what do you think about the saying --

" you must lose yourself first, in order to find yourself "...?

I don't know.................I'm totally lost!!!!

for the time being...

i think It' s very true & i've experienced it...when you do lose yourself it can be in many ways but the experience is worth it

Thanks pansytilly..............it's been a long time, being!!!

This philosophy is highly spiritual in nature. I feel it refers to transcendental meditation into super-consciousness where some people have found their origins leaving behind their worldly status, possessions and attractions.

i think that you never really know who you are until you've removed all the expectations about yourself.

once you've lost everything, that is the only time you can discover what you are truly made of.

Give me an example.

What I interpret from this is that our real potential manifests when we have no fallback. Is it?

failure will remain to be a failure if you don't learn from it.

That's another thought.

the lost of doubt and certainty of what was once known will reveal one's true character in what is yet to be...

tilly you are so right

even if it is a singular loss you learn of yourself

people treat this differently...

some on a material, some emotional and some spiritual level...but without the experience of loss, we can never really become mature individuals.

maybe this is the reason why there are those who always feel entitled to things... because they never really experienced loss, or thy have not moved past the events...that others are to blame for what is happening to them because they still have not proven anything to and about themselves, aside from what they are familiar with... to a point they feel that the world and other people owes them something....and in effect, can never really be happy or appreciative of what they have...?

or is this too simplistic?

so true....

Yours is a concise explanation of an event that happens to many of us.

A simple example would be someone who thinks they are locked into a job for life and then they lose their job. They take a step backwards and look at all the directions they can take and find their true profession.

Another example is the loss of family. One becomes a rudderless ship for awhile, then follows the path of their inner being.

exactly.
and people can either act/react towards a positive or a negative direction in terms of how they effect a change in themselves and affect others.

some people don't realize what they are/how bad they are till they hit the bottom...

...or how good...

I think of it mechanically. Practically. It's said that way, in order to try to be gentle and graceful and artistic, but from a mechanical point of view, it would be more accurate to say something like:

"before you can figure out what's ACTUALLY true about yourself,you have to clear away the confusing stuff that you got from other people."

Or maybe add a note, like "the self you have to LOSE, is the one that was cobbled together from outside influences and wishful thinking."

Lots of people go horribly wrong trying to follow this saying, because it IS so badly expressed. They join cults or terrorist groups, or corporations, or political movements, and "lose themselves" by giving their self-guidance away to someone else. That's the WRONG kind of "lose yourself."