The Craving for Identity
Why do we have the craving for identification? Inwardly, we try to identify ourselves with the past, with tradition, with some fanciful romantic image, a symbol much cherished. One takes comfort, security, in any form of illusion. And man apparently needs many illusions.

In the distance, there is the hoot of an owl and a deep-throated reply from the other side of the valley . It's still dawn.The noise of the day has not begun and everything is quiet.There is something strange and holy where the sun arises.

There is a prayer, a chant to the dawn, to that strange quiet light. That early morning, the light was subdued, there was no breeze and all the vegetation, the trees, the bushes, were quiet, still, waiting. Waiting for the sun to rise. Perhaps the sun would not come up for another half hour or so, and the dawn was slowly covering the earth with a strange stillness.

Gradually , slowly , the topmost mountain was getting brighter and the sun was touching it, golden, clear, and the snow was pure, untouched by the light of day . As you climbed, leaving the little village paths down below, the noise of the earth, the crickets, the quails and other birds began their morning song, their chant, their rich worship of the day .

As the sun arose, you were part of that light and had left behind everything that thought had put together. You completely forgot yourself. The psyche was empty of its struggles and its pains. And as you walked, climbed, there was no sense of separateness, no sense of being even a human being.