-discipline."

To put it in Socratic terms, to take care of yourself is to take care of the soul. So, I need to know what I need to take care of, and the more I think about what it is, the more I discover that I don't know.

The more you try to find out about yourself, the more you realize that you don't know.

The illusion of knowledge about the self destroys the self. Because it makes you think that you are what you are not.

Conversely, the awareness that I don't know myself makes me considerate of myself.

An important principle of self-care is to admit that you don't know. This is the only starting point for self-care.

The unknown, the unknown, that is, the 'other'.

Because the other is not me, I am an unknown being. As an unknown being, we have no choice but to listen to his story. There is no other way for me to deal with him except to listen to him. I don't know who I am. Then, I have to treat myself as an unknown being, the other. Listening to yourself and listening to yourself, which you cannot help but not know, is the beginning of self-care.

'Know yourself.'

Originally, this phrase meant 'know what you don't know.'

If you don't know what you don't know, it can be interpreted as 'Know that you don't know yourself.

If ignorance of ignorance is not knowing what one does not know, it is the state of not knowing that the king of ignorance does not know about himself.

It's important to know that I don't know anything about myself. This is what Socrates refers to as 'wisdom'.

You need to know what you don't know to know what you know, and only use and deal with what you know.

'Don't know is the source of wisdom, not ignorance.

The wise are those who know what they do not know and know the limits of what they can handle.

Self-actualization and self-care look at 'I' from the opposite point of view.

In Ji-Hyeon, it is assumed that I know myself well. Because I know who I am and what I want, I focus on realizing what I know, taking that 'knowing' as a starting point. The 'self' is the starting point, not the purpose of knowing and caring.

Of course, in the process of realizing it, I find ignorance about myself that I think I know and go through the process of revising it countless times.

In true self-care, 'I' is an unknown existence. The starting point of self-care is waking up from the illusion that you know yourself and acknowledging that you have no choice but to know. Recognizing that you don't know, taking that as your starting point, treat yourself with care, and discovering yourself you don't know, that is, getting to know yourself, is the 'knowledge of yourself' seen in self-care.

From the point of view of self-knowledge, the attitude toward self and self-actualization show opposite positions.

The ego is not an object of 'realization' but of 'discovery'.