A system cannot define its own foundational elements. The problem with self awareness is that by understanding yourself, you change, so you need to understand yourself again. The system changes with the new data, the serpent swallows its tail.
The only way out, to truely understand the system of the self, is to escape it, to die. The hanged man slips loose from the cycle, sees it clearly from the outside. He trancends self through death, and returns with greater wisdom.
It can be seen as a death of the Ego.
And of course more generally, sacrifice brings great gain, when done in the right way. |
