To be oneself is to live without thought, to be like a child without prejudice, without condemning, without accepting or rejecting anything, free from all conditioning be it social, cultural, political, religious etc. The thought is memory and memory is the past, this is the reason why we always go forward or we fall behind, we're always thinking about what we did or what we do, never live the active present, the here and now. Living in the here and now, is to be aware, the awakening of consciousness, be attentive, enter the tao as some say, is to go the right way, it's all the same thing, different words for one thing, which is Meditation. Be aware of is to be observant, watchful, witnessing everything that happens both internally and externally. To watch must have an interest and a silent observation, one can not watch if you are constantly babbling to himself.
If we want to learn math, physics, chemistry or whatever and we're talking to ourselves, thinking about what we did or what we do, this lack of attention does not allow us to learn. And learn about ourselves is meditating, there can be no meditation without proper knowledge, the know oneself is the beginning of meditation. Hence it is said, that one can not begin four steps without the first, nor can one speak of death without knowing what life is, beyond talking about not knowing that is what we have here, or that is God without whom we know first. If you are interested in learning I could not start knowing "that is God, truth, wisdom, death, etc .- as if you already know you do not need to learn. Thought to be memory, knowledge, can only be moved from what he knows to what it knows, this is the limited and narrow field in which you can move, can never go beyond itself, of the known. The unknown "Death, the afterlife, rebirth, God, truth and so we take it for known .- based on the ideas, thoughts, knowledge and experience of others, but if we are serious and sincere with ourselves we must recognize that we only know that the unknown is relying on the knowledge and experience of others. se.
And if we have either the experience enjoyable and pleasant or as unpleasant, we should realize that that happens, the experience and wants to repeat or not, is the same. When we feel fear is the mind that produces it, experience it and wants to escape from this unpleasant experience. The mind without realizing itself is divided into experiment and experience, observer and observed. But the observer is the observed, the thinker thinking and experienced experimenter.