Socrates said, “Know thyself.” If we look closely at the teachings of Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tzu, and Jesus, we find that all their teachings revolve around this single question: Who am I? or, in simple words, know thyself.

This is our goal—but what about the process to reach it? In this article, I try to bridge this gap by sharing my understanding of how self-knowledge is actually possible.

To begin, let us ask a simple question: how do we gain knowledge from a book? How do we understand the essence of a book?

The answer is very simple. We open the book and start reading. As we unfold one chapter after another, we gradually absorb knowledge

Don’t you think this is the only practical way we can apply our ultimate goal—“know thyself”?

Now a question arises: how do we read ourselves? A book is an external thing—it is easy to read, and there are plenty of teachers and AI tools to help us. But what about the mind, which is internal, where no other person can truly help us? There, we are alone.

Here, I feel the Buddha statue can help us greatly. Have you ever wondered why Buddha is shown in most images sitting in a meditation posture with closed eyes?

It is because he understood this truth far better than many modern, highly educated yet self-ignorant people. He knew that the only way to self-discovery is to look inward.

Let’s simplify this.

Just as we read a book with open eyes, we need to read our mind with closed eyes. It is like an X-ray or CT scan, where we simply observe our thoughts, emotions, actions, and words.

It may look simple, but believe me, it is the most difficult thing to do—I have experienced this myself. When you sit down with closed eyes, your mind tries to run away from observation. It wants to return to the materialistic world. It does not want a reality check.

Let’s understand this with an example.

There is a person who constantly gets angry over small issues. Many times, he uses harsh words, which he deeply regrets again and again. Yet he keeps falling into the same trap.

What do you think Buddha would advice him? You might think he would say, “Don’t be angry. Anger is poison. It is like a hot coal that burns you.”

But Buddha does not say this. These truths were clear to Buddha because he experienced them through his own meditation and wisdom. Such words are useless to us until they become our own experience. Until you yourself discover that anger is poison, it is not poison for you—it is just borrowed knowledge.

That is why the Buddha repeatedly emphasized: be your own light. Meditate, observe your mind, and discover truth through your own experience. Do not believe words blindly, no matter who speaks them.

Through such observation, knowledge becomes wisdom. Through wisdom, transformation happens naturally.

This is how we begin to know ourselves—not by believing teachings, but by seeing truth within our own experience. And this inward reading, though difficult, is the only path that leads to genuine self-understanding.