Naked

'Our life is shaped by our mind, we become what we think.'
Siddhartha Gautama

Stand naked.  For a moment today stand naked before the mirror, the mirror of our own mind.  

It is incredibly difficult to stand in the present moment.  It is too simple, too raw, too naked.  We are quick to reach for a towel, flex our muscles, correct our posture, pluck our eyebrows or cover up our blemishes.  It is very difficult to stand tall in our inherent goodness, the basic dignity of being who you are, right now. 

It is not just the embarrassment, shame, guilt or fear of our own bodies; it is also our feelings, our actions and our past.  We don't know how to work with all of that when we stand before it, it is often easier to get dressed and keep moving.  

But this is the battlefield.  This is the meditation.  The present moment is the ground upon which all the work is done and it is simultaneously the result of fulfillment. 

This ever-present moment, if we can learn to face our fears and the darkness that we hide in our hearts, opens up into the eternally youthful present- peaceful, content and free of elaboration. 

It is only by abiding in this timeless state of complete nakedness that we can come to appreciate the wellsprings of the Great Perfection.