asian black white male female buddhist jew

these are conventions
you can choose to create some degree of identity out of them, or you can choose not to.

we can see this when we look at a banana
there really is no such thing
because:
if you peel off the skin is it still a banana?
if you don't put the entire fruit, including the skin, in a sandwich, can you still call it a banana sandwich?
if you remove the top inch from it, is there still a banana
if you remove one molecule, is there still a banana
if you stomp on it is the result still a banana

we create what we believe is reality by creating conventions out of ignorance

even someone that calls themselves a buddhist, and really believes what they are saying, is speaking from ignorance

sometimes conventions may be helpful
but too often we take them too seriously and, consequently create harm in so many ways

hitler was a big promoter of mindless convention in his pathetic book, mein kampf
in it he said that certain animals could never get along with each other
this has now being shown, for all to see, to be a bit fat lie
there is heaps of videos of animals that would normally be predator and prey that have become the best of friends.
the real power lies not in blindly believing what you are told that you are, but in knowing that such belief is only ever a convention, and that you are not necessarily bound by any definition or form.

gautama talked about four things

the truth of suffering
the truth of the origin of suffering
the truth of cessation
the truth of the path

there was no:
the truth of being a buddhist
or the truth of being a jew
or the truth of being a female
because they are topics lurking at the bottom of the barrel of delusion

we have being lied to since they day we were born
even our birth certificate is a lie

i liked the south park episode when those that thought that they were jews, moslems and christians got together and had a good time when their symbols were merged into the symbol for van halen
then it all fell to bits over some pathetic doctrine about a ginger cow.

how ridiculous are we?
this is what happens when you take concepts, or notions, seriously that should never be taken seriously.