Man makes the mistake of separating himself from
God and identifying himself with the body.-Swami
Vivekananda
The true self or I am infinite awareness
identifies with the labels, beliefs, feelings, emotions, thoughts, perceptions
and experiences. This identification and attachment of I am consciousness with
the experiences causes limitation, fragmentation and separation of I am.
Consciousness is now trapped and tangled in web of delusion of conditioning
which gives a false sense of being an
individual separate self, self-limiting i,e, I am this, I am that.
Separation and ego formation beings as child
identifies with its given name, body, toys. Then identification of family ties,
education, abilities, opinions, relationships. All these are thought forms
imbued with sense of individual I and egoic identity and personality. Ego self
is localized, limited, defensive, always lacking, complaining, in conflict and
becomes a victim of its own projections, disconnected from the true essence. Identification
covered with layers of ignorance and denial is the source of all
suffering.
With
the belief in the individual entity/doer, problems never cease. When the
illusory nature of the individual is seen, problems never arise.- Ramesh
Balsekar
The egoic separate self gets satisfaction by
feeling bad and pitying itself this behavior strengthens the sense of the false
I. There is high self-esteem, an exaggerated sense of self-importance thoughts
of being better than and superior to others, or being a victim emphasizes the
fictitious self. I, me, myself, my story, my ancestry, titles etc, being in the
past or future it believes to be living a life moving along a time line
assuming birth to death. It believes and pretends to have a free will making
choices and decisions that it is the doer of all actions and it is the source
of thoughts feelings emotions. Egoic person is busy with the external world
that it seldom turns around to itself. The highest activity the egoic self can
engage is in itself.
Mostly, the identifications of self
is with possessions, jobs and career, social status and recognition, knowledge
and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal
and family history, and belief systems strengthens separation. Collective identification is often a
political, nationalistic, racial, religious cause extremism, fanaticism,
racism. At a subtle level, the sense of grandiose is the spiritual ego feeling
superior to others.
If you are identified we will never have peace.- Krishnamurti
Personality or mask is the conditioning of the
body mind that with engages with the world. Consciousness appearing as separate
self is a mask through which the illusory play of consciousness or drama of
life is enabled. Root cause of suffering arises when the Self shares the
limitation of the personality and believes it to be real.
When realization and awakening starts
flickering then there is gradual shift of the personality with a worldly mask towards
the true self that is behind the mask. When the true nature is realized, the
Illusory Separate Self come back with strongly, it is threatened by the new
understanding waves of thoughts feeling emotions. The practice to turn around
to the inner world causes eroding the old habits of the thoughts. Just as
flowing river smoothens the rocks in its path so does inward attention polishes
off the delusion of being a separate independent person and egoic self becomes
sober subdued, it energy starts to dispel and weaken true self emerges. Realization is continuous unfolding ongoing
deeper, the cleansing process continues years, even life times. Don’t expect
concrete results for there is no goal reached nothing to be attained. As the exterior
impurities are washed away our true being whole and complete at the core is uncovered.
Liberation is never of the person it is from a person. – Sri Nisargadutta Maharaj
May all beings derive the capacity to discern separation. 🙏
Thank you !
🙏
AB