The essence of who you are is consciousness. When consciousness (you) becomes completely identified with thinking and thus forgets its essential nature, it loses itself in thought. When it becomes identified with mental- emotional formations such as wanting and fearing the primary motivating forces of the ego-it loses itself in those formations. Consciousness also loses itself when it identifies with acting and reacting to what happens. Every thought, every desire or fear, every action or reaction, is then infused with a false sense of self that is incapable of sensing the simple joy of Being and so seeks pleasure, and sometimes even pain, as substitutes for it. This is living in forgetful- ness of Being. In that state of forgetfulness of who you are, every success is no more than a passing delusion. What- ever you achieve, soon you will be unhappy again, or some new problem or dilemma will draw your attention in completely.
~A New Earth