A person who images herself separate from God imagines herself greater than God, for she points to her skin and says to God, “You may come this far, and no further”.
– Rabbi Rami Shapiro
This can show up in different ways. In an awakening process, it often shows up in different sets of identifications remaining even if we mostly and generally notice what we are.
We may notice our nature. And yet, somewhere in us, there are still identifications with a range of mental representations… As a human. A being. An I. A me. A doer. An observer. An observed. Consciousness. Awakeness. Space. Timeless. Oneness. Love. Capacity. And so on.
These are the places where we tell ourselves: Yes, it’s all God, except these little things that are me.
That’s why it’s helpful to identify and examine these. What do I take myself as? What story or mental representation do I, somewhere in me, hold as true? What do I feel I need to defend? What in my field, here and now, appears the most as an I or me?
What happens when I notice that they – these representations and what they point to – happen within the content of experience, and within and as what I am? What happens when I notice they come and go? What happens when I explore the effects of identifying with and as these? What’s genuinely more true for me? How is it to intentionally notice and live from what’s more true for me?