Let's make the assumption, for the moment, that how we experience ourselves is related to the reality of ourselves. We are a creature, with sensory organs, through which we gather information about our environment. Eyes gather light, ears gather sound, skin gathers texture, tongue gathers taste, nose gathers smell.

What you are currently experiencing, then, is a metaphor, created in your brain, to represent the information that you gather through your senses. You never directly experience reality. Your senses gather information, your mind constructs a metaphor to represent "reality" based on that sensory information.

This point is crucial: Every thing you experience is a symbolic representation of reality, created by your mind, based on limited sensory data. If you don't understand that, read it again and think about it.

Everything you experience is a metaphor. One of the things that you experience is yourself. Your concept of yourself, like everything else you experience, is a model created by your mind.

What are you a metaphor for?