I'll give you a Buddhist/Spiritualist twist on these thoughts.
The Universe is a dream. A thought. Created by the "divine" being which is incindentally.. us.
If i asked you a question.
Who are you?
You would say, "Well I am 25, male, American , white, Roman Catholic, with a Masters in Computer Science, doing a job in HP, planning to marry soon."
You might like to add, that, "I am 5'11'', strongly built, curly hair, clean shaved, i love ice-cream and Cola, my hobbies include, surfing the internet, gardening and watching movies"
What if i asked, "Does that describe you completely?"
Tell me If you were not born in America, of white parents and instead had been born in an African village, of black parents, inherited a tribal religion and never got a chance to read or write, what would be your answer to the question, " Who are you?"
Think about it.
All the identities that we call our own - our name, nationality, religion/beliefs, education, physical appearance and thoughts - all of them are the sum total of the circumstances under which we are/were born and grow.
You are a white American catholic, because of the family you are born in.
If you are tall/short, thin/thick, strong/weak, it's because of the genes you've inherited from your parents.
If you have a masters degree from Harvard, it's because you got the opportunity (because of your hard work and luck) to study there.
Think about it.
What if you had been born of different parents, with a different name, a different nationality, religion, education, physical appearance and thoughts- in short, under a different set of circumstances?
The attributes in which we use to describe ourselves, are just a result of being born in a particular set of circumstances. Had we gotten a different set of circumstancea then we would be a different person.
The attributes which you use to describe yourself (like your name, nationality, religion, height, physical appearance) no matter how exactly they describe you with reference to your place in this world, they can not describe the real you. They can not describe the fundamental unchanged aspect of your being which remains intact in all circumstances.
What is this identity? Who are you really?
In actuality, you are just consciousness. You are not body, you are not mind, you are not thoughts, you are just consciousness which feels and witness's everything as you play your part in life. This consciousness by its very nature is peaceful, and calm.
Time for a practical test, to know the presence of this "inner self".
Choose a word. Any word you could possibly imagine, real, fictional, anything. Noun, adjective, anything. Just pick a word.
Now, you have to repeat this word silently, forty times in your mind. With your eyes completely closed, and with no outside/external means of counting. And NO thought should come into your mind during repetition.
You must repeat the word 40 times. No less. No more. Exactly 40 times.
If, while repeating, you lose track of count. Start again from the beginning.
It doesn't matter whether you repeat it exactly forty times on the first, second, third, etc, attempt.
The main thing is to repeat it forty times exactly in your mind.
MAKE SURE COUNTING IS IN YOUR MIND. NO EXTERNAL MEANS OF COUNTING. ie. fingers etc.
THIS IS NOT A TEST OF CONCENTRATION. THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG WAY OF DOING THIS.
When you finish come back and continue reading from here. STOP READING FURTHER, until you are finished. The next part is only relevant to those that have done as instructed.
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Finished? Ok.
So you've repeated the word 40 times in your mind, and no (or some) thought/s came into your mind?
okay.
Choose the Option following that best suits you:
(1) I repeated the word exactly 40 times silently in my mind and during repetition no thought came in my mind.
(2) I repeated the word exactly 40 times but some thought came in my mind during repetition.
(3) I repeated the word exactly 40 times but could not do it in first attempt as some thoughts pop up in mind and I lost counting. So I restarted counting and finished in the 2nd, 3rd , __th attempt.
(4) In my 2nd, 3rd, nth counting attempt, no thought came in my mind.
(5) In my 2nd, 3rd, nth counting attempt some thoughts came in my mind, but I didn't forget counting and repeated it exactly 40 times.
(6) I could not repeat exactly 40 times in any of my attempts because every time I start repeating, thoughts kept coming in mind and I forget about counting.
IN THE ANSWER OF THIS QUESTION, LIES THE PRESENCE OF SELF IN YOU.
Tell me, how can you say that the option you've selected is the most suitable for you?
Suppose you have selected the option number 1, ie. you are the one who repeated the word silently exactly 40 times and no thought came into your mind during repetition. Tell me how can you say so. How do you know that some thought came? or didn't come? After all, your mind was engaged in repeating a word exactly 40 times, then who was there in you, watching the flow of thought, who was there watching your mind as it repeated the word? Who was there who knows that some thought came or didn't come? It must not be your body (there is no participation of it in the test), it must not be your mind as it was busy repeating a word exactly 40 times. So what was it?
You might say, "Well I was watching. I was aware, and careful that no thought came into my mind. I was observing the flow of thoughts and I can say with confidence that while I was repeating the word, no/some thought/s came in my mind."
Well who was watching? Your body? Your mind? or You?
If you were watching the flow of thought while your mind repeated a word, you should be different from your body and mind. Right?
Regardless of what option you chose, one thing is certain.
There was someone in you who was carefully watching the whole repetition process and who, at the end gave you the report regarding your performance. ie. whether any thought came in your mind or not. This inner "knower" is self.
The one who makes you aware of the existence of any thought or image and of exactly what it is, is nothing but the self, the witness. Inside and outside, no matter what happens, no matter what you do, the self sees everything.
The Self, is the supreme consciousness.
The whole universe is nothing but pure consciousness. Scientific researchers have taken us up to the point where we can convincingly say that at the quantum level it is just the play of energy that is going on in the entire universe (everything has a mass and therefore can be converted into energy. Remember the famous Einstein equation, E=MC2).
In a more deeper level of Buddhist/Spiritualist thinking, everything in the whole universe is pure consciousness (known also as the supreme consciousness or, God etc.). And it is just the play of this consciousness that is going on. The whole universe is a manifestation of this supreme consciousness.
Everybody who is a part of this universe (which includes everything on Earth [including you]) is made up of this supreme consciousness. Self, is nothing but a part of this supreme consciousness, in its purest form.
What is self? It is the pure awareness of "I am", the original "I' consciousness which has been within us ever since we came into this world. Even though that 'I' exists in a woman, it is not a woman, even though it exists in a man, it is not a man. That 'I' is without form, colour, or any other attribute. We have superimposed different notions onto it, notions like "I am a man/woman/an American/an Australian/an Indian, etc.". But when we wipe them all away that "I" is nothing but pure consciousness.
And, there, is some spiritualistic theory of the universe.
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