Honesty With The Self
Ka’at Ib: Honesty With The Self
Since embarking upon the spiritual journey that has brought me to pursue higher education at the M'TAM School Spirituality, Kemetic Philosophy and I have found myself becoming introduced to many profound truths. The very first, and perhaps most substantial in this re-education, has been this: honesty changes everything. While it may seem like a simple and obvious notion, this fact has been responsible for the shaking - and subsequent destruction - of my very foundation of being.
Honesty is most often viewed within a social context. An "honest individual" is considered one who does not lie to others, cheat others, manipulate others, etc; all the while overlooking the type of honesty that would eradicate many of these societal ills - honesty with one's self.
In this society, we are trained to perceive ourselves within a very complicated and confused web of illusions. We tend to view ourselves as how we wish to be, rather than how we truly are. We are often raised to believe that we can be and do anything we want as long as we have the will to do so. The average person thinks that her achievements and place in this society actually have been based on her own choices. This state of systematic delusion Is harmful to the human objective in many ways.
It becomes very difficult to practice humility when one does not respect the idea that there are certain things that she is not capable of. We believe that if we put our minds to it, we could achieve anything! Throughout their entire lives most individuals will never let go of the notion that one day, they too will be wealthy and successful. It does not seem to occur to many that if we focus our attention on being good human beings who follow the Code of Conduct set for us and allow that to be our primary objective, our human destinies will fall into place and we can actually be content with our existence.
As a society, we seem to be of the mind that we know many things, but if we were truly honest with ourselves we would see that we know very little about our own existence. We maintain an illusion of knowledge that exists only in our imaginations. We believe we understand our lives, but the truth is that there is very little that we come across on a daily basis that we understand. The items and tools we use every day are a mystery to us! From the buses we catch to work, to the elevator ride to the office, to the computers and telephones and toilets, and even to the chairs we sit on -- aside from the individuals whose job it is to manufacture these items, we generally have little to no idea how they are made and how they work! But then when someone says to us that she took an elevator up to her office and made a phone call, our imaginations allow us to believe that we understand exactly what she said!
Beyond the practical aspects of our daily lives, we are also very dishonest with ourselves about our own existence and there is an even greater danger in this type of dishonesty with the self. Not only are we tricking ourselves into thinking we maintain an understanding and thereby set our brains for confusion, but we also put ourselves in a position of defending these illusions with everything we have. We are so ignorant of the true purpose and significance of human existence, that we fill these gaps in self-understanding with what we call human "rights". Instead of honestly looking into what our human objectives are and how to achieve them, we replace these fundamental notions with concepts of "rights" which fulfill primarily political and emotional agendas. These "rights" also become the platform of a paradigm in which many of us find our consciousness. In fact, many of these "rights" have left us with clear pathways away from the model for human existence! And yet we put these "rights" above and below everything else and then defend them -- even to the death!
At the Kaat Ibi class offered at the M'TAM School of Kemetic Philosophy and Spirituality, the students learn to remove the dark and blinding veils of illusions and emotional pacification served to us by society in order to clearly view the true reality of existence. We are taught to see the world how it really is and only when one is forced to truly look at herself in the context of this reality can one make the transformation to become a valuable asset to the planet and to humanity.
