According to Osho, losing identity shocks and hurts because society builds us on borrowed labels; without them we face an abysmal nothingness. The ego clings to fictions like a man gripping a rock in the dark, mistaking safety. Letting go feels like death, yet the real ground—your own being—is near and discoverable only by you.
It feels scary to drop your labels because you think you’ll fall into nothing, though your real self is right there like solid ground in the dark.