2022-02-25

Unconscious Mental Labeling

Mankind must be unique among all the living creatures in that the current default state of most of its members is to be trapped in the prison made by their egoic mind. Language, which distinguishes human beings from the other living creatures, is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it has made us what we are, but on the other hand, it has put most of us in to the mind-made prison where it serves as its gatekeeper. This problem causes us sufferings that are theoretically avoidable, but the more serious problem is that most human beings are unaware of this very problem.

One of its symptoms is unconscious mental labeling through the intermediary of the gatekeeper of the mind, which is supposed to be our servant but has hijacked many of us as our master. One of the main functions of language is to articulate the world, which is essentially a unitary whole with no divisions. By making artificial divisions through labeling, we give these divisions lives of their own in our mind, confusing labels with reality. Mental labeling helps us know about someone or something, but it prevents us from truly knowing them.

I haven't met more than a handful of living human beings who seem not only aware of unconscious mental labeling as the current state of most human beings but also free from it. I was a life convict in my mind-made prison for decades, mentally labeling everyone and everything, mostly negatively, and causing sufferings to myself and people around me. Paradoxically, it was when these sufferings became unbearable to myself that I woke up for the first time in my life and realized that I had been confined in my mind-made prison.

Since this first realization about four years ago I've been liberating myself from it gradually but steadily. I can't say I've completely stopped labeling others, but when I do so from time to time unconciously, I can immediately became aware of this and undo what I have done. I can also identify unconscious mental labeling by others, especially when it's directed to what they consider who and what I am, which are illusions of their mind.

My biggest challenge right now is how to cope with such unconscious mental labeling by others. I used to react rather emotionally, which ironically shows that I was no less deeply trapped in the mind-made prison than they are. I haven't come up yet with effective ways to make these people aware of what they must have been doing unconsciously their entire life, while keeping my equanimity.