Don't Label Me!

For ten years I've been a practicing Buddhist, I haven't always followed it to the letter, but I've called myself Buddhist for most of those ten years.

Last night my wife and I were having a discussion about Buddhism. She was raised in an LDS household, that's Mormon for those that don't understand what LDS is. It stands for Latter-Day-Saints. Growing up in Utah you're always asked if you're Mormon, because they have to put you in certain category. I was raised non-Mormon in Utah, which was tough.

The discussion we had last night delved into whether she wanted to take the label of Buddhist. Growing up in Utah, like I said, you're given a label, as you are in most of society. Labels are societies way of defining who you are.

I asked my wife, after she told me she didn't want to label herself with anything, what she would say if someone asked her what she believed? Her response was, "I don't believe in a God, but I like a lot of the teachings of Mindfulness."

This doesn't categorize her as Buddhist, Christian or Atheist, anymore in categorizes her as American. A large majority of Americans don't believe in a deity, they take things from different religions that fit who they believe they are,

I know my wife's fear of taking a label stems from her growing up in Utah and being classified as Mormon whether she believed in the teachings of Joseph Smith or not, but right now she believes she is someone who, like me, doesn't believe in a God and likes certain things about Buddhism and Mindfulness, but doesn't want to be labeled with anything.

This labeling of who we are is solely an instinct in society so everyone knows who we are. The problem with defining someone by a label is that person's view or beliefs will most likely change, like my wife's has.

Throughout our lives we're given labels of who we are by society, these labels, whether they are fair or not, shove us into a box. They put us where society wants us, not where we want to be.

My wife doesn't want a label of who she is, and she shouldn't have to claim one, regardless of what society says.

After our discussion last night I told my wife that, as Buddhism teaches, everything is impermanent anyways. This life only leads to another existence. That who she is in this life doesn't define who she'll be in the next rebirth, and that seemed to help her with figuring things out.

We shouldn't label people as one thing or another, they're people no matter what their beliefs are.

Have you had trouble in your life with being labeled? Answer in the comments.