No one is identifying with the character. It is just the nature of a character to be identified with his own point of view. The character appears in awareness, but awareness is not personal. In liberation, the character simply loses its grip over the free-flow and functioning of awareness. It can be seen as very very small sometimes. Like "ha ha! It was just this little 'me' all along."
So can you tell me where you're at with this inquiry now?
Ah, it is interesting how the character identification continues relentlessly. Some onion layers seem to be peeling back here, but at each new layer, the identification process starts anew. Clearly, I am not choosing to do this but it is the nature of a character, as you say. At what point does the character become small as you describe? It seems that after peeling back enough layers, it will eventually shift, but this is just a concept possibly getting in the way. Time to be diligent in watching for the identification process. What I've noticed over the past few hours is that if I'm just going about my business, the identification process isn't always present. There's no separate me until there needs to be for whatever reason. Once it is there, it is convincing and gives the impression that it is always there, but it isn't truly always there. More evidence of its illusory nature.
I've heard awareness described as not personal before but this is something I have not yet grasped on any experiential level.
