A Book Review Of Buddha’s Closet: Cleaning As A Path To Enlightenment, by Kerri Scott
Enlightenment doesnt go with fashion. Or does it?
Buddha’s Closet: cleaning as a path to enlightenment, by Kerri Scott ISBN:9781738396108 Available on Amazon.
In years past I had a yoga student who dressed impeccably. Her clothing fit perfectly, with colours that drew out her radiance. Her hair, face and nails appeared to be tended to with love and kindness. I was always so impressed.
One day she told me that she had attended a yoga workshop with a highly renowned yogini. This yoga master called my friend out about her apparel in front of hundreds of other participants. This yoga master so much as told my student / friend that she was arrogant and self-centered to dress in such a fine way for a yoga workshop. My friend was so crushed, she never returned to this teacher ever again.
Dress for God
We all know there is more to us than what appears to be. We also know that ethically in yoga, judgment is a no-no. Yet this yogini made a slamming judgment on someone she knew nothing about, and, in fact, was exactly the opposite of the truth. You see, my student and friend revealed to me that she suffers deeply from depression, and one of the methods she uses to feel good about herself is to “dress for God”. Every day she makes the precise effort to dress for the Divine Creator, the source of all! How many of us can say we have even thought of this as part of our sadhana?
Well, it seems to me that Kerri Scott has thought of this, and her book Buddha’s Closet shows us how choosing what we wear can be a part of our path of sadhana, or yogic practices. She turns the ordinary into extraordinary! Kerri loves fashion. How can that be yogic? Her book dives in and uses the yoga philosophy as a guide for choosing what we wear with a yogic state of mind. Her guiding principle is, “If I can change my clothes, I can change my thoughts.”
“If I can change my clothes, I can change my thoughts.”
Thoughts are ever changing, just like the clothes we wear. Every piece of clothing we have in our closet has all kinds of thoughts wrapped around it. Warm memories, tribulations, triggers, thoughts of not being enough, and effervescent joyful thoughts! Every piece of clothing has a story of where it came from and why we still have it. Kerri shows us how to tap into those thoughts and emotions, change them or discard them, and dress in the clothes that bring out our “best selves”.
Living a life of yoga is not limited to doing our pranayama, asana, or meditation. It also means following the yamas and niyamas, or ethical “do’s and don’ts” of yoga. One of these is self-study, or svadhyaya. Classically this is done through learning from sacred texts and integrating these teachings to further our understanding of Self and the Divine within. Now, it may appear mundane or egocentric to some to extend svadhyaya into the discernment what we wear, but paying more attention to how we dress, and the thoughts wrapped up within our clothes can be incredibly enlightening! In fact, at the recent SOYA annual yoga retreat at Sorrento Centre, our special guest, Indu Arora, explained to us how she wears colours related to the planets. Each day relates to a different planet, and Indu wears clothes of corresponding colours for the day! This is one way to tune into the macrocosmic universe.
Let it go! Non-attachment is key.
Kerri includes in her book considerations for the ethical purchasing and discarding of clothing, what items are made from, and how to reuse and repurpose worn out clothes that we hold dear. She also helps us work through the process of detachment in order to let go of clothes that just don’t do anything for us.
This is an easy book to read in an hour or two. I suggest you read through it one time first, and then go back through the chapters and put each stage of clothing assessment into practice. It’s fun, it is stepping out of the box, and it is truly enlightening. It doesn’t matter what level of fashion consciousness you have, what matters is what thoughts are wrapped up in your clothing.
Cleaning up with creativity!
In this book Kerri Scott demonstrates how she has embraced yoga in a creative and beneficial way. She was a student of mine long ago, and here she is continuing a dedicated yoga path all these years later. This book is a delightful new way to integrate yoga into our daily lives.
… and just in case you didn’t notice, the ISBN ends in the magical 108!
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