It is possible to discover this by asking who it is that is asking the question. The method is hidden and implied in main line meditations, but abstracted, that is ultimately what the question is: who (what) am I? Even in the beginning stage of meditating about relationship with God, ultimately it comes down to what one’s own individuated awareness, as distinguished from the Principle of Consciousness, stems from. Of all ways, this is the oldest, most consistent, and reliable. There are actually shelves of libraries devoted to this idea and its practice. Not well known though!
I suppose this depends on what you mean exactly by the word “know.” I can know scientific facts, but I think you mean something far more vague and introspective if I’m not incorrect…
I see goodness in your answer Gaber. I place the above quote to signal the part that mostly likely will be in my memory. I say this because it reflects the method of Socrates. Not to say that I can find a principle and then formulate it as he did, but to me, it is the most impressive. Thank you.
Thanks, and welcome to the fora!
The most certain way is to follow the teachings of the Catholic Church. I would start with Part 3 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Basically, man was created in the image of God, to know, love, and serve Him in this life and to spend eternity with Him after this life. That is as certain as you can get. What more does one need? Of course Scholastic Philosophy and science can tell us quite a bit also. But nothing they teach us can conflict with what the Church teaches.
Indeed, it is a difficult question, as to describe humanity from a human perspective. We cannot view ‘man’ objectively, since (a) man is the subject.
:clapping:
I recently read in the Commentary of the Letter to the Romans by S. Thomas Aquinas,“The first statement, therefore, ‘but I am carnal’, is so interpreted that the word ‘I’ stands for man’s reason, which is the chief thing in man, hence each man seems to be his own reason and intellect, as a city seems to be the ruler of the city, so that whatever he does the city seems to do.” (chap. 7, v. 14-20, n. 559) catenas.wetpaint.com/page/Rm+7
If “I” refers to reason, then what is the “I” that perceives the reasoning? The quality of reason is not itself self reflexive. Awareness is self reflexive, and reason is a contents of awareness. So to discover the “I” of awareness, awareness itself must be perceived in purity without its contents. That is the point of contemplation, whether of Silence (as distinct from the absence of sound) or of negation, or of a conundrum also known as a koan.