"To thine own self be true." Poloinus dispenses this advice to the young Danish Prince, in Shakespeare's fabulous, play "Hamlet."
Yes, this is go-to advice we should all take to heart. I take it to mean we should live in our authenticity as fully-rounded human beings. We must live with the truth of all our flaws, foibles, abilities, capabilities, potentialities, and limits.
The goal: to refrain from self-deception, to be a truthful actor in the world. To live authentically, as ourselves. If we are to wear a mask, we must wear one of our own making. Refuse to don the masks demanded by others, including the demands from friends, family, enemies, authorities.
If we can be true to ourselves, we can then be fully-authentic beings who engage with all the phenomena we encounter in our lives with clear heads and eyes. Clear-thinking. Clear-seeing.
To be truthful and authentic would demand that we be humble, kind, gentle; to realize we are fallible, fragile, mortal, human beings. We would also realize that fear, envy, pride, racism, cruelty, misogyny, homophobia, hate of all kinds, are actually "lies in our spaces." These lies lead to sickness of the mind, the soul, the spirit.
All the maladies of our lives are the result of basic self-deceptions; poor thinking, cloudy judgements. Love, Light, Beauty and our Authentic Selves; these are the elements that make up the Authentic Elixir of a well-rounded, well-lived, Life!
