THE SELF VS THE IDENTITY

The Self is what you are, while the Identity is what you were made to think you are.

In many spiritual paths such as Daoism, Vedanta, Yoga, and Buddhism, the "fabricated false-identity" is often mentioned.

In Vedanta & Yoga, Ahamkara is often translated as "ego" or "ego-consciousness", but it is actually more than that.

It is the fabricated "false identity", consisting of:

personal pride
opinions from people around you
societal expectations
status in society
family commitments
position at work etc.

And because of all these factors, people are enslaved to their "false-identity".

The purpose of Yoga is to dissolve this false sense of "self-identity".

The Brahman mentioned in Vedanta & Yoga refers to the universal awareness, people in the West may consider it the Akasha Records.

The Atman is a copy of Brahman, when clothed in materialism, becomes a Jiva (Soul).

One must be clear that the Buddha never taught the concept of "no-self" or "no-soul". Modern Buddhism has been teaching something that the Buddha himself did not teach. In fact, Anatta is correctly translated as "not-self" and not "no-self". The Pali word for "no-self" is Natthatta, and not Anatta.

In the Sutta, when the Buddha is explaining Anatta, it is always as follow:

Nama-rupa is not Atman,
Vedana is not Atman,
Sanna is not Atman,
Sankhara is not Atman,
Vinnana is not Atman.

In short, the 5 Khanda are not Atman.

The Buddha is telling us that none of the 5 Khanda is Atman, but he did not say that there is no Atman.

If there was no "Atman", the Buddha would have simply said "There is no Atman".

Moreover, the Buddha also taught:

Attadipa = Atta/Atman (Self) is our light:
Attasarana = Atta/Atman (Self) is our refuge.

YOU ARE NOT A BODY WITH A SOUL. YOU ARE A SOUL WITH A BODY

In Yoga and Buddhism, Sati, often mistranslated as "mindfulness", should be correctly translated as "rememberance".

So, what is it that is to be remembered?

In Yoga, there is the Atman, the mirror of Brahman.

In Gnosticism, there is a Pneuma, also known as the Divine Spark or the Divine Light.

In the Western world, they are known as the soul.

THE CURSE OF "FORGETTING"

Across the world, there are accounts of many people experiencing "past life experiences". They are able to remember the people from their past lives, places that they have been and lived in, with great accuracy despite not having been there or should not have known in the first place.

In spiritual paths that talk about rebirth/reincarnation, humans are "recycled" after "death". The system of Samsara is like a big recycling system. Upon death, a sentient life is recyled, and made to forget his past life, much like a computer harddisk being formatted before being installed into a different computer. However, sometimes the formatting isn't complete, and the human remembers fragments of his past life.

In Gnosticism, upon death the soul is often deceived into "walking into the light", which is actually the portal into the recycling machine. "Forgetting" is a major function of that ssytem.

If a person does not really die after ther "death", one should not fear or grieve at all. It is just like a person changing clothes, then experiencing amnesia.