One of the first posts I wrote here, as I remember, had to do with my discomfort with identifying as a Buddhist. I had no trouble with the Buddhism part; it was the identity part that bothered me. Just to say "I am a [insert object of your choice]" gives me a little twitch of discomfort these days.
But I don't think the "I am a ..." thing is a real problem, unless you are completely oblivious to why it might be a problem. And it's a problem because labeling ourselves as anything just reinforces the "I" illusion. It assumes there is an essence of "me" that can be labeled (see "Sunyata").
There's a long-standing thread in the Buddhism forum labeled "Can you be a "Buddhist and a Socialist?" To me, the red flag in that question is not about Buddhism versus socialism, but about being something. There's a terrible danger in attaching one's identity to an ideology, you know.
When you say "I AM A [socialist, capitalist, liberal, conservative, libertarian, iconoclast, mugwump, whatever] it changes the way you relate to the positions espoused by that school of thought. You develop a loyalty to the label that goes beyond mere agreement with its propositions. Possibly without our realizing it, upon adopting that identity we begin to build filters that change the way we process information in our heads.
Unconsciously, information that does not conform to the ideology will be filtered out, or "tweaked" until it fits. In extreme cases -- and there seem to be a lot of extreme cases these days -- loyalty to the identity can become tribal, and those who haven't joined your tribe are seen as enemies with evil motivations.
As soon as we label ourselves, we build a fence around a territory that might be called "my preferred projected reality." For example, although I don't necessarily disagree with people who label themselves "Buddhist atheists," I think it's unskillful dharma practice to do so. The "atheist" label is unnecessary, for one thing. But I think it also makes it harder to step outside the "scientific materialism" projected reality, which is a shame.
Here's a mindfulness practice: next time you catch yourself saying or thinking, "I am a ...," reflect upon rewording the sentence without "I am." For example, instead of saying "I am an X," say something like "I tend to agree with X," or even "X seems to generate useful ideas." Pay attention to how the two statements feel to you; how they resonate emotionally. The second statement might make you feel a little more open, a little less defined. Work with that.
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