Transparency

Transparency is living openly. One of the benefits a transparent lifestyle is the release of old inhibitions. Our fear of what others may think causes many of us to hide our motivation, to hide our actions, and even to hide the results. Often, to keep our secrets concealed we bury them beneath a weight of half-truths and outright deception. Because the inauthentic is counterfeit, it is impermanent, and requires constant reinforcement. Instead of being devoted to what is real and permanent, we become enslaved by frequently reinforcing the illusion of reality.

Why, when life is such an incredible adventure, would we choose to live it partly in the shadows? What do we think of ourselves that we would hide or distort our activities? Perhaps, a lack of transparency is not a matter of the quality of our lives but a matter of how we perceive our actions. It is an interesting phenomenon, when we are no longer critical of others they no longer appear critical of us. Not because they have changed but we have. The kinder, the more respectful, and the more attentive we are to those around us, the more interesting we become to each other. As a natural consequence, when we no longer fear the judgment of others, we will live more transparently.

There is a lightness about living transparently and a heaviness connected to a concealed lifestyle. A transparent existence is one filled with a feeling of freedom, and one in which we may spend all of our energies constructively. We cannot pretend to be transparent because the pretense becomes the illusion that casts a shadow upon our life.

We are so incredibly interesting, so worthwhile, so fascinating just as we are, we need not fear the criticism of others. We are also imperfect and herein we find our uniqueness. We are defined by our borders, our limitations, and without them we are nothing. When we think we must hide our imperfections, we are at the same time hiding our individuality. When we deny our weaknesses, we deny our strengths, and when we deny our borders we deny our existence. Life is for the living and it is so much more delicious when lived transparently.

We are children of Tender-Loving-Kindness, created in the image and likeness of our God, and there is nothing we can do to change this. We can for a time choose to hide our divine nature but the universe is relentless. Eventually we will surrender to the pull Godward and embark fully on the path toward our destiny. The road ahead is straight and illuminated by the light that penetrates the transparency.