Disrobing Without Being Ashamed

I’m not talking about your clothes - I'm talking about your mind.

Have you ever wondered why we even wear clothes? For most of us, such a question may have never entered our minds because we have categorized it as nonsense.

I find this startling especially when we consider most of us are aware that wearing clothes is a learned behavior. In other words, we all know that babies and toddlers have no concept about clothes outside of the functionality of their diapers, and that they are completely fine walking around and playing without any clothes on. That means, we have learned to wear clothes even if most of us never bother to ask why. Perhaps the reason is that the answer seems obvious, especially regarding modesty.

But is it?

Sure, we started wearing animal fur and skin for physical reasons. There’s no doubt that insulation from the weather and protection of our vulnerable organs are legitimate benefits. In fact, we can still observe this in today’s world when we encounter tribes with minimal or even no contact with modern humans, such as the Sentinelese people of North Sentinel Island or the Awá of the Amazon rainforest.

However, at some point in our history, wearing clothes crossed the rubicon into a cultural and learned phenomenon. While there are many aspect of this, what is common is that they all hinge on our perception on what others think of us.

They include:

• shamefulness of how our bodies appear when compared to society’s current definition of desirability, which changes over time

• stratification in social stature depicted by the worth of what we choose to wear

• desperate need to stand out and differentiate ourselves from everyone else

• objectification of our body parts leading to the concept of lust, which is considered sinful in many belief systems

All of the above, every single one of them, were created by our minds and are figments of our imagination. They were learned and were imprinted on us by the society that we live in. None of the above is indigenous to our existence.

Interestingly, stories such as Adam and Eve in Genesis eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge intimates that this knowledge is what gave birth to civilization, culture, and society through developments in technology such as agriculture. Our progression led to the constructs that formed the practice of wearing clothes and the concept of shame. But that’s a topic for another time.

The point I’m making is that clothing, and wearing clothes, is so important to us that it is literally our last layer before we fall into complete destitution. We will cling to our clothes and wear them even if we end up homeless and are sleeping on the streets. That’s how important clothes are to us.

Now, what if I told you that we are wearing a different set of clothes that matter even more to us than the threads on our skin?

No, I’m not talking about our physical bodies such as our skin, our legs, or our faces. You’ve already heard of that metaphor, of how our physical bodies are the clothes of our souls. We literally treat our bodies as clothes and we do so in plain sight through plastic surgery, anabolic steroids, and other innumerable body altering schemes. However, that’s not the type of clothing I’m referring to, even if that too is something one needs to master and not become a slave to.

The clothing I’m referring to goes beyond our bodies, and we wear many layers. In fact, we have a plethora of this type of clothing and they come in all designs, shapes, and sizes with one curious trait: they are all invisible to the naked eye. These are the clothes that cover and cloak The Self and who we really are inside our minds. We obfuscate, through many layers, the true being within the mind.

And we hide ourselves for the very same reasons:

• shamefulness of what we have done in our past, for no human is perfect

• stratification and judgement of how “good” or “bad” we are based on moral and religious or belief system standards, which also changes over time

• desperation to “stand in” and not deviate for fear of being labeled as crazy

• objectification of The Self and who we really are, perverting our very essence of existence

We cling on to these clothes of The Self more desperately than threads or our bodies. They provide us with a layer of diffusion to hide behind and some modicum of control of how others perceive who we are.

We project who we wish to be based on society’s values.

We do not project who we are.

The astounding part is that we were taught to do this and learned how to do this by our parents, friends, and society in general. Obfuscating who we are in the myriad of ways that we perform every day is not in our natural programming as humans. Yet, it has become a necessity in order to function within the confines of societies in our civilizations.

There comes a time in one’s life where one must ask oneself whether or not the constraints of society are worth the cost of losing The Self. For when one cannot face oneself with complete honesty and without shame, one is not alive and merely existing in the murky shadows cast by society itself.

Only by removing the garments of your mind will you see your true Self, and in seeing your true Self, will you see the that there is no reason to fear. There will be no judgement or punishment to suffer from because you will understand that there is no inequality between all humans - because none of us are perfect, and yet we are all hypocrites.

At the same time, you will discover just how powerful a being you can be in this reality once you shed the cloak around The Self for you have nothing to hide. The absence of fear transmutes into a well of courage and gumption, allowing you to achieve and accomplish so much more than you ever thought was possible.

My life has changed ever since I disrobed and I encourage you, the reader, to disrobe as well.

After all, these garments were invisible to begin with.