Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Each of us has many labels, some of them we give to ourself, some of them people give to us, but usually we agree to both kinds of labels. Ex: Lawyer, northerner, female, Saigonese, Catholic, International American High School, Polytechnique University graduate, John Hopskins Univ. Master in International Relations, super-intellectual, health-conscious vegan… and probably a lot more.

Probably we all enjoy those labels of ours, or at least have no problems with them. But we don’t know that they usually are our hinderances spiritually.

Before I go futher, I’d like to clarify again the term spiritual/spirituality. (I have clarified it many times here). That term is the Vietnamese term “tâm linh”, meaning the sacred heart – the deepest part of our heart, the purest, original part of our heart, containing our purest love and caring for others, for the world, for the whole humanity and animal kingdom, where dwell our Buddhahood and the Spirit of God in us. In short, spirituality is the deepest, purest and most sacred part of our own heart.

I don’t use the term spirituality to indicate all kinds of shamanism or exorcism or feng sui or crystal-ball reading, with all sorts of supposed magic and supernatural powers. OK, folks? Those are saved for Hollywood scriptwriters.

When I talk about spirituality, I talk about the best part of your heart.

Back to the main subject of our labels. More often than not, for each label we have, we identify ourself with that label and distinguish ourself from people who don’t have that label. Say, with label “Saigonese”, you think of you as Saigonese, in the biggest economic hub of Vietnam, and you may have the (subconscious) tendency to think that people in other cities and provinces are less sophisticated than you Saigonese.

Every other label may work the same way on you. And everyone of us unknowingly gets stuck in that labeling trap.

You probably have about 20 labels or 30 labels, meaning 20 to 30 labeling traps enmeshing you constantly. How are you going to breathe?

Another big problem with labeling is that when you stick a label on someone, you may be hurting him/her unfairly. Say, someone says something incorrect about you on his Facebook. You immediately call him liar. Well, maybe he only makes some honest mistakes with his info, not really liar. But your label sticks.

So, the labels you have for yourself, and the labels you give others, they all are not good, brothers and sisters. Labeling is bad. Period.

That’s why the Buddhists teach “non-discriminating heart” – look at all people the same way: we all have Buddhahood in us, Spirit of God in us. Look at that essence of our soul. We all are the same. So, don’t discriminate anyone by labels.

Wish we all look at each other as Buddhas-to-be. We all are the Awakening travelers on the same life journey.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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