Rather than discuss or accept what Robert Spira or I say, the way to find out of this is true is to enquire for yourself. This is what my writings are all about — to lead people to find out for themselves. Otherwise we just live secondhand lives, pushing around information that we collect from other people.

You bring up a good point, and these issues are always lost in semantics... The self is only an accretion of thoughts, a belief system. But what does this really mean, and where does identity come from? Identities and attachments become concretized when consciousness attends to them, and this is how the self is created. So, when we say that consciousness identifies with something we are actually saying that consciousness, playing the role of the self, is the identifier. There is much more to say about this, and I have written on these things in my articles.

To the other point you made about Spira saying that "it is our true Being that is calling us home," I would ask Who is this that is being called home? There is no one to be called home. We are the home. There is nothing more than what exists right here and now, at the core of you, so there is nowhere to go and nothing to be attained. Saying that there is a true being calling us home is to be caught up in the duality of we-versus-something greater. This is an age-old trap of the egoic mind.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Much appreciated.