Know thy Self

I tried sharing this previously in my own words. But, due to circumstances and my poor speaking ability, it was removed. However, I feel it is important and necessary to share. Here it is in the words of one of the wonderful Gnostic Instructors. I highly recommend reading or listening to the entire series of lectures. Blessings!

In many cases we find students and initiates who never learn to act from their own will, who instead always seek advice, always seek to be told what to do. The beginner especially is a victim of this way of being because, not knowing the path, the beginner must seek and ask and look for instruction, and this is good. But the student needs to understand Gnosis is a matter of action within oneself. To really accomplish the works of the path, one has to perform the will of the Being, the will of God, and in the first portion of the work that will is the will of our Innermost, the will of Atman, the self.

If we are always going to another person, a teacher or a friend to ask advice, to ask what we should do, we will never learn to hear the voice of our being. It is a form of suffering to not know the will of the Being; there is no question about that. But it is not an answer to go to an instructor or a teacher to find the will of your Being. Your instructor or your teacher will not know the will of your Being. They will have their opinion, and it may be an educated one, but that does not mean it is right for you. The true initiate, particularly at the moment of facing the decision of the direct path versus the spiral path, has to know the will of his Being. That decision, if made from self-will, will inevitably be the spiral path, because the Nirvanis are selfish.

- Gnostic Instructor - Lecture: The Son of Man