{"id":616,"date":"2007-06-17T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-17T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are\/"},"modified":"2014-03-31T04:29:40","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T03:29:40","slug":"buddhism-identity-who-we-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html","title":{"rendered":"Buddhism: IDENTITY, who we are"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

One of my growing obsessions is the question of identities, the identities we ascribe to ourselves. Think about it. Think about the last time you uttered the words, \u201cI am\u2026\u201d<\/strong>How did you complete that sentence? For instance, most people I know and who read this blog are American. We could all say, \u201cI am an American.\u201d What does that mean though? What, specifically, does it mean for the way I live in the world? Does it mean that I wave a red, white, and blue flag? Does it mean I support the ideals of our forefathers? Or does it simply mean I have a US passport?<\/p>\n

Who Am I?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If it is contingent and could change, then is it right to say \u201cI am an American.\u201d Or would it be more correct to say \u201cI live in America, was born here, and carry a US passport.\u201d What\u2019s the difference? The first seeks to ascribe a label, a quality, (an accident to use the Aristotelian term) to a fixed me, my essence. The second gives only verbs, actions carried out by the \u2018I\u2019.<\/p>\n

~<\/div>\n

I just read a short piece by Victoria Austin in Turning Wheel magazine (the magazine of the Buddhist<\/a> Peace Fellowship).<\/strong> There she describes her experience at Princeton in the early \u201970s, where the dean of students placed all Jewish students (she is a Jew) and black students together in dorms, with the lame excuse that he thought they would be more comfortable \u201cwith others of your own kind.\u201d Obviously both groups were exacerbated. Yet in the eyes of the old school white (protestant) guy, both Jews and African Americans represent an \u2018Other\u2019 and thus fit together. Austin relates another experience where she was un-invited to give a talk to a group of black students. She notes how whitethis makes her feel (now she is together with the old school white guy), and she states, \u201cAnd I am white.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

~\n
I was surprised to see that from an accomplished Zen teacher. I guess I have long taken Buddhism<\/a> in all its forms to be a process of dropping labels, to stop identifying. Isn\u2019t it clear that race and color are (ignorant) human constructs? Who we are, for all of us, goes far beyond these.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But then don\u2019t tell that to the Jew or African American (or others) for whom such labels form an integral part of their person. In fact, Austin\u2019s article is in a feature of four Jewish Buddhists speaking of their experiences \u201cas allies,\u201d essentially exchanging self for other, both broadening themselves and finding new perspectives from which to more deeply examine themselves.<\/p>\n

~\n
What exactly does Buddhism teach about \u201cwho we are?\u201d Is it to abandon such labels and live purely in the moment? Perhaps is is more to recognize the contingency of all labels, to use them but not be trapped by them? Or could it be that for some, labels, as bonds to history and other beings, are as necessary as the air we breathe?<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my growing obsessions is the question of identities, the identities we ascribe to ourselves. Think about it. Think about the last time you uttered the words, \u201cI am\u2026\u201dHow did you complete that sentence? For instance, most people I know and who read this blog are American. We could all say, \u201cI am an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":3299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,6],"tags":[520,63,53],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buddhism","category-western-philosophy","tag-buddhism","tag-identity","tag-western-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\nBuddhism: IDENTITY, who we are<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of my growing obsessions is the question of identities, the identities we ascribe to ourselves. Think about it. Think about the last time you uttered\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buddhism: IDENTITY, who we are\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my growing obsessions is the question of identities, the identities we ascribe to ourselves. Think about it. Think about the last time you uttered\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-06-17T18:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-03-31T03:29:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2007\/06\/True-Self-Discovered.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"315\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"430\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html\",\"name\":\"Buddhism: IDENTITY, who we are\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-06-17T18:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-31T03:29:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"One of my growing obsessions is the question of identities, the identities we ascribe to ourselves. Think about it. Think about the last time you uttered\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Buddhism: IDENTITY, who we are\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Buddhism: IDENTITY, who we are","description":"One of my growing obsessions is the question of identities, the identities we ascribe to ourselves. Think about it. Think about the last time you uttered","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Buddhism: IDENTITY, who we are","og_description":"One of my growing obsessions is the question of identities, the identities we ascribe to ourselves. Think about it. Think about the last time you uttered","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html","og_site_name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","article_published_time":"2007-06-17T18:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-03-31T03:29:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"315","height":"430","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2007\/06\/True-Self-Discovered.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Justin Whitaker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Whitaker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html","name":"Buddhism: IDENTITY, who we are","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-06-17T18:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-31T03:29:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9"},"description":"One of my growing obsessions is the question of identities, the identities we ascribe to ourselves. Think about it. Think about the last time you uttered","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2007\/06\/buddhism-identity-who-we-are.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Buddhism: IDENTITY, who we are"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/","name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9","name":"Justin Whitaker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Justin Whitaker"},"description":"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}