How do you define yourself? You likely have a number of things you consider to be who you are as a unique individual and that is what you believe to be your identity. Identity is usually comprised of mind, body, personality, beliefs, opinions, thoughts, interests, likes and dislikes, accomplishments, emotions, past and present behavior, desires, and the past story of one's self. It can also be one's profession, job or the roles we play such as a parent. There is a concept in the mind that identifies with these things. This concept of the mind is the concept of individual personal self. It is the belief structure of you being a self identity. I call it the operating system of self, because it is how the mind has been programmed to operate since a very young age and this operating system has been passed down through the ages as a belief system that all of mankind believes in. This operating system revolves entirely around the concept of self identity. Your mind continuously operates from this perspective of self identity, but it is a false perspective.
If you ask yourself who you are and try to define yourself, you will likely respond with a conglomeration of the above attributes. I call these attributes identifiers. There are countless identifiers, but they are all beliefs by the concept of identity of the identity. Have you ever looked beyond all of these identifiers to find your true self? For many people that do this they come to an astonishing realization: They aren't all those identifiers that comprise the identity. They then see they aren't even an identity in the first place. An honest sincere search for one's self will eventually lead to a feeling or sense of a self - an "I" feeling. This sense can be very subtle in observation but then can be extremely predominate and powerful in all other aspects of life. This sense has been misinterpreted by the mind as a self, an I, but it is actually a sense of being or existing. The mind has identified with this sense of being/existing as what it is as an individual personal identity and has constructed an entire operating system of identification with beliefs around the misperception: I am a individual personal identity. But this sense is only a sense. It is still being observed and quantified and as you put all of your attention on it, it begins to dissolve without the associated thought of "I" that the mind identifies with.
With no concept of "I" in the mind, the mind begins to clear of thoughts. One of the most significant identifiers the mind has is that it is the person that is doing the thinking when it is just a mind producing thoughts. Producing thoughts is what the mind does. There is no mind without thoughts and there also isn't an identity without thoughts. As thoughts clear out of the mind, something else becomes apparent. Without any thoughts in the mind, that something else still remains within consciousness - awareness.
The misperception of the mind thinking it is a personal self identity that is doing the thinking has governed our behavior, beliefs and thinking our entire life. Freedom from that misperception is truly liberating. For people that haven't had this experience, the identity wants to believe that life would be dull and meaningless without the concept of self, but it is just the opposite. There is so much more experience of life. The body/mind continues to have feelings and it feels much more joy, happiness, contentment and love without the concept of self identity. Life is so much fuller without the limitations of self. There is a deeper understanding and caring when things are seen as they are instead of what the identity believes they are. Everything in your life improves. The main issue though is that even though the awareness of the false sense of self identity has been realized, that programming of self is still in the mind and needs to be rooted out through the awareness of all the aspects of it. By becoming aware of those aspects and placing full attention on them, we see them for what they are and they lose their power and control. As they loose their power and control, they begin to dissolve and more liberation, freedom, joy and peace results.
