Allan Kardec, Spiritist Codifier, asked the Spirits:

“What is the most effective means for improving ourselves in this life and for resisting the draw of evil?”

The Benefactors of Humanity replied:

“A sage of Antiquity has said: Know thyself”.

The Spiritist Doctrine shows us what path we must take to achieve this intent: self-knowledge.

Therefore, the path we should take goes the opposite way to what we have been taking so far.

We should look inside, and not outside ourselves.

Some of us do not even know ourselves. We have no idea of who we are or what will be our behaviour when facing certain situations. We are strangers to ourselves.

Because we do not know our feelings, we sometimes take the wrong attitude, which can cause discomfort as soon as we realize what we have done.

A certain lady told me once that if one day she was mugged she would get so petrified that she certainly would not have the power to react.

Her friend, on the other hand, said she would react, she would even fight if necessary, and she would not let it go easily.

One day, they were standing on the pavement, talking to each other. A young boy passed by and stole the bag of the one who had said she would certainly react. She got paralyzed.

The other one, who in turn had said she would be immobilized, ran after the boy, hitting him with her handbag and shouting to him to give back her friend’s bag.

The boy, who did not expect such reaction, threw the bag on the floor and disappeared. He thought better to save his own skin.

That proves that both women did not know their tendencies, as when facing the unexpected they had reactions contrary to what they had affirmed they would.

Many of us do not know ourselves either; since we never make a deep analysis of ourselves.

Thus, we are easily surprised at our reactions when facing unusual situations.

To know how much pride and selfishness, the worst feelings of our society, we still carry inside us, it is enough to observe with sincerity the small attitudes from the every day life and try to understand them with more clarity.

Observing our own reactions before the indifference of a friend, the lack of attention from colleagues at work, when they do not notice our new haircut or the clothes we wear, or when someone reprehends us.

Each person is a treasure that needs to be discovered, so that we can let glow the light there is inside us.

We are all light’s sons, like the Creator, Who is the supreme light and made us this way.                                          

If we listen to our inner selves with attention, we will realize that we already achieved many conquests, but we still have to walk further so that our light can glow even more. It is just a question of time and disposition.

*  *  *

Did you know that Saint Augustine, one of the Fathers of the Church, helped at the Codification of the Spiritist Doctrine?

The answer we referred to at the beginning of the text was given by him. He said that each one of us should do as he himself did when he lived on Earth.

Every night, he meditated about the day that had finished. He wondered if he had done something against God, against his fellow man or against himself.

He always tried to correct what needed to be corrected, trying to be better everyday.

Text written by the Spiritist Moment Team, based on item 919 from “O livro dos Espíritos”, by Allan Kardec. Publishing house: Feb.