“To Thine Own Self Be True”

Reverend Vann Knight

November 14, 2004

There’s a very short prayer that goes like this:  God bless the preacher. God bless me.  Occasionally we pray that prayer, and I would invite you to pray that prayer aloud with me now. 

God bless the preacher.  God bless me.

Have you ever had the experience of beginning a diet or an exercise program and not sticking to it?  Has that ever happened to you?  Have you ever resolved to be a kinder, more patient person and then blown up at somebody the same day?  Have you ever been disappointed by the fact that there is so much distance between the loving, giving person we want to be in the world and the angry, fearful person we sometimes manifest?  This distance between our ideal and what we manifest is a universal human experience, and it is the subject not only of the holy scriptures of almost all religions, but of the classic literature of almost all cultures.

For example, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as Polonius is giving advice to a college student about how to conduct himself in Paris, he says, “Give every man thine ear, but few thine voice.  Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment.  Neither a borrower nor a lender be, for one often loses both itself and friend.   Above all, to thine own self be true.  And it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” 

The line, “Above all, to thine own self be true,” is often interpreted as, watch out for number one.  That may or may not have been Shakespeare’s intent; however, for my purpose today, I want to use the line as a call to personal authenticity.   Above all, to thine own self be true.

Being true to one’s self is not as easy as many people think.  If personal authenticity were easy, it would not be the subject of so much classic and religious literature.  If personal authenticity were easy, bookstores would not have such large sections for self help.  One of the most asked questions in all the world is, why am I here?  What is my purpose for being? 

The primary reason that many people believe that being true to themselves is easy and that they are being true to themselves is that they either live in denial or don’t have a clue that what they are manifesting externally has little relationship to their true self. What is being manifest in our outward lives is always a reflection of what is in us.  But the crucial question is this: to what degree is the true self being manifest and to what degree is a distorted image of the true self being manifest?  For most of us, both the true self and a distorted image of the true self are manifest in our daily lives.  At times we reflect our true identity.  At other times we reflect our mistaken identity.  Above all, to thine own self be true. 

You can’t be true to yourself without self-knowledge.  It is very common and very easy to mistakenly identify our body, mind and senses with the self.  These do not constitute the self.  It is very common and very easy to mistakenly identify our impulses and actions with the self.  “This is just who I am.”  This is not the self.

All of these – the body, the mind, the senses, our impulses and actions – are a manifestation, but they do not constitute the self.  So what is the self?  Ultimately, you have to find the answer to that yourself.  The answer that I will give is a starting point for your pilgrimage.  I understand the self as this:  The self is a unique manifestation of God.  in indivisible union with God.  Emerson said it like this:  Within us is the soul of the whole, the wide silence, the universal beauty to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal one. 

Whatever language we use, it is imperative that we know who we really are. We cannot be true to ourself without self-knowledge.  Above all, to thine own self be true.

You can’t be true to yourself without self-mastery.  We can only be true to ourselves to the degree that we are in charge of ourselves, to the degree that we are spiritually free.  If I am a slave of anything other than my true self, to that degree I cannot be true to myself.  To the degree that my mind is in charge of me and I am not in control of my mind, then I cannot be true to myself. 

Listen to the words of the Buddha:  “We are what we think.  All that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world.  Speak or act with an impure mind and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.”  We are what we think.  All that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world.  Speak or act with a pure mind, and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakable.  “Your worst enemy,” the Buddha says, “cannot harm you as much as your thoughts unguarded.”

He goes on to say, “Mistaking the false for the true and the true for the false, you overlook the heart and fill yourself with desire.  See the false as false, the true as true.  Look into your heart.  Follow your nature.”  Above all, to thine own self be true.

You can’t be true to yourself without giving yourself away.  Listen again to the words of the Buddha:  “Your work is to discover your work and then with all of your heart to give yourself to it.”  And hear these words from the Bhagavad Gita as Krishna instructs Arjuna about how to live.  “It is better to do your own duty badly than to perfectly do another’s.  You are safe from harm when you do what you should be doing.” 

The giving of ourselves away requires two sacrifices.  Two sacrifices.   First, we offer upon the sacrificial fires of the spirit our superficial self, our distorted image of our true self.  We offer upon those sacrificial fires of the altar all that hinders self-knowledge, all that hinders self-mastery, all that hinders self-giving.  Jesus described this dynamic in these words:  “Those who find their lives will lose them.  Those who lose their lives will find them.  If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.”

The first sacrifice is always the sacrifice of the superficial self, that which distorts the true image, that which hinders the giving of the true self.  Being true to our authentic self is more than sacrificing the hindrances to authenticity.  Out of self-knowledge and self- mastery evolves the possibility of ultimate self giving. 

Above all, to thine own self be true.