It means that we will always identify with all the roles we adopt, with each one of our negative moods and with every thought that occurs to us. In order not to forget ourselves, we must not ascribe every incoming thought to ourselves and use the word "I" for every thought.

How often we are able to observe other people, doctors, teachers or lawyers who become identified with their thoughts and opinions and becoming dogmatic and argumentative, though the point is not so much the matter in hand as winning the argument.

One can learn to free oneself from incorrect identification, but it is difficult. One must first understand that thoughts cannot really be stopped. To avoid identifying with them, it is necessary to observe them without passing judgement. One must not say "I think", for this means saying yes to them. It is said that the Devil puts many thoughts in our heads, but we must never consider them to be our own thoughts. There is a big difference between thoughts and thinking.
We are not responsible for our thoughts, but we are for our thinking. If you develop a thought further that occurs to you, and think on from this initial thought, you are responsible for that. In WingTsun terms: you must become passive towards your thoughts by not becoming them and identifying with them. Always remember: you are not your thoughts! As soon as you start believing that they are your thoughts, these thoughts will gain power over you and try to become reality.
Instead of "I think" it would be better to say "It thinks" in future, in order to achieve the necessary detachment.
When you lie in bed at night and the thoughts start coming – the envious, jealous, negative little thoughts that try to drag you down and reflect your feelings of self-pity, your so-called sense of justice, accounts that still need to be settled with others, a desire for vengeance etc. – simply let them in, they are not your thoughts! Observe with amusement how these thoughts fly into your head and then leave it again. If you can do this you will find inner peace. And inner peace is the objective of working on ourselves. We battle with ourselves to achieve harmony and inner peace.
Whereas we relax our muscles to free ourselves from tension in the external, physical WingTsun, we must sever any link between thoughts and ourselves in internal, mental WingTsun.
One practical way to prevent our mind from slipping into useless fantasies, suffering from mental diarrhoea and engaging in compulsive thinking which always revolves around the same topic is to learn texts by heart and recite them. A dear female friend recently confided that she often resorts to alcohol to free herself from tormented thoughts; she would be better off learning Schiller's poem about the bell by heart! If you have ever asked yourself why committed Christians, Hindus or Moslems still learn their holy scriptures by heart in the age of the photocopier and computer, you now know the answer: learning by "heart" is a kind of mental survival method designed to free the brain from useless, mechanical thoughts. Because it only has room for one thought at a time.

Attention:
Hopefully nobody will imagine that he is working on himself merely by reading my editorials each month. For anybody who thinks so, my wake-up calls are more likely to act as sleeping pills or tranquillisers.
Neither should anybody think that I am necessarily capable of doing what I write about in these editorials, or that all their content is the fruit of my own intellect.
In fact a great deal is age-old wisdom, often reflecting the findings and teachings of people who had a great affinity with the "self-liberation ideas" of WingTsun.

Keith R. Kernspecht