The Examined Life
The examined life is about observing Karma in your life and using your observations to more speedily become a human being. Karma is cause-and-effect. Each time you perform even the simplest interaction with the world ripples spread out from it.
(Examining is different from Planning and persevering toward your goals. Your plan: get into medical school at 22; doctor by 28; head of surgery by 43. Even if you achieve all of these things you could still be a broken human being.)
Needed: Courage and Compassion
To do this you need both courage and compassion. To truly look into your own heart is the most terrifying thing to do. Why? Because you may discover that your actions do not actually conform to the self-image you have constructed of yourself. Yet if you don’t look at yourself honestly you can’t change.
This is why you need compassion: compassion for yourself. Without it you can be driven into shame or anger. Compassion for yourself as a struggling finite being lets you focus on the path forward with determination to alter your behavior.
For example, you might notice you have growing self-confidence which means you are speaking out in more situations. However, after review your actions after a meeting, you might see that you are becoming more of leader, but at the same time the way you are saying things are cause pain to some of the people and alienating them from your cause. (The only reason is say something painful to someone is if it can help them grow, i.e., they are at a tipping point and your words nudge them over the edge.)
By examining the events in your life, you can learn about yourself, others, and how all are interacting. You can change your relationship with yourself and other moving toward a richer more connected life.
