Identification is what imprisonment is. Let this be understood perfectly, because that is the root cause of all our misery, slavery.
Identification—this word is very significant. It means you get identified with a part. You become one with one part of life, that part you start thinking of as if it is the whole. Nothing is wrong with the part as such, but the part is the part; it is not the whole. When you start thinking of the part as the whole, partiality arises. When you start claiming for the part as if it is the whole, you are becoming blind to the whole. Now you will be in conflict with reality. And you cannot win against reality, remember it.
You cannot win against reality. It is impossible. It does not happen, it cannot happen. You can win only WITH reality, never against reality. Victory is with reality. That’s why all the great Masters have put so much emphasis on surrender. Surrender means to be with reality. Then victory is certain—because reality IS going to win. It is always the reality that wins. If you are with it, you will be a winner; if you are against it, you are going to be a loser. And we are all losers, we have been fighting. We choose a small part and claim that this is the whole.
We choose life, we take life out of its basic context—death—and we say, ‘This is me. I am life.’ Now you are getting into trouble. You will be encaged in this identification. How will you manage death then?—and it is there, and it is happening every moment, and it is going to take you unawares one day.
You get identified with the body, ‘I am the body,’ then there is trouble. You get identified with the mind, ‘I am the mind,’ then there is trouble. Getting identified is getting into trouble. Identification is the very stuff ignorance is made of.
Once identification is dropped, once you don’t get identified with anything, you simply remain a witness—not saying, ‘THIS I am’ or ‘THAT I am.’ You simply remain a witness. You see life as passing, you see death as passing, you see sex as passing, you see frustration, joy, success, failure. You go on seeing; you remain a pure seer. You don’t get hooked with anything; you don’t claim ‘I am this.’
WITHOUT claiming, who are you? Without confining and defining yourself, without giving a limitation to yourself, if you can remain flowing, just seeing, there is liberation. There is great liberation.
Unidentified one is free. Identified, one is encaged.

Zen says: Don’t be identified with anything whatsoever. And then, naturally, transcendence happens.
You see misery coming and you remain a watcher. You see misery arising, engulfing you, surrounding you like great dark smoke, but you remain a watcher. You see it, you don’t judge. You don’t say, ‘This is me,’ or ‘This is not me.’ You don’t say anything at all, you remain non-judgemental. You simply see this is the fact, that there is misery. Then as it had come one day, one day it starts disappearing. Clouds had gathered and now they are disappearing, and there is great sunshine and happiness. You don’t get identified with that either. You just see that sunshine has come back, clouds have disappeared. You don’t say, ‘This is me,’ you don’t say, ‘This is not me.’ You don’t make ANY statement at all about yourself. You simply go on watching.
Many times it will happen—misery will come, happiness will come—many times you will succeed, many times you will fail. Many times you will be depressed, and many times you will feel very high. Watching all this duality, by and by you will see that you are beyond all these dual pairs of things.
And so is life and death a pair. And so is mind and body. And so is the world and NIRVANA. ALL are dual pairs.
When you can see thoroughly, when you can see transparently, and you don’t choose, you are something transcendental—the witness. That witness is never born and never dies.

Death and life come into that witness’ vision, but that witness is eternal. It was there before you were born, and it will be there when you are gone. You have been coming into the world millions of times, and you may yet be coming—and still you have never come. The world appears in you just like a reflection appears in a mirror. Nothing, in fact, happens to the mirror. Or do you think something happens to the mirror?
You are standing before a mirror and the mirror reflects your face. Do you think something is happening to the mirror? Nothing is happening. You are gone, the mirror is empty. Somebody else comes before the mirror, the mirror reflects that face—beautiful or ugly—it has no choice, it is choiceless. You bring a beautiful rose-flower, it reflects; you bring an ugly thorn, it reflects. You bring a beautiful face, it reflects; you bring an ugly face, it reflects. It has no choice. It does not say, ‘This is not good and I am not going to reflect,’ and, ‘This is very good and I will cling to it. Please don’t go away from here, remain here. I am you, you are me.’ No, the mirror simply reflects.
This mirrorlike quality is what is meant by witnessing. And that’s why the mirror remains clean of all impressions. It goes on reflecting, but no impressions are collected on it. This is the state of awareness. This is what meditation is all about.

Watch, see, be alert, but don’t choose. And don’t get into any part. The part is not the whole. The part is part, and sooner or later the part will go, because the part cannot stay long enough. And when it goes you will be miserable because you will not be willing to leave it; you will cling to it, because you got identified with it. But it will have to go, and you will feel miserable and you will cry and you will weep—but that is your creation. If you had remained like a mirror there would be no problem. Whatsoever happens, happens. You remain undisturbed and undistracted.
THIS IS THE VERY ESSENTIAL CORE OF ALL RELIGIONS. It is not a question of practice, it is not a question of learning concepts, dogmas. It is not a question of reciting sutras. It is a question of insight! And this insight is available to you. There is no need to go to anybody for this insight. You have been carrying it all along. From the very beginning it has been so. It is there, the mirror is there. Just start using it.
Try sometimes and you will be surprised! The same thing that has been disturbing you in the past no more disturbs.

Somebody insults you—you simply watch, you don’t get identified with it. You don’t say, ‘He has insulted me.’
How can he insult YOU? You don’t know yourself who you are, how can he know who you are? He cannot insult you. He may have been insulting some image that he carries of you, but that is not you. He may be having some idea about you, and that idea he is insulting. How can he insult YOU? He cannot see you at all.
If you remain alert and watchful, you will be surprised—the insult came and went and nothing happened inside you, nothing was stirred, the calmness was radiant. No vibration, no wave, not even a ripple arose in you. And you will be tremendously blissful knowing this mirrorlike quality. Then you are becoming integrated.
Then somebody comes and praises you. Try it again. Be watchful. Don’t think he is praising you. He may be praising somebody he thinks you are. He may be praising you for some ulterior motives of his own. That is none of your business. You simply see the fact that ‘this man is praising me.’ But remain a mirror. Don’t swallow it! Don’t cling to it! If you swallow it you will be in difficulty. Then ego arises—with identification, ego. And then you start expecting that everybody should praise you like this man.
Nobody’s going to praise you like that. Then there is hurt and misery. And tomorrow this man may not praise you again. His motive may have been fulfilled. Or tomorrow he may start thinking that he was wrong, or tomorrow he may take revenge.
Whenever somebody praises you, some day he is going to insult you too—because he has to take revenge, he has to put things right. An imbalance arises. When somebody is praising you, he is not feeling really very good; it hurts him to praise you. He has to show you that you are higher than him—that hurts. He may not show it right now, but he will keep the hurt, the wound, inside. And some day if the opportunity arises he will show you who you are; he will put you in your right place. And then you will be very much hurt.
This man has been praising you so much, and now he hurts you. But he has not done anything. It is you—you started clinging to the idea that he had put in your mind.
Not getting identified with anything, watching, keeping the mirrorlike quality is what brings one, by and by, closer to enlightenment.