Identity as a Type of Thinking

 Identity has been going on for about as long as humans have had memory. Way back when there weren't any major civilizations, people formed tribes and other types of groupings. The varying tribes/groupings identified themselves through various means as a way to keep their people safe. For instance, maybe your tribe wore your hair in one way and a different tribe wore theirs in another way. Depending on what their hairstyle was, you could either see them as enemy or friend. This is just one simple example, of course. 

As time has gone on, identity has become more diverse the bigger the population in a given culture. Now, identity involves, skin color, clothing style, gender, color of skin, political allegiance, to name a few. In America, we teach that people are these identities instead of the practice that identity thinking is just one form of thinking. This causes a lot of feelings of isolation and mental illness as people are misinterpreting how they are thinking as well as how others think. This also produces an us versus them mentality as it is still relegated to the part of the brain related to fight or flight. 

When we realize that identity thinking is just one form of thinking, we realize we can have a lot more flexibility with how we see the world. Identity thinking is just like any other type of thinking. When you are thinking of things in a literary way (like a publisher or author), you look at things such as character development, story, plot, etc. When you think spatially (as like being in construction), you think in terms of depth, width, height, etc. Same with identity thinking. When you deal with identity thinking, you think in terms of how the world makes sense in a way that fits your identity. The difference between identity thinking compared to other forms of thinking is the amount of insistence suggesting we are those thoughts instead of like anything else where we think those thoughts. The carpenter doesn't think they are width or height. The author doesn't think they are the plot. 

We all tend to connect with certain types of thinking and that is great! It is when we think we ARE the content of that thinking that we practice what the Buddha said is dukkha (the illusion of thinking that we are our thoughts). Connecting with certain types of thinking can be almost spiritual in nature. It is like connecting to something bigger than yourself. 

I know this post won't be a popular post as it goes against so much of what we are taught from birth. But it has to be put out there as some people are ready to hear it.

Edit: I watched a video and wanted to share it as part of this post as I think this relates highly to this topic. Here goes: Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality | Anil Seth - YouTube