There is a naked Buddha in each of us. It is called Buddha nature. Unknown to some of my readers is the fact that I am oriented towards that Buddha within. In 2012, I became a Buddhist, or as it is spoken about by the Buddhist community I became a part of, I took “refuge” in Tibetan Buddhism. I was given a new name, Jetsun Rigzin Khandro, which loosely translates to the Unchanging Dharma Holder.
The only problem with all of this was the fact that I don’t, probably can’t hold to any belief system. Regardless, I did find peace as my meditation practice deepened and I learned more about the philosophy and psychology of Tibetan Buddhism, which curiously had many parallels with Jungian psychology which I have studied for almost three decades.
Now, it is hard for me to equate the philosophical and psychological principles to a religion. There is no god, no commandments, not much of anything really other than these principles. That said, it has become a religion with required reading texts, a hierarchy of a priestly caste and temples. This is where I parted company with what I can only call mainstream Buddhism which is more like a commercial enterprise. I left my sangha and focused on the Buddha within me, an aspect of self that is independent of a deity.
I approach naturism the same way. I have a hard time following rules that somehow come into being and the focus shifts for becoming a “better self’ to becoming a better community member. A real naturist, a real Buddhist, a real Christian, a real Catholic, a “real” anything that gets defined by “others” sets my radar off. Anything that takes me outside of listening to the resonances within me, becomes suspect. If it requires me to follow a creed of some sort, then I walk away. This isn’t to say that my inner compass is infallible, it isn’t. Yet, there is no “proof” that any outside authority has all the answers and is infallible. Who do I then trust?
Who do you trust? Do you give up your authority of self, over to some creed, some philosophy, some tradition, or whatever?
Many decades ago, I gave up my authority. And, it cost me. I was wounded, almost to the point of self-sacrifice through suicide. If I couldn’t trust God and his Church, all that was left was myself. I poured through various texts and found a philosophy and psychology that explained why I was drawn in. The container pointed to those words, but left them outside of their community, and focused on the words rather than the messages, the philosophy and the nature of humans, their psychological nature.
I am a naturist as self-described. I am a quasi-Buddhist and a quasi-Christian and a quasi-pagan. I am all of these, yet none of them. Who are you?