Wednesday Wisdom: Let go of labels

Since I've been thinking a lot this week about identity and how we choose to categorize ourselves (see Monday's post about Bridentity), I thought what better quote this week than one about letting go of labeling things. It's a human tendency to want to automatically label things so that we can better define and understand them within the context of our own individual lives. But sometimes this forces meanings where there are no meanings, or limits things, or holds us back. Sometimes the best thing we can do, rather than puzzle over something to excess or try to make something fit a preconceived notion, is to just let go and let it be.

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By becoming attached to names and forms, not realizing that they have no more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error arises and the way to emancipation is blocked.

—The Buddha, "Absolute Relativity"