Knowing what you are by watching yourself

Good morning everyone,

Here is today's quote:

By looking at the mirror every day, you begin to know your own face, and you say: “That is me.” Now, can you in the same way know what you are by watching yourself? Can you watch your gestures, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you behave, whether you are hard, cruel, rough, patient? Then you begin to know yourself. You know yourself by watching yourself in the mirror of what you are doing, what you are thinking, what you are feeling. That is the mirror—the feeling, the doing, the thinking. And in that mirror you begin to watch yourself. The mirror says this is the fact; but you do not like the fact. So you want to alter it. You start distorting it. You do not see it as it is.

Krishnamurti on Education, p 61

Here is my reflection.

Here is a good way of understanding negative inquiry. What do you look for when you inquire into yourself? The short answer is everything. You begin to see your reactive tendencies, which come from habit, and from your fear, which is also your greatest desire; the fear that your greatest desire won't be fulfilled. It takes courage to watch all this in what you are doing, thinking, and saying.

Your fear will also separate you from those you want to be close close to, because fear makes a demand of the other: be this way, be that way. All the time this conversation goes on in the mind. This is who we are.

Best wishes

Robert