That is true to this day. Certain magazines are still considered by some to be “dirty.” Nude
sunbathing is labeled by many as “deviant.” Naked bodies, in general, are to be avoided, and
people who walk around naked even in their own homes or around their own backyards or
pools are often called “perverted.”
And it goes far beyond exposing our “private parts.” In some cultures we won’t even allow a
woman to show her face, or her wrists, or her ankles.
This, of course, is understandable. If you’ve ever seen a really attractive pair of woman’s
ankles, you can understand why some people believe that they must be hidden from public
view. They can be very provocative, and even lead a person to think of
S-E-X.
Okay, so I’m kidding. But it’s almost that repressive in some homes, and in some cultures.
And that is not the only natural aspect of your being that many of you have discouraged. You
have discouraged telling the truth, even though it is very natural for you to do so. You have
discouraged basic trust in the universe, although it is very natural for you to have it. You have
discouraged singing and dancing and rejoicing and celebration, though every bone in your
body is aching to explode with the pure wonder of Who You Are!
You have done these things because you are afraid that if you “give in” to natural tendencies,
you will be hurt, and if you give in to natural pleasures, you will hurt yourself and others. You
carry this fear because you hold a Sponsoring Thought about the human race which says
that your species is basically evil. You imagine that you were “born in sin,” and that it is your
nature to be bad.
This is the most important decision you have ever made about yourselves, and since you are
creating your own reality, it is a decision you have implemented. Not wanting to make
yourselves wrong, you have gone to extraordinary lengths to make yourselves right. Your life
has shown you that you are right about this, and so you have adopted this as your cultural
story. This is just the way it is, you say, and by continually saying it, you have made it so.
Yet unless you change your story, change your idea of who you are and how you are as a
race, as a species, you can never be fully loving, because you cannot even fully love
yourself.
That is the first step in being fully loving. You must fully love your Self. And this you cannot
do so long as you believe that you were born in sin, and are basically evil.
This question—what is the basic nature of man ?—is the most important question now before
the human race, If you believe that humans are by nature non-trustworthy and evil, you will
create a society that supports that view, then enact laws, approve rules, adopt regulations,
and impose restraints that are justified by it. If you believe that humans are by nature
trustworthy and good, you will create an entirely different kind of society, in which laws, rules,
regulations, and restraints are rarely required. The first society will be freedom limiting, the
second, freedom giving.
God is fully loving because God is fully free. To be fully free is to be fully joyful, because full
freedom creates the space for every joyful experience. Freedom is the basic nature of God. It
is also the basic nature of the human soul. The degree to which you are not fully free is the