Unwanted identification causes misery

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

If you have apperceived what I have said, you should be able to say exactly how and where the so-called bondage arises and whom it hurts. Understand this very clearly. Manifestation of phenomena is nothing but the process of the functioning of consciousness, where there is no question of an individual entity. All are objects, dream-figures functioning in their respective roles. Our miseries arise solely through accepting responsibility, by 'taking delivery' of our respective dream roles as ourselves, by identifying what-we-are with the subject-cognizer element in the process of objectification. It is this illusory and totally unnecessary identification which causes the 'bondage' and all the resulting misery for the individual.

Once again now: what-we-are-not is only a concept, and this concept is seeking what-we-are. The conditioning - the misunderstanding - can only be got rid of by a proper understanding of what-we-are and what-we-are-not. It will then be clear that the 'bondage' and the 'individual' who suffers thereby are both mere concepts, and that what-we-are, the noumenon, can manifest itself only as total phenomena. You will find peace - or rather, peace will find itself - when there is apperception that what we are searching for cannot be found for a very simple reason: that which is searching and that which is sought are not different!

(The visitor continued to sit with this hands folded, eyes closed, tears flowing down his cheeks. He was in a state of rapturous silence more eloquent than words.)