We usually consider, particularly for social purposes, that we are the body, though most of what goes on in the body beneath our skin and in our internal organs is unknown to us.
Or we think we are the mind as we are caught up in our thoughts of who we are in society. Yet our thoughts come from the outside and are a product of our education and not really our own.
We look at ourselves according to how other people see us, rather than through our own state of awareness. Actually, to look at yourself is an odd idea. How can you look at yourself when you are yourself? You can see your face in a mirror but it is only a reflection of your actual face, not the essence of your being within or who you really are.
We are a formless and transparent light of awareness that lights up body and mind but remains hidden behind them, enduring in dream and deep sleep, existing before birth and after death.
Vedanta teaches us that our true Self cannot be reduced to body, mind, sensation or thought, but remains as the silent witness of all, hidden in the cave our own hearts, embracing the entire universe from within. We must look within to discover it, realising that we are that light of seeing, not anything seen.
