As Rupert Spira writes, what usually obscures the Self are layers of thoughts, emotions, and habits identified with experience. Because of this, attention remains focused on the content of life instead of resting in its ESSENCE. Across spiritual traditions, this simple recognition has always been the starting point.
Over time, however, it has often been obscured by systems, practices, and techniques intended
to lead to what is, in its very nature, already PRESENT.