Sometimes I feel caught between two opposing selves — the “false self” imposed by society and what I would call my “true self.” How often we confuse the two and assume society’s mould to be our true self. … I saw that the entity I had taken to be “me” was really a fabrication. My true nature, I realized, was much more real, both uglier and more beautiful than I could have imagined.*
Thich Nhat Hanh

When Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her Adam, who was with her, and he ate.**

Alas, there are no shortcuts to wisdom;
Knowledge remains only that
until we begin to live with or in spite of it.

Seeking to know ourselves is the
beginning of our path to wisdom:
We will not enjoy all that we discover about ourselves, for sure –
There will be some enjoyable surprises, too;
If we try to begin somewhere else,
This is where we’ll be led back to:
It’s the human condition.
We call ourselves homo sapiens sapiens
… which means”to taste” or “to know.”
The species that knows and knows that it knows.
And noe maybe we need to live ourselves into
owning that name
by cultivating awareness
and awareness of awareness itself
and let that be in some sense the guide
as to what we’re going to invest in … .^

*Maria Popova’s The Marginalian blog: How the Great Zen Master and Peace Activist Thich Nhat Hanh Found Himself and Lost His Self in a Library Epiphany;
**Genesis 3:6;
^Jon Kabat-Zinn from Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise.