When an event or object in the external world is recorded by the senses, a thought-wave is raised in the mind. The ego-sense identifies itself with this wave...This false identification is the cause of all our misery (because we cling to pleasant, yet transient, thought-waves, and shrink from unpleasant, yet unavoidable, thought-waves)...The real Self, the Atman, remains forever outside the power of thought-waves, it is eternally pure, enlightened and free -- the only true, unchanging happiness...
The Atman ... is pure consciousness.
(p. 12)
(When one stops identifying with the thought-waves) man knows himself
as he really is, always was and always will be. He knows that he is
the Atman. His "personality," his mistaken belief in himself as a
separate, unique individual, disappears...Such a man is known as a
free, illumined soul.
(p. 16)
We readily admit that it is better to love people "for what they
really are" than merely for their beauty, their intelligence,
their strength, their sense of humor or some other quality -- but this
is only a vague and relative phrase. What people "really are"
is the Atman, nothing less. To love the Atman in ourselves
is to love it everywhere.
(p. 22)
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