“All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”
~Johann von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774

Humility is natural when we’re true to ourselves. Then there is no desire for one-upmanship. This prayer stands for humility and self-awareness, which in turns stems from being true to ourselves. Being true to ourselves means acknowledging, and acting upon, our deepest desires, our most vivid and persistent dreams, our passion and our purpose. Knowing the self is the greatest knowledge…all else is superficial and irrelevant.

“If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?”
~Stephen Levine 

This is a beautiful prayer and the best example of its potency was seen during the 9/11 terror strikes. In the post-strikes coverage, one thing that touched us all was how everyone on board the four aircraft, as well as those trapped in the two WTC towers, knew they were about to die…and how most of them were dying to reach out to their loved ones. Some of them even managed to speak to their spouses, children, parents. All of them said almost the same things, “I think I am going to die and I just wanted to let you know I love you”. Here’s a related story.