Q: Can you please explain more about identity?
A: The ego fears dissolution and therefore resists giving up the illusion of a separate existence in an imaginary ‘here’ and an imaginary ‘now’. It fears it will dissolve into being nothing and, therefore, the conscious awareness will also cease. With examination, it will become clear that one’s reality is not a ‘who’ at all, but instead is an intensely loving Allness, which is realized and known to be much closer and more comforting and fulfilling than the prior sense of āIā.
In the evolution of consciousness, the sense of the small ‘I’ is replaced by a more profound, invulnerable and nontransitory sense of universal presence. The sense of ‘I’ is now infinite, more grand, more gentle, more powerful, more aware, and more gratifying than the sense of the little āIā had been. The small āIā is like a penny whistle compared to the full symphony of the Self.
From: āThe Eye of the I: From Which Nothing is Hiddenā (2002), Chapter 19: Commentaries and Examples, pp. 287ā289