i've made this page so you can get a better grasp of what to expect upon liberation...
here both ramana maharshi and shri atmananda, while ramana calles it the Self and atmananda calles it the I principle both ,calling it Atman at times, are describing It as a Thing...and then theres nisargadatta...
ramaman maharsh this is from the guru vachaka kovai
77. The Real Thing
page463.
The rope, the true knowledge [Self], into which disappears the wonderful snake, the mind-delusion – which exists so long as it is not enquired into and becomes non-existent when enquired into – alone is the real Thing.
The whole universe, which seems to exist on account of the wonderful illusion, the mind, is not the real Thing.
The real Thing is only Self-knowledge, the One, into which the whole universe disappears when mind, its root, merges.
Since nonenquiry alone is the reason for the seeming existence of the mind, Self-enquiry alone is the only way to know the real Thing.
464. The knowledge of the supreme Bliss which shines naturally [as ‘am’], without any desire and beyond differences, in the well-established Self-abidance [samadhi] is the real Thing.
465. Since at all times and in all places the unmistakable Self [‘I am’] alone shines eternally as the one Thing, except That, all other things at all times and in all places have to be dismissed as false.
What is called ‘time and place’ itself is false.
579,. Since Self is the eternal, non-dual Thing and since there is no means to reach It other than Self-attention, know that Self itself is the path, Self itself is the goal, and that they [the path and the goal] are not different.
this is from shri atmanandas discourses..he is describing the Self/Atman/I/God as a Thing..
Thing in itself
176: THE ‘THING’ AS SEEN BY AN IGNORANT MAN AND A SAGE
The Sage sees the ‘thing in itself’. The ignorant man sees only the sense objects superimposed upon the thing in itself.
1432: HOW TO KNOW A THING?
In the phenomenal sense, we do not know the thing at all. But we know only something about the thing, or in other words we know the appearance alone.
To know the thing, we have to go deeper, even beyond the appearance, into the background; and there all appearances disappear, leaving the background alone. That is the real thing; and that is known by identity alone, there being nothing else beside it.
16. WHAT IS THE ‘THING IN ITSELF’?
The fundamental worldly experience of man is that something which was unknown subsequently becomes known.
This statement clearly shows that the ‘thing in itself’ was the background of both the unknown and the known, and as such could not exactly be either the one or the other.
Looking at the background closely, you find that some sort of a limitation was put upon the ‘thing in itself’ by the mind, to which it therefore appeared as the ‘known’ or the ‘unknown’.
Take away that mental limitation from the experience, and immediately it becomes the Reality itself; because it goes beyond the known and the unknown.
That which was called unknown is in the known as well, and is still unknown.
It is the Reality itself.
Take for example the ‘I’ in I think and I feel.
The ‘I’-principle can never be the thinking or the feeling principle, but is beyond both, and is present equally in the thinking as well as in the feeling.
Examining this from another angle, the ‘unknown’ means that which is not grasped by the sense organs or the mind.
That which is not comprehended by these two, but which transcends them both, cannot be anything but the Reality.
Therefore, what is called the ‘unknown’ is the Reality.
And now coming to the ‘known’, when correctly examined, a sense object merges into Consciousness.
Therefore, what is known is also nothing but Consciousness.
When an ordinary man (who believes himself to be the body) sees an object, he sees and emphasizes the object part of it and ignores completely the most important factor – consciousness.
But when a Jnyanin [Sage] sees the same object, he sees it not as object but as consciousness itself. He emphasizes only the consciousness part of it, and feels that it is the Self.
Thus every perception doubly reaffirms his knowledge that he is Consciousness.
It is experience of the Truth itself, repeated as often as there are thoughts or perceptions.
swami sivananda
Atman or the pure spirit is timeless, spaceless, placeless and endless. It is full of Jnana (Jnana Maya). It is Santa and self-luminous (Svayam Jyoti). It is Jyotirmaya (full of light). All students of Vedanta seek this Atman to get Brahmanubhava. It is called Parama Vastu (supreme thing). It gives immortality. swami sivananda link
nisargadatta from the book I Am That
To me nothing ever happens. There is something changeless, motionless, immovable, rock-like, unassailable; a solid mass of pure being-consciousness-bliss. I am never out of it. Nothing can take me out of it, no torture, no calamity. (191)