Confusion and Identification
Identification with anything is the beginning of confusion. Identity is based on the opposites. To be a man, there must be the woman. To be of one country, there must be another country. To be human, there must be the non-human. All these identities can only exist in this field of the opposites. There can be many degrees, levels, gradients, but they are all fundamentally the same as the opposites. One must exist for the other to exist as well.
When the mind identifies itself with something it believes to be outside of itself, it creates the sense of separation. Then, the possibility of being attached or detached arises. Confusion, then, is the sensation of not being able to identify. It is the feeling of not fitting a specific identity. The mind believes it must fit some category, but no category can fit it. This is clarity. To understand that the mind cannot be described by anything is clarity. Any identification is false. When the mind is caught in trying to identify, it is caught in the struggle of the opposites. Then, it is caught in the constant justification and arguments of why it fits one and not the other. It does not fit either. It fits none at all. To identify with anything invites confusion, because that identification will always be challenged. The mind believes that security comes from an unchanging identification, so it strives to maintain such identities. But identities change, as we can observe throughout history and our lifetime. The mind is the holder of identity. When it sees that it is not necessary to identify at all, then it ceases to be confused. Confusion is the nature of thought, of fitting in, of trying to be something. Confusion is the process of molding, of control, of making and transforming. There is no need to fit in, to be part of, to become. Clarity is the seeing of everything without identification. Therefore, in clarity, no struggle is possible. In clarity, everything is seen as it is, because identification is the maker of illusions.
Cover photo by Aman Upadhyay on Unsplash
