Looking at the physical world it seems what "I" am is the integration of the cells/components of my body with the rest of universe to create a point of experience. That point of experience only exists with the integration of everything, and "I" is a component of that which would not exist otherwise. Ego ignores this and tells us we are separate from the whole process and often that we are above it, but the concept of my independent self may be an abstraction that helps my mind cope with survival in the natural world