The classical Vedantic view isn’t wrong, but it does put the point rather “vaguely”: the body, it says, is “superimposed upon” the Self. What’s that mean, really?

1. The body, in the above formulation anyway, is really an idea. Hence, the usual formulation is: “I am the body idea.”

2. So, an idea–or thought–is superimposed on the Self. Now, what does that mean?

3. The Self, really, is experience. So, an idea, or thought, is superimposed upon experience. What’s that mean?

4. It means that any experience–such as a sensation or a perception–is followed by a thought that is associated (via habit) with that experience. 

• And the thought “lays claim” to more than it can bite off. That is, within the thought is a claim that’s not substantiated (can’t be substantiated) by the prior experience. Like: “I am the doer,” which follows an action-arising.

5. Example: A sensation arises, and then a thought arises and says, “That sensation, which is pain, is taking place inside the body.”

6. What the direct path shows is that there’s no such thing as superimposition: there’a s sensation-arising to aware presence, a thought-arising to aware presence, and so on.