Common misconception

Atman is not your personality, mind, or body; those change and can be observed. The Self is what observes.

The question it leaves you holding

If you can watch your own thoughts, who is the watcher — and could it ever turn around and watch itself?

Schools that center this concept

• Advaita Vedanta — Shankara's non-dualism: only Brahman is real; the individual self is that one Self, mistaking itself as many.
• Dvaita Vedanta — Madhva's dualism: God, souls, and matter are eternally distinct; liberation is loving nearness, not merger.
• Samkhya — The oldest analysis: countless conscious selves (purusha) entangled in one unconscious nature (prakriti).

Questions to explore

• How do different schools argue the Self is more than the body and mind?
• Is the witness-Self something I can experience, or only infer?