"'Identifying' is one of our most terrible foes because it penetrates everywhere and
deceives a man at the moment when it seems to him that he is struggling with it. It is
especially difficult to free oneself from identifying because a man naturally becomes
more easily identified with the things that interest him most, to which he gives his
time, his work, and his attention. In order to free himself from identifying a man must
be constantly on guard and be merciless with himself, that is, he must not be afraid of
seeing all the subtle and hidden forms which identifying takes.
"It is necessary to see and to study identifying to its very roots in oneself. The
difficulty of struggling with identifying is still further increased by the fact that when
people observe it in themselves they consider it a very good trait and call it
'enthusiasm,' 'zeal,' 'passion,' 'spontaneity,' 'inspiration,' and names of that kind, and
they consider that only in a state of identifying can a man really produce good work,
no matter in what sphere. In reality of course this is illusion. Man cannot do anything
sensible when he is in a state of identifying. If people could see what the state of
identifying means they would alter their opinion. A man becomes a thing, a piece of
flesh; he loses even the small semblance of a human being that he has. In the East
where people smoke hashish and other drugs it often happens that a man becomes so
identified with his pipe that he begins to consider he is a pipe himself. This is not a
joke but a fact. He actually becomes a pipe. This is identifying. And for this, hashish
or opium are entirely unnecessary. Look at people in shops, in theaters, in restaurants;
or see how they identify with words when they argue about something or try to prove
something, particularly something they do not know themselves. They become
greediness, desires, or words; of themselves nothing remains.
