Seeing the nature of person—what we are, rather than who we are—is one of the foundational insights produced by training in Gotama’s teachings. By training the awareness & developing mindfulness (habitual, continuous focusing of awareness), we can see the impermanent (anicca) and not-self aspects of what we are. Using Gotama’s other categories for analysis, such as the five aggregates & the six sense bases, we can see the mental processes of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, & thoughts as they arise. We can see repeating patterns of these mind events, perceptions, sensations of liking & disliking—all soaring & swooping together like a flock of birds, a constant murmuration of the mind. This symphony of insights has the power to relieve our enchantment with the delusion of a solid, separate self, to see, in real time, that this delusion is the root cause of dukkha: dissatisfaction, stress, & suffering, including the fear of death. The psychological assumption of a separate, solid self (something more than patterns, habits, & conditions), is called “self view” (sakayadiṭṭhi) in Gotama’s teachings; leaving that behind for good is a major mark of progress toward complete liberation.