The reason why a person feels confused, weak, and is led by external forces is because they haven't truly understood themselves. They define themselves by worldly standards, are influenced by external evaluations, driven by desires and fears, and their inner world is chaotic, anxious, and constantly seeking. When you truly "understand yourself," you will see clearly your personality, scripts, habits, obsessions, and sources of desire, and you will also understand what your true direction is. At that moment, you no longer look around anxiously, compare yourself, or self-criticize; your heart begins to settle.

Understanding yourself is not about becoming perfect, but about gaining a kind of "awareness." You can see the rise and fall of thoughts, the birth and death of emotions, and how so-called "karma" influences you. When you can watch these come and go without being carried away by them, they lose their control over you. The essence of "karma" is the power that causes people to cling, greed, hatred, ignorance, and mistaken beliefs that falsehoods are real; awareness is about dismantling these mistaken perceptions.

To achieve this, you need "calm" and "observation."

Calm: Slow down, quiet down, stop entangling yourself everywhere, and stop being pulled by external forces;

Observation: Repeatedly look inward, observe your thoughts, emotions, body, and behavioral patterns.

First calm, then observe; combining both gradually opens your mind.

After you understand yourself, you will no longer be enslaved by worldly values. If others say having children means success, you no longer feel inferior; if others say high income is impressive, you no longer feel anxious. You will redefine the meaning of your "flaws" and "situations," transforming what are called disadvantages into advantages. You no longer fight against your life but follow it to unfold naturally.

From a higher perspective, everything is essentially "empty," including karma, good and bad luck, success and failure. The problem is not their existence but our attachment to them. As long as the mind no longer clings, perceives false as true, or flips and deludes, a person shifts from passive automatic operation to clear, active choice.

Confusion = Not knowing oneself + Defined by worldly standards + Driven by desires and obsessions
Enlightenment = Calm and observation through introspection + Seeing the true nature of obsessions + No longer perceiving falsehood as truth
Result = Inner peace + Decisive action + Not swayed by evaluations + Increased sense of strength

Understanding yourself is awakening; after awakening, it’s not about possessing more, but about no longer being controlled by illusions.