The Greek poet gave this redundant advice.
How can you learn to be what you are? Is it about finding our dharma - our calling? Aren't you you simply by being alive? Why become something we already are? Is it a koan-like aphorism, setting the wheels of inquiry in motion without giving practical information?
However mystical or poetic it seems, I will interpret Pindar's line as if it veridically was a concrete set of instructions to bring about progress in our self-development.
River VS Sphere
In Philosophy, it can be useful to divide ontology - What is to be? - in two main traditions:
The River and the Sphere.
Heraclites (The River) and Parmenides (The Sphere) were two "pre-Socratic" philosophers holding two different conceptions of reality represented by two different allegories.
~~~~~~ The River ~~~~~~
Heraclites's River implies an ever changing reality. The water you see in the riverbed at one instant is not the same as the water you are seeing a split second later. The river is in constant motion. Reality is flowing, never exactly twice the same - it is impermanent as a Buddhist might say. The river is slower one day, warmer, darker, fuller others. In the same way, all reality is motion. Transcendence does not exist. It is physical energy, natural science which govern a world of infinite complexity, filled with matter and energy.
The River represents materialism
ooooooo The Sphere ooooooo
Parmenides's Sphere on the other hand implies transcendence. What we experience in our lives is the imperfect manifestation of eternal, perfect designs. There is a world of perfection where pure Ideas exist: Love, Circle, Tree... The tree we see is a physical occurence of a pre-created, perfect model. In the same way, it is the transcendental notion of Love which is ultimately is real whereas love we experience is a happening of something pre-existent.
The Sphere represents Idealism.
The River, the Sphere, and becoming who you are
If we look at things from the Sphere perspective, you cannot become who you are, because who you are already an imperfect manifestation of your own perfect design.
From the River perspective however, you are your body and you are caught in the natural chain of events. You have physical needs, pleasures, aversions, sufferings. You also have an infinity of elements interacting with you from your environment. You cannot change that predicament. You must learn to accept it; and to accept it you must first be conscious of it. Therefore, Pindar's aphorism makes a lot of sense under Heraclites's light.
As the River, you are always changing, yet obeying some physical laws. Learn what you are by methodically examining your physical reality, your transient desires, fears and pleasures. Acknowledge them and do not reject them. You do not have control over their occurring, since you obey laws of nature and the interaction with the natural world, through the channel of your body.
A practical sample of ways of "learning what you are" looks like this.
- Examine your position in the natural world. For example like all living objects you have drives to sustain yourself. You do so with the means of eating, drinking, breathing, sleeping. You probably also have the need to replicate yourself and your species. You also are sensitive to reward with pleasure, and punishment with pain.
- Bring your awareness empirically events as they occur. Look at your ways of handling situations, your physiology, your behavioral patterns, your cultural background.
- Practice mindfulness. Observe the natural world to see how it is changing, how it is working. By being mindful of all that arises you learn about your environment, your responses and ultimately about human nature and your own nature.
From the knowledge of what you are, all it takes is acceptance.
To become what you are you must ultimately learn to accept what you have witnessed about yourself and live in this physical body and this physical mind without resistance.
