When one asks the question, “What am I?,” it turns out that the second best answer is: “I am a self.”

Then the question is: “What sort of thing can a self be?” Since a self must be a thing, a form, it’s natural to ask about the sort of thing it may, or could, be.

And there are only a few candidates that need to be examined:

1. I am the gross body. Or: I am the subtle (energy) body.
2. I am the experiencer of likes as well as the experience of hurts.
3. I am the doer, and I am the one who is waiting (or incapable of doing, etc.).
4. I am the thinker, the knower, or the doubter.
5. I am the liver, the one with a life to lead.
6. I am the (spiritual) seeker, one who is effort-ing to be saved or the one who is awaiting grace.

A searching investigation will reveal that none of these is true or real.

One can reach the conclusion that the self is not real.

When it’s clear that the self is not real, then what is also experientially clear?