I am returning to Pastor Ed Raby’s post, Naked Before God – Part 1, and talk about the fourth positive spiritual aspect, that of genuineness. This one gives me a bit more trouble than some of the other aspects because, in my opinion, being naked has no guarantee that one is being genuine. A few days ago one of my acquaintances posted a brief note about his being with a few friends, naturist friends. The guys in the group did their…
Intimacy is about relationship, a significant relationship in which one discloses the fullness of oneself, more than what one knows consciously about the self. Nudity tells our significant other that we trust her or him enough to make ourselves vulnerable. We open ourselves to everything that comes with intimate relationship; not just sex, but everything. Part of that intimacy with other is as much about cultivating an intimacy with oneself as it is with the other. When my significant other sees me,…
I am returning to Pastor Edward Raby’s post, Naked Before God Part 1, as there is more there that I have been mulling over these past few days. In a previous post I had a few words in response to vulnerability, the first of six positive spiritual aspects of nudity. As a counsellor I am well aware of how vulnerability is vital in working with someone who comes for help because of the wounds suffered in living. A good listen regarding…
As I try to understand more about nudity psychologically and spiritually, I keep finding myself being presented with conflicting information – nudity and pornography versus nudity and spirituality. Somehow the conflict makes sense from a perspective of depth psychology, but I wrestle with it as a spiritual person. Everything about the human psyche has a duality which is captured in the image and the idea of yin and yang. We actually get to feel this duality within ourselves as we cycle from…
I’ve been reading a series called Naked Before God, written by a Congregational Church pastor called Edward W. Raby Sr., and it has me thinking, re-thinking just what it is about nudity that has jumped up to capture more and more of my attention. Nudity isn’t a stranger in my life. On reflection, nudity became a part of my conscious life during my last two years of high school. I had wondered why it came into my life then and have…
More often than not, when I begin to reflect on something I have read from my Buddhist studies, I do so from a deeply personal point of view. Yet, to be truly transparent and authentic, I must allow my self to be exposed here rather than remain hidden behind the words I write here. So why is this important? My wife is always asking me why I find it necessary to tell the whole world I’m a nudist rather than keep it…
I have taken to going for night walks that take me to the ocean where I walk for more than two kilometres in the darkness without the need for a bathing suit. And yes, there were other people on the beach as it wasn’t late at night, just late enough for the beach eateries to be closed. We pass each other on the beach with no issue as there are no lights along the sea. It’s a risk, especially when…
Today is starting off as an introspective day. After my morning meditation along the sea where I could feel the breezes and see the sun rising to bless this body with its first rays. Back at the casa, I continued to sit relatively still on the balcony with only a few stirrings. My mind was still and that was a blessing. Stripped of all of the normal chatter in my brain, it was as though my mind decided to embrace…
I think we have entered the rainy season. The forecast for most of February is for overcast skies and periodic rain showers on an almost daily basis. I had been aware of this possibility, but the reality is different than my expectations. It isn’t cold outside with the temperatures slowly moving from 22 to 26 degrees Celsius each day. It’s a good thing that the casa is large. With two storeys, there is a lot of space so that we…
Following our pilgrimage from Saint Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago, Spain (the famous 800 kilometre long Camino) in the fall of 2915, my wife and I returned to Paris where we decided to spend time visiting the “Jardin de Sculptures” and the “Musée Rodin”. I am a thinker for the most part, but I don’t sit in the classic Rodin pose for thinking though I do much of my thinking while in the nude. There is something about thinking in…