dancing naked

I want to share one of my favorite poems by Lalla (aka Lal Ded), an incredible yogini who lived in what is now Kashmir in the 14th century. Her love of the divine provoked her to throw off the mantle of everyday life and live wholly devoted to union with the divine. This is from the book *Naked Song: Lalla* translations by Coleman Barks (1992, Maypop Books): Whatever your name, Shiva, Vishnu, the genius who inspired Scherazade, savior of the Jains, the pur Buddha, lotus-born God, I am sick. The world is my disease, and You are the cure, You, you, you, you, you, you, you. Here's another: The soul, like the moon, is new, and always new again. And I have seen the ocean continuously creating. Since I scoured my mind and my body, I too, Lalla, am new, each moment new. My teacher told me one thing, Live in the soul. When that was so, I began to go naked, and dance.