Haute Couture
Alice, Arthur Rackam
from 1989’s FTE, Vol I, No 4
A film was recently shown on cable TV about high fashion: designer clothing (dresses costing thousands of dollars) and the women who can afford to wear it. The gowns of several very famous designers were shown, and very wealthy women, some rich and famous, were interviewed. They all looked wonderful, were very articulate, appeared to be "well-bred."
The process of making the clothing was described: the procuring of the very best fabrics, the meticulous attention to detail in its manufacture (manufacture defined in the original meaning: made by hand), the hours and hours spent on each garment to be sure it was just right.
One after another, these lovely women who wear these lovely clothes described their feelings when wearing the garments. One after another they said that same thing: "these clothes give me confidence ... I feel i can do anything when I am dressed like this ... I feel special ... I feel pampered ... I feel loved ..."
There was perhaps a half an hour of descriptions of feelings generated by the wearing of a special garment, and over and over the same feelings were described: confidence, uniqueness, power, love.
Some of us have never in our lives worn dresses costing over $200, yet have the same feelings. What's going on here?
Let's say that money represents energy spent, it symbolizes work. (Somebody earned the money to pay for those gowns.) The energy can be spent in a worldly direction, acquiring worldly forms (in this case dresses). And the form from the outside creates the feeling (inside) for these women.
If the same energy (very much available to us) is spent Working inwardly, a Spiritual garment is created, and the feelings -- the same feelings they described ... exist from the inside out. The feeling is initiated within and radiated outward, rather than something from without providing the feeling within.
We find no fault with beautiful clothing, far from it. It is delightful to play the fashion game, and we do feel nice when the temple looks as lovely in form as it is in function, in Reality. The missing of the mark here, though, is in the idea that the world of form, the outer, can provide anything real (permanent) for the inner, Spiritual world.
It occurs to one listening to these women that it is a very precarious feeling they have: what if the clothing is destroyed or lost or no longer available? What then do they have? How would they feel?
The Spiritual garments of the Temple are permanent, are always available. Financial crisis, or any other worldly catastrophe cannot destroy this "wardrobe." We all can radiate confidence, and joy, and power, and love, when we invest our energy in inner Work. And if we are privileged to also acquire worldly symbols of this, that's fun, too. But if I had to choose between the two, I would choose the former.
