We have so many self-concepts. From our childhood to the end of our lives we have various roles and self-concepts. So my question to Spirit was: How do we overcome our self-concepts and see ourselves just as aspects of Divine Mind?

I received the following:

“You need to remember that all your self-concepts are fabrications of the ego mind. Everything, all the roles you undertake are functions that individuals believe are them, or are large parts of them. It is total identification with the ego mind that makes people cling onto self-concepts, concepts such as being a school child, a university student, career person, mother, father, retired person, sports person, home owner, car owner, beautiful person, fat person, thin person, those sorts of things…These are all self-concepts and they are all part of your drama in the world. They are not who you are.

It is perfectly possible to fulfil all these roles as you go through life, which you probably have to do unless you take yourself off to a cave in mountain somewhere and live like a hermit (and even that would be a self-concept) but it is perfectly possible to live with your self-concepts and not attach yourself to them. So that when your roles in life change, as they invariably will, you can still fulfil all these roles and yet not be identified with them. Think of them as an actor would think of his roles when he is on stage. Think: “I am now acting as a student for a while. Then I will be a career person for a while. Then I will be a parent for a while and then maybe a grandparent.” But don’t think that these roles are you. Think of them just as garments that you are putting on and taking off. And try not to feel nostalgic or regretful, when you take off one garment and put on another.

Of course, it all boils down to forgiveness because forgiveness, as it is taught in A Course in Miracles, really means letting go. So you let go of these concepts, as you move on through your life. You wouldn’t want to be a university student forever. You wouldn’t want to be a mother forever. You probably wouldn’t want to be a grandmother forever. So just let go of these roles as you progress through your life and don’t attach yourself to any of them. See them as just a role you are playing temporarily, so that when you reach the end of your life and you have no more roles you are not really sad or fearful because you have let go of so many other attachments you have had.

So, it just a matter of letting go and moving on, letting go and moving on and not attaching, that’s the key. Not thinking I am a homeowner. Yes, you have a home but know, too, that you are going to pass through this home and one day somebody else will be living in this home, and come to terms with that. Then you are not attached to your home. There is nothing wrong with living in a home and being a homeowner. But know that when you leave the body behind, you will leave the home behind. So you have to think of that. Put everything in that perspective.

You leave an old car behind and you move on to a new car, if you need one. You even leave friends behind and move on to new friends sometimes. So, it is a matter of continually enjoying and yet relinquishing when the time is right and moving on. Letting go, letting go, letting go, which boils down to forgiveness!”