“The Self is an illusion” is an old expression that’s often believed as a spiritual truth. I regard it as more as an aphorism – a short phrase that could do with some explanation…
Common sense view
The Sense of Self is clearly an inseparable element in the lives, minds and bodies of about 8 billion people. It’s an essential feature of humanity, and exists to a degree in many animals.
Without our Self, our experience of individual identity, we couldn’t have developed science, technology, art, religion or civilisation as we know it today: The Sense of Self is as real as our bodies and our minds – it can’t sensibly be called an illusion!
Spiritual enquiry view
An infant is born conscious, aware and experiencing, but without a Sense of Self. For several months it experiences the state of pure consciousness where there is no Me or You, no Inner or Outer: where there’s no separation between the human organism and the universe.
The Sense of Self then begins to emerge. It’s a mental function that’s essential to the growth of the human being. The sense of individual identity eventually floods consciousness and for the rest our lives we will never, experience pure consciousness again.
The results it that we mistakenly feel that it is we who are conscious and that the body belong to us. The practice of spiritual enquiry allows us to pause the Sense of Self – in our absence the human organism can re-experience its original state of pure consciousness. Our sense of individuality can then be seen for what it is, an important mental function that is hosed in consciousness that belongs to the body.
The Sense of Self creates the feeling that we are separate from the original state of oneness. We could say that this feeing of individuality is an illusion, but it is clearly inaccurate to say that the Sense of Self is itself an illusion!
Verbal clarity is important when discussing spirituality; it is very easy to use expressions that can unintentionally mislead ourselves and others.
N.B.: If an infant did not develop a Sense of Self it could appear to be severely mentally impaired. Parents love to watch the Sense of Self emerge and their baby develop into a beautiful individual, yet they may still choose to believe that the Sense of Self is an illusion!
An air of confidence
Whether we believe the Self is an illusory or real, regularly pausing it using the spiritual enquiry exercise can lead to developing inner peace and happiness.
Spiritual enquiry occurs in our absence when the mind is still and only pure consciousness remains. The regular experience of pure consciousness helps to free us from meaningless words and concepts. Thought-free is what it says on the box, and that’s exactly what we’ll find inside, if we take the trouble to look.
A shadow
I am very grateful to all those people who helped me along the way, particularly to Swami Brahmananda at Shivananda Ashram.
He was a gentle, quiet and modest man who must have understood that I hungered for more than mere knowledge – he tipped me off about Sri Nisargadatta which kicked off my spiritual journey in earnest.
He regarded himself as a mere shadow, and his photograph as a “shadow of a shadow”: Just another old way of saying “the Self is an illusion”, but coming from him they were not just empty words.
Spiritual enquiry
Stumbling into it
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