There is a story of a professor teaching religious philosophy to a class of college students. He shared a lot of different spiritual teachings, citing the most profound words of many great leaders, gurus and masters. At the final exam, the written essay asked ?If an Enlightened One went to arrived at a black tie affair with only jeans to wear, what would he do?? Though most of the students gave long, elaborate answers about the master's reaction, only one realized that there would be none. The student wrote: ?The Enlightened One would not notice.?



If we are in our body, in this moment, without judgment, we've arrived. That's all folks. We have done it. Nothing more to do. Nowhere else to go. Not even a need to teach anyone else. What for? No one is out of order, out of line, out of integrity or in need of enlightenment. That was just the voice of judgment talking. We see that everything is what it is, and it is perfect in it's imperfection. In fact, we find that everything is really One Thing. We arrive at this true simplicity by way of complexity and for this moment, we rest outside the limitations of time, space and even gravity's pull.

And then, for all but the most adept, we leave again. We go back to being in our mind, reliving the past or pre-living the future, finding ourselves separate and alone as we swim in the positive and negative judgments that are the blessings and beasts of our existence. For most women, I have found that nothing pulls us into this limited form of being faster than our body and beauty issues.

The Awful Truth

Sometimes I catch myself judging what is beautiful and what is not by standard definitions when I am in a standard (which is to say unconscious) frame of mind. Maybe I always will.

Even so, I don't consider the work a failure, because through it I have discovered the greatest treasure, which can only be found in the pig's trough of the culturally conditioned mind. It was not in discovering the true beauty of my ?unattractive? lovers or my own true beauty. It was in learning that I could use my perceived lack of beauty and the pain it brings as an alarm.

This alarm, which I have set to go off any time I'm judging the beauty of myself or others, awakens me to my mind's ?trained monkey? shenanigans?all the ideas, judgments and preoccupations about the body that make me feel separate from others and my true self. Like most of us, that alarm needs to ring loud and clear for me to hear it. Since my beauty issues are so prevalent, they are the easiest to witness, catch and re-set.

Any of us can set our ?alarm? to go off whenever we hear the voice within speaking to us with words such as ?You're so ugly?your breasts are too small? your hips are too wide?.your feet are too big?your belly sags?your arms wag?your eyes look like scratchy crows feet?you are losing your hair?.? And we can set a response to it as well. We can create a reminder that says, very simply and plainly, ?Hmmm?.well?there I go again?caught in the trap of my own beauty fears.?

When we do that, the ?I? that we are witnessing becomes distinct from the ?I? that is doing the watching. We see ourselves reacting to ourselves, and must ask: ?Who is this?? This is the Bingo! of enlightenment, and as such, it is the key to awaking to more and more of those amazing, illuminated, culture-free moments I wrote of earlier.

On the Road To Enlightenment

Though we find these painful judgments helpful in waking us up, that does not mean we cannot respond to them along the way. Once we have caught them in the act, we can decide to treat them as we might any two-year-old that is throwing a ridiculous tantrum. We can approach them kindly but firmly, so that when the dark voices within speak unkind words, the wiser ?I? can speak back with words such as ?Ah, well, maybe that is true. But maybe not. Or maybe other things are also true. Or maybe I'll just think about it tomorrow, because today I am not in such a good mood, and tomorrow I will be in a better one.?

I once heard a man whose entire life was devoted to consciousness offer a few final words of advice on his deathbed. ?Try to be a little kinder,? was all he said. If we can start with kindness to ourselves, we will have a very good start.