Letting Go Of Labels - Part 1 of 2

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. ~Emerson

Synchronicities abound. I’ve observed over the past few years that the lives, learnings and wins of my closest friends often parallel my own. In his blog, my friend Clayton writes about his recent return to an omnivorous diet. I, too, was vegetarian for many years, up until about 2 months ago, when I allowed the label of ‘vegetarian’ to pass through me. The choice for me was not one made for health reasons. Nor was it made because I felt compelled to consume flesh once again. Instead, my choice was made because I recognized that by identifying myself as ‘vegetarian’, I was closing myself off, energetically and spiritually, to other realms of experience.

For over 13 years I had identified myself as a vegetarian (and vegan for four of those years). In the past half a year or so, I’ve even gone so far as to dramatically increase my raw food intake. But even more recently I’ve come to appreciate the value of labels, preferences, and, perhaps more specifically, the value in letting them go. As a vegetarian, I placed myself into a nice, square container.

• I don’t eat meat because I love animals.
• I don’t eat meat because of its impact on the environment.
• I don’t eat meat because it isn’t healthy.
• I am vegetarian because it makes me feel good about myself, and I know I’m making a conscious choice about how I eat.

When I began to pay attention to some of the ways the definition of ‘vegetarian’ had morphed for me over the years, I discovered that I no longer needed the label to be any of those things. In fact, the label had instead become a constriction of my consciousness. The label, the box I had put myself in, was in actually restricting the flow of energy in my life, restricting my ability to experience the world, and yielding power to the ego, the part of me that likes to live inside comfortable little boxes.

So I made a conscious choice: I choose to eat meat from a place where I am truly open, truly aware, and truly conscious of the choice. As Clayton also explained, it was like a fresh start. Suddenly I was able to experience food in a way that was wholly new to me. Not only that, but in simply opening up the possibility - not even necessarily the ACT of eating meat - but the act of consciously choosing to say, “It is OK,” was enough to significantly shift my energy. I have actually found that my eating habits have become more conscious, and more connected in the past two months.

We are boundless and infinite beings. Yes, we live inside a physical body, but in the eternal (or energetic, if you like) sense, we are infinite. When we allow a label to describe us, to define us, or restrict us, we are in effect saying ‘no’ to certain aspects of our own infinite nature. It is almost as though we put on an energetic uniform, and from that point forward we begin to conform to the customs, beliefs and systems that define that uniform. As a result, whole realms of experience are kept at bay, simply because we have singularly identified with the opposite realm of experience. As we become more entrenched inside this new definition, our awareness and capacity for understanding and experience other realms of existence is greatly reduced. What’s worse is that the part of us that has identified and grown comfortable with the label (the ego) now has the balance of power, and becomes greatly resistant to change. It is in this place that many of us spend most of our lives: desiring change, yet fearful of what it means, what it looks like, and what others will think of us as a result.

Indeed, as I began to make the choice to let the label move through me, the part of me that was the most resistant was the part which was fearful of what others might think when they found out that I was eating meat once again. Would I now be admitting that I was ‘wrong’ all those years? Would I be admitting that an omnivorous diet was the ‘right’ way to live? Would they no longer trust me because I changed my belief system? Each of these fears is born of the ego, and entertaining these questions is equivalent to yielding my power, my consciousness, and my experience to my ego and to others.

By consciously choosing in every moment from a place of connection with our personal truth, rather than a place of label-identity, we reverse the flow of power to the ego, and return it back to our true nature, our infinite self. Like the tide, the flow of universal energy returns to us, seeing once again a vessel that is free of restriction, free of attachment to others’ perceptions and expectations, and willing to experience life with senses anew. We say ‘yes’ to the gifts that the world has to offer us, increasing our own capacity for fully experiencing life, yet without in any way diminishing our ability to say ‘no’ when an experience is at odds with our present awareness.

In the second entry of this series, I’ll talk more about allowing labels to move through us, relaxing preferences, and taking on what my teacher Satyen calls “blissiplines” to expand our awareness through arbitrary, spontaneous practices.