Self-delusion

What is self-delusion?

Self-delusion, in this particular context, means that we are not only tricking ourselves into believing a reality that is false, but also, more specifically, we have tricked ourselves into believing that the 'Me' exists solely as a separate person apart from everything else. This separate self is what we believe to be at the center of our true reality, and that this reality is ‘my’ only reality. Would you not agree?

Yes, I suppose so. My reality is about me. I see that I am its center; but why is it a self-delusion?

Self-delusion occurs when you transform a thought pattern like 'I can never get what I really want' into ‘my’ ongoing sense of identity that is always incomplete needing more. . . . . .Can you see that this apparent person is nothing more than a set of my creative and fictional thought patterns that do not exist except as thoughts in my mind?

No. I don’t understand that. . . I do understand that I constantly need more: more success, more contentment and to be more at peace with myself.  

You may have a thought like, “I always seem to be disappointed.” That particular thought pattern convinces you to transform thought into an actual physical entity. In, in this case, your identity becomes that of a 'constantly, disappointed-me’. Are you not transmuting those thoughts into an actual separate self in the world? Thought patterns, like these, accumulate, come up again and again, and become your ongoing identity. . .Yet, thoughts can never be a 'you' or even a part of you. Can they? . . .  By creating a 'me', you have transformed your true nature into a set of familiar and habitual thought patterns. Like any thought patterns, they cannot exist as a real entity like this ‘me’.

You are saying that my thought patterns are why there is a Me and that they aren't real?. . . . Then you must be saying I don't exist. That's makes no sense!

The ‘you’ does not exist except as a fictional character in your ongoing drama. . . Thoughts cannot be made to be a separate entity in the world except through a fictional illusion. However, the same thoughts can become habitual and arise over and over again in the mind. As a result, my illusory self appears to be real because it also appears to be constant. Then, my true nature is completely obscured and unknown. The irony is that I think that I have a self, the me, and yet, that apparent self enshrouds the primordial self which can never be a ‘me’.

So, what is awakening all about?

Examine: Where do thoughts come from, and where they go when they leave consciousness? Let this emptying process return your mind to just a presence. In time, a breakthrough will happen on its own dissolving all self-delusions about a me.