As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment and purity through meditation and attains Reality.
Adi ShankaraYou never identify yourself with the shadows cast by your body, or with its reflection, or with the body you see in a dream or in your imagination. Therefore you should not identify yourself with this living body either.
Adi ShankaraBut the jiva [living being] is endowed with ego and his knowledge is limited, whereas Ishwar is without ego and is omniscient.
Adi Shankara