The first quality of the seeker is to be authentic, from truth, not to deceive in any way. Because if you deceive others, eventually you are deceived by your own deceptions. If you tell a lie too many times, it almost starts looking like a truth to you. When others start believing in your lies, you also start believing in them. Belief is infectious.
That's how we have got into the mess we are in.
The first lie that we have accepted as truth is that "I am a body." Everybody believes in it. You are born in a society which believes that we are bodies. Everybody reacts as a body; nobody responds as a soul.
And remember the difference between reaction and response: reaction is mechanical; response is alert, aware, conscious.When you push a button and the fan starts moving, it is a reaction.When you push a button, the fan does not start thinking, "Am I to move or not?" When you put the light on, the electricity does not respond; it reacts. It is mechanical. There is not any gap between your pushing of the button and the electricity's functioning. There is not a little gap of thought, of awareness, of consciousness.
If you go on reacting in your life — somebody insults you and you become angry, somebody says something and you become sad, somebody says something, you become very happy — if it is a reaction, a push-button reaction, then by and by you will start believing that you are the body.
The body is a mechanism. It is not you. You live in it, it is your abode, but you are not it. You are totally different.
This is the first lie that cripples life. Then there is another lie: that I am the mind. And this is deeper than the first, obviously, because the mind is closer to you than the body. You go on thinking thoughts, dreaming dreams, and they move so close to you, almost touching your being, just surrounding you; you start believing in them also. Then you become the mind. The mind also reacts.
You become a soul the moment you start responding. Response means now you are not reacting mechanically. You contemplate, you meditate, you give a gap to your consciousness to decide. You are the deciding factor. Somebody insults you: in reaction he is the deciding factor. You simply react; he manipulates you. In response you are the deciding factor: somebody insults you — that is not primary, that is secondary. You think over it. You decide whether to do this or that. You are not overwhelmed by it. You remain untouched, you remain aloof, you remain a watcher.
OSHO