ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ - KNOW THYSELFsteemCreated with Sketch.

in philosophy •  8 years ago  (edited)

Academic philosophers discuss and interprete the meaning Socratic maxim 'know thyself', which according to Pausanias was engraved in the temple of Apollo in Delfoi; we people discuss and self-analyze our various self-images and identities and create self-narratives. Which is all fine.

Science discusses bodily awareness with terms like thermoception, proprioception and interoception, and they are scientifically and philosophically much less understood than externel five senses. SEP has good article on the philosophical problems of bodily awareness: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bodily-awareness/

What I'd like to suggest is that the deeper truth of the Socratic maxim is something less, something more than analytical thinking: just direct, immediate knowing, inherent in all sentient beings.

Here's one version of basic body awareness meditation:

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