Behind the impression of who we are
is our true face.

The world of impressions, the world of language, generate a false impression of our self. The ''I'' that we believed was our self, and which lived our daily life, is an ''I' which is time-bound, to which we attribute certain traits, qualities, values, etc.  It is always an ''I'' relative to something else, associated to something or another.

The ''I'' that is routinely felt results from the identification with an image constructed from all the memories of the perceived and interpreted experiences.

And in this world in which everything is reflected, including our identity,
everything perceived immediately lands in the framework in which:

''I'' is separate from what is perceived.

True perception is veiled by the appearance of separation, which injects itself in it almost instantly.  Therefore, the resulting perception is a tainted image. Those images form the world as we perceive it. Intellectual functions come into play, a sequence is built from the images, and the illusion of time appears. 

The world of impression, then gives us only an impression of living. We perceive the images of life, without tasting the real life hidden behind the images.  

... we were made to believe that we lived a full existence, 
but lacked the consciousness that the ''I'', or the so-called ''self'' that we had identified with was a time-bound impression only. And so we lost touch with our actual authentic self, we lost touch with life, with living, with just being.

In this transitional time,

some people start to feel that something is lacking in this so-called ''self'' that we spend our time building and defending.  And we can easily observe the growing phenomenon of seeking to find our authentic self. 

The quest will have to end by the end of the quest.
But the quest withinin the world of impression has no escape, no end.

To come out from the world of impressions,
it needs to be known that:

the ''self'' which is seeking is not the authentic ''self'' 

This is a leap.

It is not to be studied, thought about, analyzed intellectually. And as long as we try to reason it through, we are continuing the quest in the world of impressions.
It is only the impression of our ''self'' which gives itself the mission to find itself.

The authentic ''self'', the real ''I'', the spirit we are, in not on a quest for itself, 
as it knows itself, it knows to just be.

The spirit we are, does not complicate its life be trying to understand,
it simply is.

It has no need to better itself, or to attain anything.
It is.

So, as long as we project ourselves onto a path to somewhere,
hoping to get there one day,
we keep ourself at a distance from our self.

We keep a time between ourself our self.

We stay entangled in the impressions we experience.

We stop our self from simply...  being.   
Through the impressions, simply being.  Now.

Other articles on the same theme:

-  For a Time, Under the Impression of Being Lost