Understanding the Self

Is it possible to look at one's self objectively and have a total understanding? One must first of all determine what it means to look. Does one look through the mind that is subject to the conditional effects of its accumulation? There is an old quote, "the mind sees what it wants to see'. Mind is constantly engaged in the accumulation of knowledge which it processes according to its conditioning. It cannot do otherwise because thought is caught in the movement of time/space. Linear thought is seeking continuity and conformity. Thought in order to exist as an image of self seeks a relationship between what is and what was. The mind avoids the originality of the moment because it does not contain the projection of self that is the memory of what was.

The accumulated self is the projection of what was. It is the prejudicial identity of belief and desire. In order for one to fully realize the true self there must be freedom through the negation of what was (the known) and the subsequent cessation of thought as movement through time.
When thought is a stillness, then the one who thinks dissipates. There is direct perception that is absent the motivation of an entity that is seeking. It is consciousness that is unconditioned.

One can only realize the true self through awareness that is without the movement of thought as time. The cessation of this movement is the cessation of the mind that is formulating and seeking result. When there is no movement there is a state of awareness that transcends the conscious self. One has realization and illumination into the cause and effect relationship of thinker and thought. Absent the overlay of the conditioned self one gains insight into the workings of the mind which are not definition or concept but actual direct experiencing that is in the moment. When one realizes that the separate self is the illusion of the movement of thought through time/space, then the reality of the moment is the reality of the true self. There is no escape into the self which is the projection of what was as what is or what will be.

As illogical as it may seem one cannot understand the self through that which is the self. The accumulated and conditioned can only project its content as belief and conclusion. It cannot know its self as it actually is in the moment. When one is in the absolute moment there is no self. One can only realize truth through that which is not a movement. Timeless awareness that is the consciousness of the unconditioned.