The Self

The Self (capital ‘S’) is that which really is and is all that is. There is only one Self, and it is what you truly are. You don’t have to become the Self for it is what you already are. When this is seen/realised, suffering ends and love is everywhere. In fact love is already everywhere and there already is no suffering, only that through the trickery of the mind, ie. maya, you perceive conceive suffering where there is none.

When you think you are a body-mind entity, you are wrong. You have believed a false thought, and that is illusion (maya) or ignorance (avidya=not understanding). What you really are is the Self. What is looking through your eyes is the Self. What is experiencing life is the Self. And there is only one Self. If you think that everyone has their own Self, that too is wrong-thinking, ignorance. You have believed a thought that is not true. You are only the One Indivisible Self.

All that you experience is also the Self. There appears to be many things, but there is only Oneness appearing as the many. The experiencer, the experience and the experiencing - all 3 are the Self. There are not really 3 things, but thought creates the appearance of separation (if believed in) out of oneness. This ability of thought to conceive that which is untrue is the magic of maya (illusion).

As you incorrectly think yourself to be a limited entity, a body-mind organism, Vedanta gives you a concept of the Self that opposes that false limiting concept in order to root it out leaving you with the Self.

The concept of the Self is as follows:
-It is what you truly are, already
-Its nature is truth, consciousness and bliss
-It is your very consciousness-awareness. It is that which is aware of all perceptions, but cannot itself be perceived
-It is not an object of perception - it cannot be sensed with the sense organs or the mind just as the eye cannot be seen by the eye (even in a mirror, the eye itself is not seen, only its reflected image)
-It takes part in no actions - it can neither perform actions or be enhanced or diminished or changed by actions
-It is stainless and invulnerable
-It is self-shining. This means it supports itself and needs no outside entity to create or sustain it
-It never changes
-It is ever-present. It therefore cannot be lost (or attained for it is already here)
-It is formless, inconceivable and inexpressible
-It is infinite and without limitation
-It is One, a partless whole

Therefore know yourself to be the limitless,
partless, self-shining, actionless, ever-present
Self, sat-chit-ananda**!**

The ever-present witness to all things on which
all things appear as It!

Be who you really are, the Self, and refuse to be
that which you are not!