On the Emerson ListServe, Richard Geldard said something I liked:

As to the self, I have always liked RWE's image of the human being as a container of water, which after death is broken to spill its contents into the sea, there to merge with the whole. Thus, the so-called personal "self" is just a temporary embodiment of the greater Self, which, of course, pretty much takes care of the notion of the survival of the personality.