Christian: “Delusion is not about you being this or that but not seeing things as they are”
Yes, that’s comes down to the samen. Not seeing/understanding that it is no entity-I who does hear, see, live, die, smell, feel etc. is not seeing things as they are.
The basic delusion is all about identity Christian.
Even the first fetter, sakkaya ditthi, is about identity. This is explained in MN44. Our ingrained habit to identify with rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara and vinnana, is sakkaya ditthi. Also, our ingrained habit to think that rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara and vinnana are ‘mine’, is sakkaya ditthi. This is word by word explained in MN44.
The other subtle notion of ‘I am’ is called asmi mana and is also about identity. In normal language we talk about this as ego. It is the perception that we are a kind of steady mental entity. A mental entity which has needs like being seen, being respected, being loved, nurtured. It is in need of pleasure, status, power etc.
Mana does not need to be bad. If mana leads to the ending of mana, mana is oke. This is said in Nettippakarana, one of the guides of the Tipitaka.
Please read SN22.89 in which the arising and the vanishing of the notion I am is explained.
A normal human being cannot seperate asmi mana from the mind. A normal being thinks ego or the notion I am, is the nature of his/her mind. In other words, for a normal human being mind and ego are the same. The Buddha was able to see that asmi mana is also just an adventitious defilment and not intrinsic to mind. Mind can get rid of asmi mana. An heavy burden get lost.
-“The state of dispassion in the world is happiness, the complete transcending of sense desires, But for he who has removed the conceit ‘I am’— this is indeed the highest happiness.”
Siebe