What is the True Self?
Your True Self is your core essence: the Silent, relaxed, and peaceful Being.
The True Self has only 3 qualities:
- I am;
- I know that I am;
- Certain subtle energy flow that allows you to exist (primordial/omnipresent flow that is in India called Ananda, it can be experienced as subtle, graceful Self-Love or the ever-present Joy of Life).
You, as True Self, have most in common with awareness. Knowing how to lead awareness and sensing with awareness in the physical body is what allows You to take conscious action.
Conscious action is basically taking full responsibility (see more information on the lightness of responsibility on the linked page).
Your unconscious ego can't take responsibility, as it runs on autopilot mode and acts on the subconscious reactive mode.
In real life, everyone uses consciousness to some extent until they aren't lying on the bed as totally unconscious (the state of coma). Problems in your life arise as subconscious reactivity dominates over calm and conscious responsibility. That constant inner reactivity is what causes stress, anxiety, burnout and more serious (mental) health problems.
Carl Jung, as a psychiatrist, noted the importance of the Self. He saw it as the central overarching concept governing the individuation process and understanding your place in life. The Self in Jung's eyes was total unity. Jung viewed it as the psyche's central archetype.
Once you know who you are, You no longer need fulfillment seeking. Instead, You gain the freedom to see how you can contribute, serve, and co-create harmony around you.
Intrapersonal tools
When you are silent inside and become aware of your awareness, you have the power to know consciousness.
Consciousness as a state is static, and in static form, it isn't useful in practical work/life situations. It is the active use of awareness with awareness that allows establish the connection between your True Self as the subject and an endless amount of objects within your mind and around you in the physical world.
Your mind in the subconscious mode is mostly active and entertains imagination, thoughts and emotions. It can also experience desires, fears, anxiety, and identify itself with the mental and physical health issues/problems. Identifying with those levels is misidentity that covers up the Silent True Self.
From the correct perspective, your imagination, thoughts, emotions, and also their combined derivatives, such as desires, fears and anxiousness, are all your inner objects, appearing subconsciously. They only become visible to you on the canvas of consciousness.
Just as when you look at any movie, you often no longer acknowledge the white movie screen in the background that makes moving pictures visible, and instead become identified with the character and action on the screen. Similarly, the ever-existing consciousness is also often unnoticed as 'a screen' that upholds everything.
Consciousness only becomes 'visible' when you have a silent and calm mind.
You, as True Self, are the silent observer who can lead all inner processes, as well as somewhat what happens around you (see the graph below).
Only a person who actively knows the True Self in the present moment has the power to lead all internal processes at will with ease. Nothing irritates or makes such a person lose their True Self.
We recommend everyone take the time to train intrapersonal skills. Once mastered, all skills are with you for the whole of your life.
Leading different intrapersonal processes within your inner domain is way easier than leading anything in the ever-changing outer domain.
Why? You have only limited control over the outside world, but when you deploy difected awareness and sensing, You can gain full control over what happens in your mind.
Replace being stuck in your mind with using awareness
The fact is, until all your inner processes are lumped together for you simply as 'the mind', it is hard for you to understand who the leader is and what can be led in your inner domain.
You are not your mind or your body. You have a mind and body. Your mind has different inner processes. That is why you need to notice what you think, imagine, or feel, and also need to notice where your awareness and inner sensing are directed towards to.
Only when you learn to lead awareness, sensing, and different mental and emotional processes with awareness can you gain inner freedom. That is why understanding and using different practical intrapersonal skills matters.
Awareness of your awareness is consciousness. Consciousness is an objectless and ever-lasting phenomenon. It just is. Everywhere.
It is your awareness that enables you to lead your awareness and sensing at will.
Leading awareness with awareness is the most basic intrapersonal skill.
Observing something within your mind or around you with awareness allows you to understand and direct different processes.
When you become a master of all intrapersonal abilities, You, as True Self, gain the inner power and freedom to direct all internal processes at will. Taking full responsibility to remain in Inner Silence and use awareness is what frees you from the subconscious inner reactivity and inner turmoil that you currently experience.
Inner freedom
Inner freedom is the power to direct your awareness at will, as well as let go of all processes, which enables you to experience your True Self as a non-changing form of being.
It is You, as the True Self, who can then use your intrapersonal toolset, which consists of:
- Leading awareness and sensing with awareness;
- Leading your imagination and thoughts with awareness or letting go of thinking and remaining aware in Inner Silence;
- Using or not using any emotion at will;
- Using or relaxing your physical body at will.
Your True Self is a calm and relaxed Being. That is why they say that we are Human Beings. When you just Are, know that You Are and are connected with your original energetic aspect of Ananda You gain freedom to act or not to act.
Inner freedom is present when You can do something or not do it. Only when both options exist is there freedom.
For example, freedom to think what you like is just partial freedom.
You need to have both: freedom to think and fully stop thinking at will, and experiencing Inner Silence, to have full freedom. The same applies to imagination. You need to be able to use imagination and stop it at will, any time, to have freedom.
Also, as True Self, you view your emotions as tools. You need to have inner freedom to use any emotion at will and stop using it at will as well.
When you constantly experience and identify yourself with imagination, thought, emotions, or even with your position/title (manager, leader, employee, project manager, driver, passenger, etc), status (mother, father, child, spouse, etc), age group, hobby, and even with your name, etc., you identify yourself on your ego level. Your True Self has no name or position, etc., it just is.
In the context of absolute inner freedom, no imagination, thought, or emotion is good or bad. However You, as the True Self, need to take responsibility to observe when using any imagination, thought, or emotion becomes bad. So the key question is: When does good become bad?
For example, pushing your emotional love on someone easily becomes bad when you stalk the other person and lose sight of this person's freedom. On the other hand, using anger to scare someone on autopilot mode to become more conscious and alert can be good, as it may prevent disaster.
Dr. Kavitha Chinnaiyan writes in the book 'The Heart of Wellness': "An innocent mistake we tend to make is to try to 'find' awareness or want to experience it. However, awareness is the sole subject of all experience. Anything that we find in it is an object, including all experiences, sensations, and thoughts. Awareness cannot be known or found as an experience because it is what knows."
As the True Self, You are consciousness, and the duality ceases to exist once you find the connection between yourself and the Universe from your core.
Conclusion
Knowing the True Self actively 24/7 is absolute freedom. This active knowing of who you truly are is what gives you conscious choice in every situation and secures the ease of taking radical responsibility.
Why Knowing True Self Matters is simple: It removes subconscious reactivity and allows you to thrive as a Free Soul, in anything you choose to contribute. It makes you a pro-life and Self-Loving person who is in service while peacefully seeing the Joy of Life from the ability to just be alive in a human embodied on this planet.
Our Managing Director, Kaur Lass, has written a book on this topic. It is entitled 'SelfLove' ('Enesearmastus') and opens up your inner domain and True Self. However, it is available only in Estonian from December 2026.
