The problem with most seekers is that they eagerly jump from one identity to another. As the thoughts flow, so do the identities. Even on somehow arriving at the pointers to the Truth, they get fooled into thinking that they are now unique in their thinking process and so must be different from the other persons. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The fact is that you are no different from any other person. All is ONE and ONE is All. All that appears different is just that- an appearance. When one turns one's attention to one's own self, the appearance disappears immediately. An appearance cannot be without the one to whom it appears. The substratum is the same regardless of the appearance. The problem is that almost everyone is interested in the appearance and therefore forgets one's own self. You may say one ignores one's own self. Hence the confusion with various identities that one adopts or imposes upon one self.
When one truly turns the attention of the mind away from the objects, which are nothing but appearances, and LOOKS at one's own Source, then it becomes clear that one cannot identify with any thing. Zero (shoonya). Upon careful inquiry, all identities dissolve into nothingness. One is left empty. And yet, even saying emptiness or nothingness is not true since that in itself would create a mental concept and thus create another identity in itself. All concepts are based on opposites. Emptiness versus fullness. Nothingness versus somethingness. But your True Identity transcends all concepts. The best way to perhaps describe THAT which is beyond any description would be to say that your True Identity is No Identity. THAT is who you really are. All else is an appearance - basically, nothing-just an illusion.
