Pajamas with Elephants
When people become adults, why do they stop wearing clothes with pictures of animals on them?
Possibly for the same reason that people become unhappy when they become adults. Because they forget that they are an animal, that they are a body.
Over time, people come to believe that they are just a person -- a cultural being with a cultural justification for being. They forget that they are an animal, that they need no justification.
Spiritual practice is readily believed to be an endeavor to get to some place "higher." But in fact, all spiritual practice is an endeavor to go back, to get back to the state of being we were in as children (and that animals are always in) -- that state of being in which we are what we are and not what we have been told to be.
One day soon, we may again begin wearing pajamas with elephants on them and shirts with butterflies on them and pants with fish on them.
And we will look in the mirror and see ourselves for what we are.
Jock
Jock Doubleday
Director
Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.
A California 501(c)3 Nonprofit Corporation
director@spontaneouscreation.org
| Permalink | author bio | 
Comments (4)
Thanks. I agree with most of what you said, with these exceptions: instead of going back to find something, I become still and be what I am where I am; and cuddly animals may be appropriate for children but for adults (and children) animals are better portrayed as free and natural. See my thoughts on pets and livestock on other recent threads. Natural womam. Natural man. Natural animal. Love, Dennis.
Comment #1 Posted by: Dennis Leary | July 4, 2007 03:55 PM
Animal pajamas arn't the only symbol of childhood. I've seen a rise in the popularity of things like bubbles among teenagers who realize that there is something beautiful lost as they mature. I took to carrying around a stuffed monkey named gordo.
i agree with dennis that its not about going back to find something, but finding something here (now), that you had as a child, but I got the impression thats how the autor meant it.
-chapstick bless
Comment #2 Posted by: Dylan | July 4, 2007 06:18 PM
Thank you Jock. I appreciate you and what you have said here.
I periodically by myself toys to help keep my inherent childlike nature alive. In fact I just bought a Gumby. He reminds me to stay flexible, open minded and remember that my life starts with my imagination.
I call what you are speaking of Simple Brilliance. This is the title of the book I am writing. It's exactlyabout what you are speaking to. Remembering the natural, spontaneous and authentic being we were as a child and living here as this now.
For those interested you can download a free pdf of the preface and chapter one on my website. http://www.simplebrilliance.com
Thanks again Jock great post. Maybe I'll put my elephant ears and trunk on (I really have these somewhere) and skip down the driveway.{-:
Comment #3 Posted by: Raymond | July 5, 2007 09:59 AM
I am truly sorry, Jock,
but all my jammies have turtles on them ...
Comment #4 Posted by: Millennium Twain | July 5, 2007 11:46 AM