Things I should not have seen...

I am sitting here bemused by life's ways of offering lessons in the everyday: a picture on fb; a conversation overheard; a passage of a book; or simply, a gaze met. In those moments I feel the utmost connection with life, with everything. I love it when things come together in a peculiar fashion and it just all makes sense (at least to me).
 
Trying to piece together quite how such a moment comes about is near impossible and maybe I should refrain from trying to do so, but I would like to somehow highlight the strings of the puppeteer called life, that I occasionally manage to see. I had the 'aha' moment when overhearing a statement a fellow student made regarding nudity on TV - do not ask why we ended up at this topic! It was a strong statement about naked bodies shown TV, made with conviction: "I saw things I should not have seen as a child, things that are private."
 
I've always felt that in our society we have got an intensely weird relationship with the human body and what we are capable of experiencing with it. The fact, that we associate nudity with filth is sad and that we ban love-making behind closed doors is even sadder. A few weeks back a friend recommended a book by Wilhelm Reich titled "The Function of the Orgasm" which I am currently picking at. The mind blowing work of my countryman ties in just perfectly with the comment of my acquaintance, who, by the way, I absolutely understand in her disgust with what we can see on late night TV.

Reich, who was way ahead of his times, argues that a healthy, autonomous person ought to fulfil his/her natural rights - e.g. follow her body's instincts. A passage that I find particularly enlightening is this one:

"People have lost their feeling for natural sexual life. Their assessment is based on a distortion, which they rightly condemn. Hence, to fight for or against sexuality is futile and hopeless. On the basis of such distortions, the moralist can, must, and should win out. The distortion cannot be tolerated. The modern woman is repelled by the sexuality of men who get their experience in brothels and acquire a revulsion towards sex from prostitutes. "Fucking" is a defilement. No sensitive woman wants "to let herself be fucked" ...

When I speak of sex, I do not mean "fucking", but the embrace promoted by genuine love; not "urinating into the woman", but "making her happy". No headway can be made unless a distinction is drawn between the unnatural practises in sexual life, practises that have developed on a secondary level and the deeply buried needs for love which are present in every person." (p188-89)
 
To add to the connections I made in the moment I heard her statement, I remembered a fb post I stumbled across the previous night. A Mexican friend of mine posted an incredibly rich picture with writing in Spanish that I would not normally translate, but that night I felt like it (and I added the original text at the end). The Google translation might not be adequate but one gets the gist.

TAO

- Master, what do you need a man to court and make a woman happy?
- Nothing, replied the Guru. Just dare to be what it is ...
- I do not understand, said the student.

- Love is a beautiful opportunity to live without masks, said the Master. The man and woman are afraid of love, because they fear to live naked ... Do not undress just to make love, the Master said softly.

When you live naked inspire others to live without fear, and so my dear friend, you're making love all day ...

Diego E.


Lastly I also had my daily dose of IGing that topped off the opportunities presented by life to 'get the message'. I do not feel the need to add an A4 page of metaphors to this already full blog entry but just this little passage makes me feel like I am somehow been led to this trough and I better drink :)

 

48 - The Well.

Deep Waters penetrated and drawn to the surface: The superior person refreshes the people with constant encouragement to help one another.

There is a Source common to us all. Jung named it the Collective Unconscious. Others hail it as God within. Inside each of us are dreamlike symbols and archetypes, emotions and instincts that we share with every other human being. When we feel a lonely separateness from others, it is not because this Well within has dried up, but because we have lost the means to reach its waters. You need to reclaim the tools necessary to penetrate to the depths of your fellows. Then the bonds you build will be as timeless and inexhaustible as the Well that nourishes them.

It might not be obvious to see the red thread running through this but I sense this is a time to heal our relationships with our bodies and the way we experience our sexuality individually and also as a society.

Your grateful
Urban Yogi


ps: the original fb post:

TAO

- Maestro, ¿qué necesita un hombre para cortejar y hacer feliz a una mujer?
- Nada, respondió el Guru. Solo animarse a ser lo que es...
- No entiendo, dijo el alumno.
- Amar es una hermosa oportunidad para vivir sin máscaras, dijo el Maestro. El hombre y la mujer le temen al amor, porque temen vivir desnudos...
No hay que desnudarse solo para hacer el amor, dijo suavemente el Maestro.
Cuando vives desnudo inspiras a otros a vivir sin miedos, y así mi querido amigo, estás haciendo todo el día el amor...
Diego E.