The Universe sends us as many mirrors as we need to see ourselves in ALL our beauty. #compassion
— Kozo Hattori (@everydaygurus) November 29, 2013
Just got back from an intense weekend at a retreat for counselors and coaches. This month we are focusing on Shame and Love, so on Saturday night we did some naked counseling. Picture 100 people completely naked counseling each other on body shame, beauty, and acceptance. It was an eye-opening experience.
One of the most important things I learned was that we are whole. Clothes often make us look incomplete, inadequate, or ugly, but when we see each other completely naked, we get to see the beauty of a whole person. Everything makes sense. My skinny legs, penis size, angular face, and lack of body hair all make sense when seen together.
When we just focus on one particular part, however, we can find all kinds of inadequacies, ugliness, and reasons to hide. People got up in front of the whole group and talked about their breasts, the color of their skin, and the size of their penis, but when we saw them for who they really were, it all made sense in a very beautiful way. One woman asked us to see the spirit of who she really is, beyond her body. I saw the beautiful spirit of who she really is IN her body, in her smile, in her tears, in the quivering of her voice.
What if we looked at our lives as a whole? We often see the individual events of our lives as ugly or dark. Can we see these events as part of the overall beauty? Can the darkness be a shading that lead us to the Light? I’ve had this intimation before:
Life is like a jigsaw puzzle. The individual pieces seem incoherent, trivial, and chaotic. Step back, and we see beauty, unity, and meaning.
— Kozo Hattori (@everydaygurus) May 15, 2013
On the way home, I stopped off at Adyashanti’s Satsang. Adya echoed the point about wholeness:
“When you come to the core of consciousness…consciousness becomes a completely unified field.”~Adyashanti 1/19/14
At this core of consciousness, no boundaries exist between consciousness and whatever we are experiencing. If you think about it, our clothes are a boundary. Our judgments are a boundary between us and others. Our insecurities are a boundary between us and our true selves. Lies are a boundary between us and the Truth.
Here’s to breaking down the boundaries in order to come to the core of consciousness.
Thank you for reading, smiling, and/or sharing.
When was the last time you were completely naked in front of others physically or metaphorically? Did it help you find freedom? Please share.
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