I think this, for me, has been the most complete way to talk about what the investigation into our true nature is about. Any movie can be used to illustrate this, but I am using The Pursuit of Happyness. We have the actor, Will Smith, playing the character, Chris Gardner. NOW IMAGINE During the filming of the movie, everything is going great. No concerns or anything. Plot is progressing as planned and in the script/direction. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Will Smith has a mental breakdown which causes him to forget that he is Will Smith and become his character Chris Gardner. This is no minor mental breakdown. It is full absolute mental transformation that he is Chris Gardner and has no idea who Will Smith is... no idea AT ALL. To keep it simple, let's assume the movie continues to be filmed (assume nobody notices that Will Smith has lost his shit) Now, as the actor Will Smith continues to film and portray the life of Chris Gardner in the movie's plot, he gets 100% emotionally attached to everything which is happening. If something fails in the movie, Will Smith feels as if it is his failure. If he can't find a place to sleep at night, Will Smith suffers from this. He has forgotten his real self (Will Smith) and become the ego (Chris Gardner).   Now, let's bring in a question which is commonly seen in spiritual circles. What does Chris Gardner need to do, to realize that he is does not exist? Or when will Chris Gardner wake up to the fact and become enlightened? You see, if you have been following along thus far, you can see it is absolutely wrong to ask these questions. Chris Gardner can do nothing to escape - because he exists within the movie. It is WILL SMITH who needs to awaken. It is WILL SMITH who will become enlightened. It is WILL SMITH who all the pointers are talking to, not Chris Gardner. Just like that, your ego can do nothing to awaken, because it cannot. It is Your self which will awaken   Just like Chris Gardner, the character, you the ego cannot grasp the fact that you do not exist because in your ego world with your ego story and life story, you very much do exist! Your life does not need to end or stop. Just live it from a place of deep awareness and knowing as your true higher self (will smith / awareness) With that being said, let's now imagine that Will Smith somehow magically returns and recognizes his mistake of mis-identifying with the body/mind/world of Chris Gardner. Of course, he may laugh a big joyful laughter about how silly he was to have thought he was the character Chris Gardner who is suffering in the plot of the movie. Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water. After enlightenment... Now continuing here, with Will Smith now back and "awakened" to his true nature as the character portraying the role of Chirs Gardner... nothing changes. He continues to film the rest of the movie. In that filming, where-ever there is suffering, Will Smith acts out and portray that, where-ever there is anger, Will Smith portrays that. All the while, knowing he is free from that.    That is how enlightenment occurs. It is your true nature / REAL SELF which re-awakens to the fact that it was not the character (body+mind). The renaming plot of your life will play out as it needs to. There will be anger, sadness, guilt, happiness, pain, pleasure, everything... but you will be watching from the place of Will Smith knowing that he is portraying the character and is outside of the character/ego's world. You will have all those emotions but be okay with it, in your deep knowing if your true self - free from the world/reality of the ego. Notice also free will aspect. There is none. Just like in the movie - the script and acting and directing is pre-planned and that's how it will play out. So, once you awaken, what must happen, will happen as it should and will be seen to play out on it's own.   Of course, this only talks about one aspect of it. The whole of it is much deeper. It's all one-thing. You are everything, literally. and that's kind of hard to illustrate using words as pointers. That's for another day (animation/graphics will assist to an extent, but again, not entirely)