““It isn’t the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer, it’s what we say to ourselves about the things that are happening. The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.”

Pema Chodron”

We have been investigating two different views of the Self by making a distinction between our True Self and the Separate or Egoic Self. We defined True Self as our personal expression of the eternal and infinite Awareness in which all experience appears and is known. This view of a Universal Consciousness, of which we are each a part, can open us to a realization that we are "more than merely human."

However, this True Self is not the Self with which we are most strongly identified. Instead, most of us identify with a Separate Self where we believe ourselves to be the main character in the story of our lives and are separate and distinct from all other objects of experience. We believe that our day-to-day experiences are caused by outside forces or obstacles.

This view can cause us to suffer because we don't see that it is actually us that has given the limited and finite meaning to our experience. These limitations don't let us know our True Self. This is why most contemplative traditions ask us to Investigate and let go of those limiting habits of mind. As we are able to open to the field of open awareness where all potentialities and possibilities can arise, the separate "I" that suffers can surrender its limitations and rest in the full potential of being where we are more fully aware and more fully human.