Become Naked

Consciousness must first be allowed to become naked.

Come without requiring a role to justify your existence. Set down the identities accumulated through praise, humiliation, achievement, failure, family expectations, and your own attempts to become acceptable.

The image is Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden: naked and without shame in Genesis 2:25. Here, that image becomes a contemplative invitation to appear before the Father without the clothing of a defended identity. This is the guide’s use of the image, rather than a claim that Genesis is teaching this protocol.²

Even an admired identity can be clothing. “The successful one,” “the wounded one,” “the spiritual one,” and “the one who understands” can all demand protection. Nakedness includes willingness to release the identity of an accomplished practitioner.

Sit comfortably and let the body be supported. Allow the eyes to remain open or close gently. Notice one role that currently has a strong claim on you.

Feel its demand without explaining it. Perhaps it asks you to prove yourself, remain indispensable, appear wise, or never be rejected. Recognize the demand while offering it toward the Father. Recognition and offering occur together.

The body may tighten. A memory may appear. A sentence may insist that you cannot let go. These, too, can be received within awareness and offered without an argument.

Allow a little room around the role. You can still know your name, remember your history, and fulfill your responsibilities. Nakedness concerns the authority an identity claims over being.

Stay with the ordinary fact that you are here, before the role speaks again. There may be no dramatic feeling. Simple presence is sufficient.

If you begin to imagine yourself as a pure, radiant, or spiritually naked person, notice the new garment. Offer it as gently as the old one.

You are ready to continue when you can remain present for a moment without needing an identity to certify that presence. There is no requirement to empty the mind or erase the past.