Take a business card, and you'll see behind the name of the person, titles such as Managing Director, President, CEO, Executive, Chairman, Manager etc etc along with their qualifications and certification of BSC, BBA, Hons, MBA, PhD etc etc etc.
Very impressive, and the longer the string of titles and qualifications, the more impressive it is.
I have titles, too.
My titles were 'conferred' to me by my students, and it's one of a kind.
I bet no one in Singapore, not even the whole wide world, have titles like mine behind their names.
And I'm sure they won't want to either.
Cos' who in the right frame of mind would want the titles of "Torturer, slave-driver, evil, cruel, slaughterer, sadistic wicked witch", behind their names?
Or even to be associated or linked with the above?
Just imagine : You get to know someone at a social gathering and you exchange name cards.
When you look at the person's card, it reads, "XXX, Torturer, slave-driver, sadistic slaughterer".
How will you react?
You'll probably excuse yourself immediately and avoid the person completely, or pull up your pants or skirt and run 1000 miles away from that person, avoiding that person's calls and/or effort to make contact.
No one likes 'bad' things to be spoken of or about them, even if it's the truth.
Everyone only want nice sounding names/titles which praise and flatter them, which speaks of their accomplishments and 'virtues', and fly their ego up to the highest mountains and heavens, and get their hearts and minds fluttering and soaring ecstatically up to the skies even if there is no accompanying music to take them there.
That's all self-deception.
Frankly, I'm pretty alright with my 'titles'.
As a matter of fact, I'm happy with them. Pleased with them.
Cos' firstly, they're unique - one of its kind.
Secondly, because that's what my students truly think and describe of me,
And lastly, it's their way of showing and expressing their love and affection for me.
But I suppose Ajahn Maha Boowa say it best in "Things As They Are" (pg 94-95), when he said,
"The king bestows ranks and names, this and that, and we assume them to be a crest. Actually they're just a bit of clay stuck on our head, not a natural crest.
A name can be established any old day. You can even build it up to the sky if you want. They establish names just to flatter one another as a matter of custom. This is an affair of the world.
They keep conferring titles on one another. (But) don't take the conferring of titles. Don't take the title and use it to destroy yourself with pride and conceit.
The highest perfection in line with natural principles, with no need to confer titles, is to practise well."
And this I think, is better and far greater than any name or title you can get in the whole wide world.
"A name is merely a word used to identify a person;
It does not determine the destiny of a person - it does not make things happen.
Only deeds do."
"Rank is given for the sake of encouraging good practice and conduct,
But if the mind becomes haughty, rank becomes a way of destroying oneself, killing oneself with various assumptions."
- Ajahn Maha Boowa
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"Everybody wants to be somebody;
But nobody wants to be a nobody."
