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Introspection: Forgiveness & Letting Go
6/10/2013
Hatred can taunt us. It's like a voice in your head that conversates with you; your own.
 
Introspection is truly a beautiful thing: it is a self-analysis that you choose to make in order to improve your being: find out who & what you want to be, determine your goals, set new standards and habits. It can be done through regular meditation, creative expression, even writing things down. 

From my experience, continuous introspection has proven extremely beneficial and, in fact, essential to personal growth. It can be applied to all areas in your life: business, yourself as a professional, all your relationships, etc. You can also be more specific and  introspect about different things, such as Forgiveness. In episode 245, Naruto does just that.

After having gained Bee's trust, he starts the first step into his training to master the Nine Tails' chakra. The first step is to meditate at the Waterfall of Truth, in order to reveal his so-called true self. He finds his anger personified as a darker him. So when Naruto confronts his inner truth for the first time— in a previous episode— they battle it out, but he fails to suppress him. This time, he realizes that it's a different type of confrontation method that needs to be used.

By now, he's learned that the root of his hatred is the mistreatment he suffered by his village, and that he needs to forgive those who hurt him in order to let go of that anger. Indeed, those experiences have made him who he is, and have been the fuel behind his ambitions, but at this point in Naruto's life as a shinobi, they're no longer useful because it won't help him keep sight of his goals.
 
"Because you existed, I became strong. Thanks to you, I've made it this far."-Naruto

That's the thing about introspection: we attempt to look deep within ourselves to find answers, and when we open ourselves to receiving that knowledge it comes to us. We may find things we've never realized about ourselves, and for Naruto it was heavy resentment. A lot of the time, it's the case for us too, and although, as previously mentioned, it could nourish our aspirations, hate is not a good thing to harbor, and it could only take you so far until you start to crash; become consumed by  it and thus lose sight of who you are.

If we make a connection with Dark Naruto & Nine Tails, we can see that the kyuubi (up until now in the anime) is this evil, angry beast that always tries to manipulate Naruto into using him (in hopes of taking over Naruto's mind) by taunting his resentments forward. It seems in order to have the ability to control the power of a tailed beast, one must get rid of harbored hate, so it can't manipulate you anymore.
 
"The nine tails' will is a mass of hatred ... No matter how hard you try to shield yourself, it will find some hatred that you have buried deep inside, and try to take you over."-Gerotora
 
So, Naruto finds it in himself to forgive, and release all animosity that ever was stored in his heart. This is represented by the attack Dark Naruto attempts to assault Naruto with, that Naruto receives with a hug. After his meditation he moves on to the next stage of his training.

With all of that being said, please remember to spend time with yourself; do something for yourself that is beneficial to your growth, if you don't already. It could be meditating, working out, reading, something creative,whatever. Try continuously to be at peace with who you are, and if there's something you don't like about yourself that you can change (e.g. low self-esteem), then change it.
 
 
 
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  • icon
    TheAwsome +1
    I see I understand this. It is best to be mature and forgive for the person that caused you anger is human and most likely didn't have ill intent they were simply misguided.
    6/18/2013
  • icon
    complex
    I love this post so much I had to comment. I'm also procrastinating on a project right now, but I sure hope this entry helps someone in some way, because I cannot stress how important it is to be a positive person. Nobody wants to be around a Negative Nancy that drains the life out of others because they hate everything & everyone, or a Debbie Downer who has such low self-esteem that they bring others down out of jealousy, while they bash on their own image and fish for compliments. ;]
    6/18/2013
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