I returned yesterday from a two-week journey of contemplation. I've received several important insights I could not have been able to received without getting out of my routine.
During this trip I visited several places outside Israel and asked quite a few people in each of these places how they would answer the question "Who are you" and also observed people, including their verbal behaviors.
I'm more and more certain that the majority of human beings, wherever they live physically, are prisoned in one and the same place - the illusion of the ego, which is probably the most sophisticated prison. It's so sophisticated that its prisoners aren't even aware that they are prisoners.
This illusion manifests itself most prominently in their self-identification with their body and life story. They answer the question "Who are you" either explicitly or implicitly that they are their body and life story, that is, they are convinced that they are what they think they are.
What I've experienced has convinced me even more that the body and life story are not who I am. But I have to confess that my direct experience that I am pure presence hasn't fully gone beyond purely conceptual understanding, and I haven't fully disassociated myself from the body and life story.
Now I know what my next challenge is after disassociating myself from the body and life story - to reunite self-consciousness (of the ego) and divine consciousness (of the soul) into rectified self-consciousness.
This entry is rather short as I'm still trying to digest the insights I've received during this journey of contemplation.