The identity that you project to the outer world is called ahamkara. The identity that you believe as you internally is called mamakara. Again and again vedic psychology says that you are beyond these two. You are not just these two. According to Western psychology you are just these two. That is why so much of work is done to protect your identity. So much of attention and energy is given to hold on to your identity.

The reality, the real you, is much more than these two identities. You are beyond these two identities.

Above all, you need to understand that your mind is not a machine. It is not connected as you think. Because you do not experience the gap between two thoughts, you start believing it is connected. You go on repeating that you are disturbed and tensed. No. You are not disturbed. You are a disturbance. You need to understand the basic root where the problem starts, where the problem is created. The first basic root is you believing yourself to be a shaft or a thing. You are not a thing. Your idea about pleasure, your idea about pain, your idea about life, everything is built on that one lie, that you are a thing.

You need to understand this one truth: you are a process, and that by your very nature, your thoughts are unconnected, independent and unclutched.

Understand, by very nature, what you think as your identity is not required for you to run your life. You may say, ‘No, if I am unclutched, unconnected, how will I plan for my future, how will I think of tomorrow? I have deadlines, project plans, so many things. How will I work? How will I submit my projects? How will I run my day-to-day life?’ These are big questions that haunt you.

Understand this one example: when you are driving, do you plan every step? Do you plan how much you need to press the accelerator, when you need to press the brake, when you need to turn right, turn left? No. In the initial level when you are getting trained, you may plan but once you learn driving, you just sit. Many times you don’t even remember what happened while driving. Am I right? You don’t even remember you drove down to your office all the way. Only when you park your car in front of your office, suddenly you realize that you have been driving all this time and even reached your destination! This is what we call prarabdha, bio-memory. You have an automatic intelligence to run, to maintain, to live and to expand life. What I am saying in a very basic truth. Only if you have sufferred enough in your life with your mind, you will understand what I am saying.

Only if you come to the verge of suspecting your own identity, you can understand.

source: Living Enlightenment