More about Identity

Q: Can you please explain more about identity?
A: The ego fears dissolution and therefore resists giving up the illusion of a separate existence in an imaginary 'here' and an imaginary 'now'. It fears it will dissolve into being nothing and, therefore, the conscious awareness will also cease.
With examination, it will become clear that one's reality is not a 'who' at all, but instead is an intensely loving Allness, which is realized and known to be much closer and more comforting and fulfilling than the prior sense of ‘I’.
In the evolution of consciousness, the sense of the small 'I' is replaced by a more profound, invulnerable and nontransitory sense of universal presence. The sense of 'I' is now infinite, more grand, more gentle, more powerful, more aware, and more gratifying than the sense of the little ‘I’ had been. The small ‘I’ is like a penny whistle compared to the full symphony of the Self.

Q: What does the Self feel like?
A: It is like the ultimate completion of being home. There is a knowingness of finality, conclusion, completion, fulfillment, satisfaction, perfection, and beauty.
The quality of Love dissolves all possibility of suffering or wanting. No mentation occurs, nor is it necessary. A profound sense of certainty prevails. Divinity is unmistakable.
There is absolutely nothing in ordinary human experience to compare with the joy of the presence of the Love of God. No sacrifice is too great nor effort too much in order to realize that Presence.

Q: What is the ultimate truth of one's reality?
A: One's absolute reality is beyond consciousness itself. It is the substrate of consciousness; it is beyond Allness or Voidness. It is prior to Creation, beyond the manifest and the unmanifest. It is prior to existence, beingness, or is-ness. It is beyond identity, yet out of it arises the Self. It is neither transcendent nor immanent, yet both.

Q: Where or when could enlightenment occur? If there is no reality such as time or here or now, nor a real 'me' to become enlightened, how can it be possible?
A: If it were a phenomenon that had to occur at a certain time or place, then indeed it would not be a possibility. The only explanation is that the state or condition termed enlightenment already is a reality and therefore needs only to be allowed to be realized in order to prevail. What already 'is' requires no future. Acceptance is an ever-present option.
Complete surrender to God unveils the Truth. Nothing is hidden; only the ego is blind. Reality lies just beyond the mind. Out of the fear of becoming nothing, consciousness denies its only reality that it is everything—the infinite, everlasting Allness out of which existence itself arises.
Truth prevails when falsity is surrendered.
To do this, however, requires great dedication, courage, and faith, which are supplied by divine inspiration in response to surrender.
The trigger is the consent of the Will.

From: “The Eye of the I: From Which Nothing Is Hidden” 
D. Hawkins(2002),
 Chapter 19: Commentaries and Examples, pp. 288–290