SUPERIMPOSITION:

In most cases we use the following expression to define ourselves , “I am fair” or “I am tall’’ or “I am short’’ or ‘’I am brown’’ . Fairness and  Darkness or Tallness

And shortness are not qualities of the soul . These attributes and assessments which are in a person whereby he has defined himself are qualities of the body which are superimposed on the soul and the feelings of having continuity and immortality (in the sense where we hear of people dying or attend a funeral and grieve for a loved one , but tend to believe that we will live on ) are qualities of the soul and not of the body . So there is a mutual superimposition of the properties of the soul and the qualities or attributes of the body . This erroneous knowledge is the Ego within a person whereby he closely identifies himself with various objects of perception  and their attributes . It has two movements in knowledge or modes of movement only I and mine within oneself – and a distancing of oneself in terms of things seen as apart from one self by a consciousness of ‘’It” . These arise due to superimposition by an intelligent and conscious  entity  . Superimposition works on three levels . The body is superimposed on the Self . Similarly by the consciousness of the Idea contained in the words me,mine and it we superimpose objects existing outside of our body on the empirical ego (or theoretical ego or I feeling within us ) . Mostly this is manifested as possession of an object other than oneself or an assertion of ownership over objects which are not qualities of the true self . For instance “My house’’, ‘’my car’’,’’my money ‘’ etc or as ‘’My wife’’ , ‘My children’’ these things which exist outside of us create two kinds of superimpositions within our consciousness (or pure knowledge ) – one the particular form or impression of the object is superimposed on the mind whilst the knowledge of the object and our feelings relating to it is superimposed on the intellect . As I say my mind or my memory or my intellect – ie I identify myself with the qualities of the mind and intellect in the same way I have done for my body the functions or in other words  qualities of the mind and intellect are superimposed on the already existing “I’’ which is identified with the body , So essentially we are an Idea within ourselves. As one would thread a shoelace the superimposition works . My mind has no use for any money or anything as it cannot “grasp physically’’ at the object , but the body is needed to enjoy any object available in the world – unfortunately the body is nothing more than an  organic entity (more like a tree but which moves) and cannot illuminate the object – just as much as a dead man can enjoy objects – the mind is subtle and it cannot grab at anything – the story is the same for the intellect – it has the knowledge and feeling of the object but is subtler than the mind ! so without seeing the form it has knowledge and if it is so then what use is there to even attempt any movement towards grasping the object using a body – the intellect is knowledge based not form based – once knowledge is gained its appetition is . Intellectual appettiton is enough for it . And the mind only has its relation to an object by way of form , once a form is there the mind is happy !!. And the body actually is there but in no way contributes (on its own) for either the good or bad of a person . The soul does not require anything and is all full and everything stands in it (by virtue of its being subtler than everything else ).

It is the 5 senses which bring in knowledge to these appendages (collectively called Chiita – including memory) via the mind and animated by consciousness that is reflected  - which is the transient ego that which though a reflection of the real self is conscious and so becomes an enjoyer and doer .

So what it means is that our true nature is of the real self and not one that is a result of a reflection of knowledge .

All that we designate by ‘This’ and ‘that’ (ie near and far ) and the whole of the waking and dreaming state are objects of knowledge for the ‘I’ (ie us at present )

The ‘I’ in turn is an object of knowledge for  the Self (pure consciousness).

It is from here that the ‘’who am I’’ search begins – it is extremely subtle .