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Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich,

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and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

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Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

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The Emerging Spirits Center in Ventura, California, where we have a monthly

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Buddhist Boot Camp Discussion Circle, has offered me use of their space when no one 

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else is there as a quiet place to record these episodes, so I will likely be able to record 

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them more frequently. I want to thank you for being patient with me as I try to get 

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my podcasting rhythm going, so to speak.

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Today, we are going to discuss the labels that we each wear, sometimes throughout 

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our entire lives, and often as an excuse for being the way we are.

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I've heard someone justify their anger one time because they're Italian,

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or their constant fear because they're from New York. Those make good jokes, 

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but they leave us stuck if we take them too seriously.  When I was a kid, I simply identified 

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as a boy, and I'm pretty sure that was the only label I wore at the time. But when my family

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 and I moved from Israel to San Francisco during my first year of  high school,

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additional labels were either thrust upon me or became more apparent than ever before:

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Jewish, Israeli, foreign, short, minority, ESL student, weird, and so on.

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I never thought of myself as those things, but other people sure did, and each label felt like

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a stamp. Later in life, I was labeled according to my job title, tax bracket, dating habits, 

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dietary restrictions, and spiritual seeking. Labels became so essential, in fact, that

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I foolishly started wearing a few of them with pride, and even a sense of achievement.

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I thought I was "finding myself," but each label actually distorted and restricted

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who I truly was. At one point, I started studying world religions and psychology, 

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but did finding value in the teachings of Christ make me a Christian? 

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Did taking the monastic vows make me a Buddhist? At first, I thought each label 

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was helping me understand who I was, but the truth is that  I am all of those things, and not 

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one of them defines me. Each label was actually limiting who I was, not helping me.

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You see, labels segregate us into a subgroup of a subgroup of a subgroup, that keeps 

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getting smaller and smaller until we lose sight of the big picture:

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that we are all the same. Growing up, one of my closest friends believed that 

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she would never amount to anything, that she was unattractive, and that her ultimate failure

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in life was inevitable in whatever she pursued.

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None of this was true, of course, but because her father repeatedly said this to her from

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childhood through puberty, she ultimately, perhaps inevitably, accepted this as true.

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Even years after her father was no longer around, she continued telling people 

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what a failure she was. And it didn't matter how many friends told her she was charming

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and beautiful, because as long as she didn't believe it to be true, then it wasn't,

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at least not for her; not for many years. So what is true? Is Lily beautiful or not?

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Well, she's technically neither beautiful nor not beautiful,  but her experience in life

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is ultimately shaped and greatly affected by what she chooses to believe, 

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by the label she chooses to wear, if any, as is the case with many of us.

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We can choose to believe that we are perfect by design, gifted, smart, capable, fortunate,

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blessed, and worthy, or we can choose to believe the opposite.

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It took Lily 36 years to change what she believed, but that's the wonderful news 

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about re-evaluating our belief system and our labels: we can embrace a new truth

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even after decades of believing the opposite. Or, of course, we can choose to stay stuck.

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Either way, we are the ones who live with the consequences. To accept a new truth, 

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we must be willing to let go of an old one, and that's where most people struggle: ignoring

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or forgetting whatever society has previously deemed as beautiful, successful, saint-like,

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or heaven-bound, and redefining ourselves according to new and improved standards.

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How much of your identity is wrapped up in a label? And do you see the difference 

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between identifying as "a person with disabilities," for example, as opposed 

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to "a disabled person?"

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The difference between saying, "I am angry," and saying, "I am feeling anger right now,"

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which honors both the feeling and the fact that it's temporary.

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Be careful of the labels with which you identify yourself, they become part

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of your personality, and it's very difficult to let them go because then it feels like you are 

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losing your identity, where in fact, you are expanding, you are growing, you are limitless.

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I am a lot of things and not one of them defines me, unless I let it.

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So, be careful  of the labels you choose to wear, because you are also many things,

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don't limit yourself to just a few.

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It is with tremendous gratitude that these episodes are brought to you 

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without any commercials thanks to the support of listeners just like you.

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If you find value in this podcast, the YouTube videos, online posts, books, or events, show 

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your love with as little as a dollar a month

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through patreon.com/BuddhistBootCamp. Thank you for your support.

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Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless

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and Buddhist Boot Camp.

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For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com

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where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project,

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watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list.

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We hope you have enjoyed this episode 

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and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions.

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Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏