Mindfulness and Identity

Our evolutionary minds are inclined to construct a sense of self (who am I?) and a sense of group (with whom do I belong?). This ingrained process of identifying is an outcome of effective survival strategies cultivated through the millenia: create boundaries, seek stability, develop a safe social network and the like.

In Buddha's Brain, Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius continue, "The brain strings together heterogenous moments of self-ing and subjectivity into an illusion of homogenous coherence and continuity." Self-ing and group-ing - it's what evolution has cultivated us to do! 

In a certain sense, such an evolutionary and mindful understanding of why identity is so ingrained within human beings is not that important. We are as we are. The more pragmatic concern is how to infuse identity-conscious approaches into our understanding of and workings with self, others, and groups (including important recognition of the more pernicious effects of these tendencies). Personally, I broaden my understanding and skillset by reading and listening to the many insightful theorists and practitioners operating in the spheres of sociology, critical race theory, intersectionality, feminism, lived experience of oppression, and so on. I suggest you do the same, and put your deepened perspective into practice. 

That said, my investigation today is to consider whether or not the evolutionary and mindful understanding of identity outlined in the lead of this musing can offer any pragmatic insight in its own right. 

One important takeaway - it seems - is that we all construct identities of self and group, which play a significant role in how we live our lives and how society is structured. This propensity is "baked" into our human DNA and social structures, which have been manifesting in human relations for the 200,000 years or so of our existence as a species. Identifying is a real human process we all participate in. "Colorblind" is not how humans are programmed to operate. Privilege for certain social groups at the expense of others is a real thing manifested by the social structures we have created. 

Another important takeaway - one that cuts against some of the determinism in other parts of this essay - is that self-ing and group-ing is a process of our minds that - beyond our minds - is illusory. Of course, as subjective human beings, we can never get beyond our minds. Yet this insight encourages a certain humility, a softening of the edges of our identity constructions, by seeing identity for what it is - human, all too human. 

The potential for insight is at the heart of mindfulness practice: to see - if only dimly - the nature of our minds and - from that extended vantage point - to choose practices that move us in the directions we want to go. When we notice our shared inclination to construct self and group identities, then we can be more intentional about how we present and respond as human beings - whether at home, at work, or beyond.