Self Realization Flashcards
Realizing that you have no idea of who you are is the beginning of finding out who you are. Self realization is the practice of self inquire for a direct experience of self. Asking yourself, “Who am I” is a good example of this practice. The so-called self-realization is the discovery for yourself, and only by yourself, that there is no self to discover.
You have no idea of who you are.
Realizing that you have no idea of who you are is the beginning of finding out who you are.
What is Self Realization?
Self realization is the practice of self inquire for a direct experience of self. Asking yourself, “Who am I” is a good example of this practice.
There is no self to discover.
Self-realization is the discovery for yourself, and only by yourself, that there is no self to discover. There is no self to realize. Nothing. That’s the discovery.
There is no self. You cannot find the self. That’s a huge and direct realization that hits you like a thunderbolt.
What is the Ego?
What you call “you” is ego. The personality. Everything you think as you. Everything that makes you different form everything that’s not you.
In a deeper sense, ego is a momentary misidentification with the present moment, a lack of direct experience of the nature of reality.
Is there something other than the Ego?
There is nothing there inside you other than the ego, the false self, the fictional self.
This fictional self that is “you” is erected to compensate for the lack of direct experience of your true nature. This fictional self, the costume represent the self, the false self, redundant because there is no true self.
Is the false self bad?
The Ego, the false self is not bad, it’s “false”.
You cannot know who you are.
Why we can’t see our true self?
We can’t see our true self because it is “not there”. There is no true self to perceive -there is only false self and no-self.
One looks for true self and finds nothing, as if one’s true self was no truth at all.
“That which rises
in this body as ‘I’
is the mind”
- Ramana Maharshi -
Why we create a false self?
If you don’t have a direct experience of your true nature then you are forced to create, project and constantly maintain a false image. How could it be otherwise?
You spend your life force projecting a fictional character, an external representation of yourself that is always a work in progress, always shifting and evolving.
The “ego attachment spectrum”.
Any time you look at a group of people, you can place the individuals on a spectrum of ego attachment, a kind of “false-self identification spectrum range”.
At one end of the spectrum are those who identify completely with their false self, and on the other are those who wear their ego impersonally, like a garment.
How do we perceive the false self?
The false self cannot be perceived directly, but only by the reflection it casts in the eyes of others. Humans connect ego-to-ego. So if I want to think of myself as attractive, I need other people to see me as attractive.
We spend our lives and our life-force cultivating and grooming our appearance in the eyes of the others. That’s how we know who we are. That’s where we find reassurance that we are real and not just hollow dream characters. That’s how the illusion is constantly maintained.
How can we change the false self?
The false self is created by how we define ourselves. Belief and emotions are what hold you onto the dreamstate, and you are what you choose to hold within you.
There is no need to define yourself, but however you define yourself is how you create your false self.
