There is a self or cognitive center within the body and it identifies with all sorts of experiences, programing, desires, impulses and does all sorts of stuff. And yet it can be clearly realized that it did not create itself nor the capacities and circumstances it was born into and lives within.
This self is not the author nor source of any of it. It is a secondary process, more like a commentator on what is happening. It has a lot of opinions and judgements but no power. Because it is at times very aware of its own powerlessness, it has fear, anxiety, depression and seeks for more power, control and understanding. It is constantly seeking in one form or another… and it is not the source of seeking either. It happens.
In a moment it can be realized that this encapsulated self is a function of the totality of being and does not exist in and as it imagines itself to be…as an encapsulated self.
There appears to be a separate self. It does not do itself. This can intellectually be seen very easily if one is honest about their direct experience. But the other possibility is this secondary function disappears completely
It doesn’t matter at all whether it does or does not disappear except when it does there seems to be much less struggle and more peace, presence and joy within the human organism.
This is a description, not a prescription. 
The Heart of Conscious Living 