Realisation is nothing new to be acquired. It is already there but obstructed by a screen of thoughts. — Ramana Maharishi
Allow me to use a metaphor to paint a soundscape of the perception of our true nature.
Imagine our true self can be perceived like silence in a room.
Our thoughts, feelings and sensations are all the other sounds existing in the room.
the cacophony of these sounds can drown out the silence completely.
But when it becomes quiet and still in the room, it becomes apparent that the silence is quite noticeable and it never was not there.
It just got washed out of the symphony of all the other sounds present.
Once this silence is known and we keep listening, we can again dial up the volume of the entire soundscape of life but this time we will still perceive the silence in which they appear.
We will then realise that the sounds appearing in the silence and the silence itself both are part of the same soundscape that is our pure being.
You are not the sound, or the silence, you are the symphony.