To identify is to place one's identity within a given situation, or to allow a circumstance or event to shape who you are. If a scene of anger arises, where violent, sarcastic and destructive words are uttered, we will identify if we in turn react with similar emotions. Therefore, our identity becomes one with that event: we become the identity of our own anger that has arisen in response to their external stimuli.

To not identify means to not place one's identity within the anger that arises in response to an insulting comment, or the fear and negativity toward being poor, etc. When a person does not identify with the ego, they in turn identify with their true identity: the Inner Being.