Ripped Blue Jeans and Me

Spirituality and Fashion

Clothing and “Enlightenment”

“The cloth is like the light vapors of dawn” Yuan Chwang — Chinese Traveler to India

629–45 CE

When navigating one’s life throughout our individual spiritual journeys one might begin to notice that religious “Teachers” and Spiritual “Masters” just dress weirdly. Daca Muslin Fabric with Birkenstock sandals and no underwear has been a trending fashion statement. Are we linking “enlightenment” to fashion? Must my “soul” be wrapped in cotton? Can I channel, heal, manifest, pray, or do T’ai Chi more effectively if I dress in Daca Muslin?

Will you then “look up” to me and think I know what I am talking about?

The word “Muslin” is popularly believed to derive from Marco Polo’s description of the cotton trade in Mosul, Iraq. (The Bengali term is mul mul). Muslin today has come to mean almost any lightweight, gauzy, mostly inexpensive, machine-milled cotton cloth. Cotton, stated the historian Fernand Braudel, was first used by the ancient civilizations on the Indus, while the art of weaving itself has been traced back to much earlier times. This head start perhaps was why India became proficient in making cotton textiles. They became a staple export commodity to the Roman Empire and expanded in volume in the Middle Ages with the growth of the “maritime Silk Road” in the Indian Ocean. It has grown today to represent an airy, heavenly association with spirituality and religious practice.

Those nuns in Catholic school that I listened to for 12 years in a row are they still people I would emulate? God, those outfits. I always thought those priests in the long gold and silver robes came down from the heavenly stars ( and who knows now what they were really doing). I moved forward to study all kinds of spiritual practices in college and graduate school. I thought that would help me to “find myself”. I had to move on from the Catholic Dogma because it negated for me everything that is real and basic. The teaching at that time was that if all people on the planet did not think in the same way as the Catholics they were incorrect and going to Hell. I was indoctrinated.

How is that loving and kind? Now, I know I was never lost.

I understand that tradition is a solid and fluid practice all at the same time. The past is integrated with the present and we evolve in our individual and communal beliefs. True spirituality, I am not so sure. To me, it is quite unique to each person although we may share commonalities. Traditions may give us some comfort in routine and heartfelt connections to ancient rituals. We may even discover memories from past life experiences, but individual nonetheless.

Buddhist monks follow the Vinaya ( lit. ‘discipline’), a set of regulations governing the Buddhist monastic communities. These practices dictate the color and specific meaning of cloth for each commune of people. Symbolism is important in the creation and understanding of a culture and one’s reverence for it. However, given the multitude of spiritual practices across the globe one cannot cease to be amazed at the fashion of it all.

In Tao, the priests wear silk and colorful robes for ceremonies and rituals, usually not cotton. The origin of fashion in this practice stems from Chinese culture. This clothing embodies the head, body, and feet. The most notable symbol in Tao is the yin-yang symbol. However, this symbol has taken on a broad following even outside of specific beliefs. This unique symbol has literally gone viral in terms of clothing, tattoos, print, and media.

In the Roman Catholic religion, clergy wear ‘Cassocks’ under their liturgical garments. The fashion of this spiritual practice was initially founded in the reading of Exodus 28:2–4: “For the glorious adornment of your brother Aaron, you shall have sacred vestments made. Therefore, tell the various artisans whom I have endowed with skill to make vestments for Aaron to consecrate him as my priest. These are the vestments they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a brocade tunic, a turban, and a sash.” The colors and fabric vary with the rituals.

In Judaism, the priestly garment (Hebrew: מְעִיל me’il), sometimes robe of the ephod (מְעִיל הָאֵפֹוד‎ meil ha-ephod), is one of the sacred articles of clothing (bigdei kehunah). The robe is described in Exodus 28:31–35. This priestly clothing was made by ‘gifted artisans … filled with the spirit of wisdom’. The colors, textures, and fabrics are filled with historical Hebrew symbolism from back in the time of Moses.

Are “Spiritual Masters” more ‘powerful’ or ‘knowledgable’ by the way they dress? Are they “Enlightened”?

Am I less spiritually aware in my jeans and black Danskin?

My Frye boots protect me more than Birkenstocks when hiking.

I think I will keep them and continue on with the study of humanity, nature, and our spirit-sense in my ripped Levi’s.

If you choose to you may — Buy me a coffee?

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