Zen and Nudism

I've been re-reading Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner. The book is a must read for anyone even remotely interested in the subject. The author is a former Punk Rocker, works in Japan making monster movies, and is a Zen Teacher in Japan. He presents a hilarious and wonderfully irreverent look at Zen.

Quoting from pg 55,
Every single human being in the world at some time thinks that "if only" this or that one of our conditions could be met then we'd be all set. ... Think again.
...
We always want to believe that somewhere there's a perfect situation, if only we weren't barred from it. But that's not the reality.
...
Maybe your lot right now could be improved. I know mine could. And working to make things better is great. But we don't just work to make things better and leave it at that, do we? We live in the idealized world inside our heads. And that keeps us from ever really enjoying what we have right now ...


It's not a new concept, but it got me to thinking about those of us who have family that don't approve of our inclination for nudism, how that plays on our minds, and the potential for unhappiness as a result of it. We do have the freedom and potential to change the situation, but we may be reluctant to do so. The reluctance most likely stems from a decision we've made based on priorities we've set ourselves - the decision that the circumstances that prevent us from pursuing our particular interest (e.g. nudism) is not worth losing something else (e.g. family).

If we don't fret, but keep working on creating more situations to experience nudism, and enjoy what opportunities pop up in our daily lives while we work on getting to where we would like to be, we'll be a lot happier and a lot more at peace.

This also applies to nudism, and life, in general. With the restrictions that are placed on our lifestyle by society, it can get frustrating, but if we enjoy what we do have we'll be better off for it. That doesn't mean we accept the restrictions if we don't want to. We must constantly work towards where we would like to be, but we must live in the current moment. If we live in the future, we may very well discover when we get there that the future is not what we had hoped for and, even if it is what we hoped for, we needlessly wasted the time we spent waiting to get there.